Africa Day 3

posted 12th August, 2008 category Africa

So I’ve finally made it to Africa!

After a wait of about 14 hours at Dubai airport I met up with Bhavneet and Craig (my travelling companions for the next 67 days) and flew down to Jo’burg. Jo’burg isn’t where I’d want to go for a normal holiday. Poverty was quite evident in what was a very industrial city. It’s the start of things I’ll have to get used to, like the razor wire fences surrounding peoples homes (and our backpackers hostel). We did get to see the Apartheid Museum although we weren’t able to visit Soweto, a slum district of Jo’burg that every tourist guide recommends. We rented a car while we were there which was surprisingly good value at only R205 (£14) for the day. Craig was the one driving and I’m quite glad he was. The directions to places wasn’t the problem it was the insane driving style of the other road users. One example being when we were on our way to drop of the car and we almost got crushed on all sides by larger minivans all trying to move down a street that was a lot narrower than all the traffic going down it. No doubt footage of said incident will be appearing on youtube soon.

Our journey out of Jo’burg was by sleeper train. Apparently the distance between Jo’burg and Cape Town is over 1400 km and our train certainly wasn’t in a rush, stopping regularly for passing trains and animals. I managed to spot ostrich and a warthog out in the seemingly endless plains. It took about 26 hours in the end but it was an enjoyable experience! I even got my best nights sleep so far in our own private 4 bed coach. It was a strange experience to shower on a train with the African savanna going past the open window. Not something First ScotRail will be adding to their London to Aberdeen sleeper train any time soon I expect.

Craig on the train to Cape Town