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Our travels start in South Africa
Entry 12 of 133 | show all | print this entry |
Hi Everyone,
Hope you all had a nice Christmas. It has been a while since we have updated the blog. We have been so busy sightseeing here we just haven't had a chance to get to an internet cafe. Thank you everyone for all the nice Christmas wishes.
We were excited to come to South Africa from East Africa, as much as we were very sad to leave the eastern part behind. We were in a taxi heading to the airport to catch the flight to South Africa and were holding back a little tear. We wondered if we would ever be to Tanzania again. The sadness was suddenly cured as the taxi driver (who had been booked the night before to pick us up at 6:30am) pulled off to the side of the road and annouced the car had run out of gas. He assured us a new car would come and pick us up. After experiencing over 3 weeks of this sort of thing, Jack and I were hardly bothered by it. Of course we left as much as twice the required time to get to the airport for anything that might come up like this, lol! Even with all its problems we will still miss it here, lol!
We heard they do celebrate Christmas here. That statement is debatable. There is a hint of Christmas here, someone needs to come and show this place how to do it properly. We were in the malls in the few days leading up to Christmas and they were no busier than any regular shopping day back at home. A few scarce decorations were visable. In peoples homes they would have a small tree with a few ornaments flung on it, and that was about it. No turkey was spoken of, not that we heard anyway. I think lamb is the main dish served. People do get together with their families and have a nice meal together, and maybe exchange a gift or two. It is really more like a day off for people here more than anything else.
Anyways lets get to what we have been up to. We left the island of Zanzibar for our shortest flight yet, a whopping 12 minutes on a jet plane if you can believe it, at an altitude of 4000 feet. It was all quite commical, we spent more time at each end taxiing around the airports than we spent in the air! We landed for a short stopover at the large city on the coast of Tanzania called Dar es Salaam. It was 8:30am and already a horrible temperature of 28.C, no I am not joking. The night before in Zanzibar it was 36.C at 7:30pm at night, try to sleep in that with no air conditioning!
We then got onto another flight for about 3 1/2 hours to the city of Johannesburg, or Joburg as everyone calls it here for short. We had to have the plane fumagated as standard procedure because of leaving Tanzania and arriving in South Africa. I wish they could do it just before we land instead of right after take off. Sitting in the fumes before they wore off was not pleasant.
During the flight we could see the ground scenary changing dramatically. There were beautiful views of patchwork farms, red coloured soil and lots of green land. A lot of the farm areas were in circles, which looked really neat from the air.
After collecting our bags, we got a taxi out of Joburg to another city about 30 minutes away. Joburg is not a place we wanted to be, so we got out as quickly as possible. It does not have a good reputation for the most part. Jack kept a watchful eye on the roads the whole trip. He knew we would be renting a car soon, he was a bit anxious to be driving in a strange country and on the other side of the road for the first time!
South Africa is completely different from anything we experienced in Tanzania. For the most part the larger cities look just like North America and pretty much operate in the same fashion. Well, almost. Looks can be deceiving, just because it all looks the same doesn't mean it works the same. There is really no public transportation infrastructure in South African cities. There are buses like greyhound, etc. that will get you from one major city to the next, but that's it. I am not saying you can't travel around the country without a car, but it is highly recommended as the best way to do it.
Taxis are not really used much, they are kind of expensive.
We still have problems at time using the phone, making international calls can be frustrating at times. We are still finding as in east africa, sometimes you have to ask 3 to 4 people to get the right answer to something. Can be frustrating at times.
It was something to get used to seeing the communities here. All houses have 3 to 4 means of security for them. They have huge walls, fences, and gates around the properties. Basically each is like its own compound. We have seen anything from huge metal spikes on top of walls, large rolls of barbed wire, electric fences, cemented in broken glass on top of walls, as well as multiple alarm systems, security cameras, intercoms you push at the gate to get in. Everyone usually has at least one large guard dog. It is really bizarre to see how people live here. People generally stay in their house, get in their car, (which you have to keep doors locked, windows up at all times) go to their work, go to the mall, all of which usually have guards and are secured. It is much more relaxed than this in smaller communties away from the big cities, but crime is definately a major problem throughout the whole country.
Pretoria is quite an attractive city. I think the population is about 2 million. Parts of it reminded us of the quaint streets in Victoria, B.C. It has over 70,000 Jacaranda trees which unfortunatley had finished blooming when we arrived, but drape the city in veils of lilac colour when they are in bloom. It is the capital for South Africa, and holds all the government buildings. They are quite beautiful and are in a huge treed landscape.
One bizarre thing we saw at most major intersections of the city were what they call street walkers. I don't know how these guys do not get killed. They stand right in the middle of the traffic trying to sell you stuff as the lights change. We have been keeping track of the various items for offer. Most are your typical household items. You don't have to go out to walmart, just shop as you drive! Her is the list so far, plastic coat hangers, packs of garbage bags, various handbags and purses, and of course santa hats and blow up santas for christmas, newspapers, we have also heard electronic items are big as well, but haven't seen any yet. We joked amongst ourselves saying, do housewifes chat with each other about specials they have seen on the street? "Joan, did you see the great deal on garbages bags today at the corner of Duncan and Broad street?"
We stayed at what is called a self catering B&B in an area of Pretoria called Hatfield. We will give them a nice plug, it was called the B&B in Hatfield, and was 350rand per night. (thats about $70 canadian) It was like having our own little house. We had a full bathroom with tub and shower. A kitchen with sink, microwave, stovetop and frige. It included all the dishes and cookware to prepare a meal. It also had a living room and dining area, tv. dvd player, and a full bedroom. The breakfast provided was enough to feed us for lunch too. It was all run by a very nice family. Waking up in the morning was quite the audio experience. There were so many different kinds of birds. They were making all kinds of weird noises we had never heard before.
We didn't do much while we were in Pretoria for 5 days. We were busy trying to get a car rental arranged, not cheap!!! We spent some time in the malls, as we were excited to have real malls to shop in! It was nice to have some civilization back after spending over 3 weeks in Tanzania. We went to the Pretoria Zoo, which I am sure would have been nice had we not just done a 5 day safari throughout the Serengeti. It was kind of a mistake, hey look at the leopard in the cage, oh wow, isn't that great, lol! It was needless to say a let down after seeing all the animals in the wild.
There is a huge mall in Pretoria that I think would put West Edmonton Mall to shame! It has a huge rooftop drive in theatre. You sit and watch a huge screen just like you would at the old drive ins we used to have here. They have everything else imaginable like bowling alleys and a galaxy world entertainment, as well as enough shopping to fully empty your wallet. We were going to go to the mall, but 7 men armed with AK 47 rifles had shot up a jewellery store in the mall the day before. So needless to say, we took a pass. Enough on that topic of crime, it's not a pretty picture in South Africa.
After getting our car rental in Pretoria, we felt free and independent to do whatever we wanted. We hit the road for about a 5 hour drive and headed to a small town called Hazyview.
We will see you there in the next blog.
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