Thirtyfootscrew’s Blog

I got up at around 9:30am and went through to the main house for breakfast, helping myself to cereal from the kitchen, James didn’t surface until 11am! We worked out that we’d like to go to Sterkfontein Caves, an archaeological site where evidence of early man has been found so I called them up to get directions and it turns out that they are closed on Mondays! We’d not had much luck so far with closed attractions starting with the Diamond Mine, the Cheetah Sanctuary and now this! We decided to go to the local Rhino & Lion Reserve instead and luckily I called them and they do indeed open on Mondays. James also called Dominic from Global Car Hire to arrange collection of the vehicle at 4pm.

We left for the reserve via a city route planned out for us by Bill, everything went smoothly and we got to see a bit more of Johannesburg as well. Since the end of Apartheid a great deal of the road names have been changed as they were previously named after former colonials or members of the government, this made navigation a little more awkward as Bill’s map was printed before 1994. We found the reserve with little trouble, though we did have to stop at the information hut to make sure we were going the right way. By the time we actually got into the game area it was lunchtime so we stopped at the picnic area where we were able to get toasties. As we were eating, a Springbok was wandering around and actually came up to make an attempt on our food, whilst I knew these were not dangerous animals I was a little worried that they might be similar to goats which will eat anything from clothing to fingers. A warden kept calling the Springbok away from us (it had a name too) and told us not to worry about him, it was quite amusing all the same. After eating we had a wander around the shop and a look at the Crocodiles (in a pool by The Croc Pub) and took a few photos of some Lion cubs in a small pen.

We had a drive around the Cheetah and Lion enclosures and didn’t manage to see either but we did manage to see some Wild Dogs (which looked like Hyenas) which James managed to spot hiding under a tree. On the lowlands (and out of the main game area) we also got to see herds of Wildebeest, Zebra, Eland and Kudu. We left the park in good time to arrive back at the house to hand the car over to Dominic at 4pm but he didn’t turn up until about 6pm, with a little crew of people – presumably for safety as he also carried a gun. He had a look around the car and noticed damage to the right-front headlight which James and I were almost certain we didn’t cause, there had been a previous impact on the car and he also tried to blame us for the bonnet being misaligned. Anne negotiated with him for us and got photocopies of the forms etc. and off he went with the car, he wasn’t particularly professional through the whole thing and was on his mobile for a while trying to sell a car. All we could do is wait until we got back to Cape Town and go to back to Global and speak to Shane.

We had drinks and dinner with Anne & Bill before being picked up by Anthony to go out for the evening, we went to a bar called Rhapsody where we met up with Michael and Jurgen. The bar was good, a nice atmosphere and there were waitresses to bring drinks to your table. We sat outside on the terrace until it began to rain (spotting at first), when we moved indoors. This was a very smart move (by Anthony) as a couple of minutes after we had gone inside the rain came hammering down, like nothing I’ve ever seen in Britain – this was HEAVY rain. The rain was pounding the roof of the bar so much that it was impossible to hear eachother talk, when it finally stopped we settled up and left for Cool Runnings in Melville, another bar in the same chain as the bar/restaurant we visited in Cape Town. The bar is situated near two universities and we went around the time when all the students were returning after the Christmas / New Year break, the place was absolutely rammed full and the atmosphere was great, I had a Rizla Sizzla cocktail as unfortunately they didn’t serve the Pan Galactic Gargleblaster. We left about 1am and Anthony took us on a drive-through tour of the city-centre and Hillbrow, two of the worst areas in Johannesburg. From what I could see there wasn’t much specific trouble but it looked rough as hell with fires burning on the streets and people sleeping rough everywhere. We got home at 2am and slept like a log.

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Africa, Johannesburg, Park, South Africa, Springbok, Travel, Wildlife

We got up and had a good hearty buffet breakfast (‘all you can eat’ is one of my favourite phrases) and checked out of the hotel. We went to Tourist Information to get some basic info and found out that sadly we couldn’t go down into the diamond mines as they are closed at the weekend! After this went back to the hotel to pick up the car and drove over to the Kimberley Mining Museum. I decided to use up some of my small change to pay for the entrance ticket and got into a mini-argument with the ticket guy, he was moaning about me giving coins and how he doesn’t take small change. I won in the end as I pointed out that it is legal tender, unfortunately all he did is give most of it back to James when he bought his ticket!

We had a wander around the museum, mostly wild-west style shops, houses, bars, etc. and peered into the Big Hole (and make no mistake it is a BIG hole). After a drink in the café we left the museum (via the shop to buy a postcard) and caught the tram to Market Square. The tram was a lovely old rickety manually-operated affair which presumably has been there for many years, unfortunately the town itself (which has also been there for years) was not particularly lovely and had an air of decay and abandonment about it. We had lunch and a wander but didn’t find anything overly interesting besides a number-plate shop which was closed. It is worth noting that we appeared to cover the majority of the town and we never did find the elusive Restaurant & Bar area mentioned by the porter. After trying both the car wash and the number plate shop and finding them both closed (half-day on Saturday round here apparently) we hit the road once more.

The drive to Johannesburg was fairly long and turned out to be fantastically atmospheric as there were storms all around us but somehow we seemed to avoid them all. We arrived at about 20:30 without a single hitch or missed turning, I was quite impressed. As we arrived we met Anne & Bill, their son Anthony and his wife Gail (the daughter of Ann from P.E.) and their son Christopher. We had pizza for dinner, Anne had already been warned that I am a vegetarian had got a veggie pizza. One of the first things we were told about being guests in the house was that the first beer we had fetched for us, after that we had to fetch our own. I felt instantly welcome in the house and stayed up to about 1am drinking and talking to Anne about politics (both SA + UK) and what it is to be British (Anne is a British ex-pat).

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Africa, DIamonds, Johannesburg, Kimberley, South Africa, Travel

I woke-up in Guildford, slightly disorientated after spending the New Year in Deal, we all had a great time over there though poor James did get a bit messy on Murphy’s and champagne. We finished a few last-minute packing chores & checking that we had passports and tickets (I have a well-earned reputation for forgetting, losing, washing and generally befouling passports). The taxi arrived about 11am and off we went to London Heathrow.

We passed through check-in with very little waiting time, just enough for last-minute calls to family & the ‘do we need this in hand-luggage?’ checks. I had been to Malta a few months before and flew from the same terminal so the layout was pretty familiar, especially the directions to the nearest bar! Heathrow was not too busy – plenty of time for wandering around and making last-minute purchases such as money-clips and disposable cameras.

At about an hour before the potential boarding time it was announced that due to dense fog in Amsterdam our plane was delayed by what eventually became 3½ hours. Having exhausted most of the potential activities in the terminal we sat down and read, I watched the planes taking off and landing – something I never tire of. We arrived in Amsterdam with just enough time to make our connecting flight though were rather confused whilst running though the airport chasing a flight to Johannesburg rather than Cape Town. We boarded safely and waited for some time for another delayed plane so that a few more passengers could make their connection.

The flight was long and arduous, neither of us slept for more than a couple of hours but were suitably entertained by the in-flight movies, Rush Hour 2 and Legally Blonde, as well as a documentary about Ewan McGregor in the rainforest with Ray Mears. During the flight we were well-attended to by the stewards and stewardesses who worked consistently hard throughout the journey.

written by thirtyfootscrew \\ tags: Africa, Amsterdam, Cape Town, flight, heathrow, Johannesburg, South Africa, Travel