Category Archives: South Africa

Back to Zimbabwe – The Road to Victoria Falls (Part 1: Bus Ride North)

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7 July

This morning involved more packing than I had envisioned and it was good that we had planned to go to the mall for one last wifi session, as that time gave us what we needed to finish packing. We were doing one last ‘tough’ trip, without some of our amenities that we have taken with us around south Africa while we had our vehicle.

Alisa’s new backpack nearly fit everything we were taking until we saw that none of our supplies nor toiletries would fit, and so we repacked with half in the new Adidas soccer bag that I bought for this trip, that I have begun to hate immensely because of the strap not sitting flat on my shoulder and a rip that has formed and is to lengthen along the zippers end. Carrying it while heavy thus becomes an arduous task with the strap burying into my shoulder despite me constantly stopping to adjust it. While Alisa caved and bought a proper backpacking pack, I will unfortunately have to finish with the adidas bag and save up to buy one like Alisa’s before my next venture to Africa.

Once we were packed, Garth gave us a lift to Park Station where traffic made it difficult to get around, but the daylight made the area safer for us to walk through and we got out and walked the block and a half left to the station, with the normal stares from locals who must have wondered where we were going with Alisa carrying two backpacks, one on the front and her new one on her back, and me with a backpack, my duffle, and a Woolworth’s insulated bag with our remaining food.

Once checked in and off to the bus, I could immediately see Alisa doubting her approval of me picking Continue reading →

Last Minute Packing for Zimbabwe

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July 6

Today we hung out at the house and started packing. It took us awhile to really get started because we had to do laundry and separate everything that was going with us for two weeks from what we would leave at Elna’s. In addition, we packed my nice REI rolling duffle with all our souvenirs that Alex will take back to the states with him.

Alex spent a good portion of the day registering for classes and organizing our transportation to Cape Town. We have decided to bus from Joburg to Kimberely and Kimberely to Cape Town and then we will take the Shoshaloza train back to Joburg from Cape Town. I booked us at Cape Town Backpackers for our 4 nights in Cape Town, which I believe is where my mother and I stayed in 2007. So off from Joburg on the 19th at 10am, arrive in Kimberley in the afternoon, have dinner, then see the sights all on the 20th, and catch another bus that night taking us onwards to Cape Town. We’ll depart Cape Town on the 25th, taking a 24 hr train trip back to Joburg so we can have one more day in Gauteng before we fly onwards.

At 8 pm we order Italian take-away from across the street and went to Garth’s friends house to watch the semi-final match between Uruguay and the Netherlands. I think Alex enjoyed it because David, Garth’s friend, knew enough about soccer to have a conversation about players and teams with him, which Alex doesn’t get when he watches the games with me.

Last minute packing tomorrow and then were off to Zimbabwe.

Shopping at Sandton City

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July 5

Both Alex and myself are getting over head colds, so we took the opportunity to sleep in on this quiet morning.

Needing several items for out trip up to Zimbabwe and then for the overland camping trip back we decided to take the bus the Sandton City to shop.

It was our first time taking the bus from Elna’s to the mall so we were not quite sure how it would work out. There are no bus schedules posted for the different stops, so all we knew is that it came every half hour. Luckily right as we walked out to the stop in front of Elna’s a bus was coming around the corner. It ended up taking us up to Randburg and then back by Elna’s and then up to Sandton, but if we had crossed to the other side of the street and caught it going straight to Sandton we would have ended up waiting for the bus to come back from Randburg anyway.

For the first time there was someone else riding the bus! A black man in a suit and tie with a suitcase was on the bus when we got on. It was exciting to not be the only people. Maybe the word is finally getting out to the middle and upper class that riding the Gautrain and bus is convenient and good for the environment.

Our first stop on our check list of things to do was breakfast and internet at Mugg & Bean.

After a delicious brunch we went to Cape Union to take a look at there large backpacks. We had browsed their selection in another store in Rustenburg, but I wasn’t entirely serious about getting one. I have come to discover that the roll duffles are great for when we are staying in one place for awhile but not when you really need to move like getting out of a bad area in town or needing to catch a ride to a bus in Vilancolous. I tried several on and liked one of them, but wasn’t quite ready to say YES!

After stopping in several sports shops to see if they had any end of the World Cup deals  we decided to go see what movies were playing. Toy Story 3 in 3D was starting in five minutes so I said let’s go. I don’t think Alex cared to see it as much as I did, but he figured he wouldn’t see a 3D movie so cheap anywhere else in the world so why not. I thought the movie was an enjoyable Pixar creation and a great end to the story. It made me very nostalgic.

When the movie was over we went back to Cape Union to make my purchase. I am now a proud owner of a big blue backpack with a perfect amount of straps and pockets to bring all sorts of wonderful things home from my adventures. It’s weird it kind of felt like a coming of age experience, like backpacking through Europe or bar hopping on your 21 birthday. I could now at 22 carry everything i would need for several months of travel/living on my back whenever I decided to take off somewhere. We purchased a few other items including a pillow for Alex and a dry bag for our cameras in the Delta. In addition we bought mosquito bands that have repellent in them so you just put them on your wrist or ankle to keep the bugs away. Not entirely sold on the concept, but we thought we would try them to avoid putting a ton of Deet on our skin.

Our last stop was Woolworths where we got some biltong, peanuts and chocolate for our journey. Packed our purchases into the new backpack and made our way home.

Tomorrow we are packing for our trip.

Fourth of July in South Africa

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4 July

Today was a fairly dreary day in Johannesburg. It didn’t start out to be an active day, but when Alisa went to check on future showtimes of the play that she had been wanting to see since our arrival, The Boys in The Photograph, was having its last showing while we would be in Johannesburg, she quickly bought tickets and we dressed up the best we could with the limited clothes selection we had brought and we were off. But not right away.

Garth had parked their larger bakkie in the driveway blocking the small pickup in. We had the unfortunate task then to wake him from his jet lagged induced late slumber till 1230, but we were able to get the keys and then navigate the small bakkie out. This is the typical size bakkie of what must have been the 1980s in South Africa and while it had performed well driving around the housing development yesterday, the gas tank was on E and it would still be my first time driving a stick shift in Johannesburg. I learned to drive stick on my best friends car in San Diego, an Acura RSX, and then driven a massive Toyota SUV through Blantyre, Malawi for a few hours before we realized our mistake and returned it and eventually secured a automatic 2wd sedan. However that was my extent of experience.

We got out onto the road just fine, but i realized that having no RPM gauge, like there was on the RSX, would come into play much more now that i was on the open road. We made it out of Elnas gated community just fine and onto the main road and down the hill but at the next traffic light, it was red but shortly turned to green. I had been stepping on the break and put the car in neutral, put when the light turned green I tried to put the car back into first, which it did not want to do. Not realizing that the engine was still at too high of of an rpm for first, I ended up stalling the car right at the bottom of a large dip in the road about 20 metros from the stop light. Having no gas in the car seemed to play a part in restarting the car, as it took 4 attempts to start it while I had massive SUVs flying around me.

Luckily, there was an Engen gas station just up the hill. And I finally got the bakkie restarted and up the hill. I was nearly frustrated enough to turn back, but after we got some gas, the engine started up much easier and I thought that we would now be fine to make it. For the most part we were, despite Alisa taking me onto the motorway (it was difficult to get much past 70 ams) and sending me in different directions once we were downtown to find parking. Once we found the theater there were signs that led us around the block to the theater’s own underground structure. We parked and headed up and found a 70s style theater with the gold wall decorations with the square lights adorning the gold in different designs. At it’s height it must have been a special place, and while it had been up kept, it was far from modern. All the bars and lounge areas kept to the period and we bought chocolate and Alisa got an appletizer. But strangely no Amarula.

We took our seats at the call of the bell and watched the appropriately 90 minute long play, with a 15 minute interval. You can read Alisa’s review by clicking here.

We returned without incident but decided to stay close to home, and go to the grill across the street from the entrance to Elna’s gate. Garth gave us a lift on his way out, but upon arrival, the lights were off, and we discovered it was closed all Sunday. So much for a Fourth of July meal. We returned to Elna’s to cook dinner and found there really wasn’t much on television with no soccer on this sundae for the first time in three weeks.