Bafana Bafana!

Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) --> Johannesburg (with daytrip to Pretoria) --> Manzini (Swaziland)

After two whole days in Zimbabwe - fear not, I shall return - I was on a bus to Johannesburg. The ride was good but the landscape lacked a little variety. Approaching 5pm we crossed the Limpopo River separating Zimabwe from South Africa although the border crossing was prolonged due to a mechanical hitch with the bus.

What a difference a border makes! Road signs ... directions to cities AND the distances are listed ... traffic lights in abundance ... all night petrol stations ... motorways - without potholes! ... being able to pay for things by card (I can't even remember the last time I made a purchase by card before arriving in South Africa. Israel, maybe.) ... traffic rules which drivers obey ...

However whatever scenery was shrouded by inky black night and so it remained as we zipped past Pretoria and, a mere 50km later, Johannesburg. We arrived at the convenient time of 3am at a bus station which resembled a parking lot, such was the absence of facilities. As we arrived the various passengers fired up their mobile phones and made calls to friends and family and over the course of several hours the bus gradually emptied as people were collected. Not long before 6am it became light enough to leave without getting mugged and, not knowing at all where I was in Johannesburg I did the obvious thing: I went to the police station that I had been told was just around the corner and asked them for directions. Well, first I asked if they knew where I could buy a phone card so I could call my backpackers and arrange a pickup. During the wait for the shops to open I managed to get reception on my Zambia sim card and call anyway. "Where was I?" asked the Voice of the Backpacker's Reception. Johannesburg Central Police Station. "I don't know where that is, you need to go to Park Station. The police will help you." replied the Voice.

Back to the main desk to ask directions; much to my pleasant surprise the police did indeed help me, roping in a couple of trainees to drive me in the back of what appeared to be a paddy wagon down the road to Park Station. They escorted me to the pick-up point too. I ended up having to wait a few hours to be collected - it was free after all - and was only asked for money five times and, again suprising me, a random chap breakfasting with a lady at Wimpy's hamburger restaurant (my pick-up point) offered to buy me breakfast (I declined because I didn't know when I would be collected).


And so I was eventually whisked to the northern suburb of Crystal Gardens, home of Gemini Backpackers and the lawn on which i would camp. My aim was simply to shop, get an updated and more detailed guidebook, try and sort out my computer (still with its cracked screen from Kenya), stuff like that.

I started with a bit of orientation, walking to Wanderers cricket ground just 30 mins away, and then north to Sandton City shopping centre. There was a surprising number of Mercs, BMWs, 4WD and the occasional Porsche - was I in a wealthy area? It turns out, I later discovered, that sandton City is indeed a wealthy area but that you don't have to go far to find the opposite extreme. Soweto (South Western Township) is, as the name suggests, not in north Jo'burg; however the suburb of Alexandra, just 20 minutes walk north of where I was staying was a bona fide slum area (and, I was told, a 'hot spot' - one of those places where you need to be careful).

In addition to shuttling around the different northern suburbs - some of which have come direct from Surrey: Kew, Kempton Park, Kensington - I also took the time to spend a day in the city centre (with an ulterior motive: I wanted to find the bus to Swaziland). Arriving close to Park Station I started walking and, within a minute, bumped into a big group of police one of whom called me over. "It's not safe here," he informs me, which is not untrue as the nearby Joubert Park and suburb of Highbrow both blacklisted by Lonely Planet. So he roped in a couple of plain clothes policemen to accompany me to Park Station and to find the bus to Swaziland. Their job done and with me heading to the relative safe haven of Newtown, they parted and I spent the rest of the day wandering around south central Jo'burg and, quite by pleasant accident, managed to take in a brewery tour.

With shopping finished I decided to bide my time until 1 June before heading to Swaziland - accommodation was cheaper in Johannesburg until that time - and so spent one day in Pretoria.

Pretoria is the Afrikaaner heartland. Johannesburg is huge: the commercial and finacial capital of South Africa and Pretoria is relatively tiny and yet contains all the monuments and vestiges of Afrikaanerdom and apartheid. The central town square, Church Square is very beautiful, surrounded as it is by some grand buildings and, in one corner, a small group of Dutch / Flemish style buildings. Smack in the middle is a statue to Paul Kruger, the South African Republic president, whose refusal to recognise voting rights to white (non-Boer) migrant gold rush workers in the Johannesburg area precipitated the Boer War. On the outskirts of Pretoria is the Voortrekker Monument, which commemorates the Boer migration from the Cape inland to escape British rule and also the Battle of Blood River when the Boers gave a whole lot of Zulus a good hiding. Outside of these few specific areas / monuments there really isn't much to Pretoria: it has the same shops and style as Jo'burg.

Shopping complete and mini-tours done I didn't do any more sightseeing: the reason? Paul, after a six month hiatus which has seen him battle kidney stones and a broken leg, will be rejoining me soon. I need to leave something for us to do later.