Headed back to Johannesburg in our rental car calling in at Centurion on the way. Seeing our 30+ year old multi-fuel Optimus cooker blew up we had to order a new cooker. We found Hiker's Paradise in Centurion and ordered a 'Whisperlite Dragonfly MSR' cooker from there. We have been hanging around the area for a while because there has been a public servants' strike and then a transport strike which meant that our cooker, which should have taken 4 days to arrive, actually took 2 weeks.
We went to Boksburg in the south of Johannesburg and stayed with Patrick at Mbizi Backpackers. Patrick is an interesting man. He is separated and in his middle 40s and used to work for Army intelligence. He told us about how he had been held up at knife point and gunpoint 3 or 4 times and how he has had burglars break into his place. He was brought up in the area and eventually bought the family home off his parents when his dad died and his mum moved to the UK where she is in a Frail Care Home.
Patrick felt that violent crime was a threat all the time and he would like to get out of South Africa and go to New Zealand. He personally knows a couple of hundred people who have had their cars hijacked or been held up. At his age he will find it difficult to get to NZ because of the immigration rules but maybe he will find a Kiwi lady who will marry him.
As the backpackers is 15 minutes from the airport his guests usually stay only one night before heading off to other places or they get up at 5am to take a safari trip to Kruger National Park. There is no safe public transport into Johannesburg CBD so those of his guests who want to go there have take a tour with a driver. We were not interested to go into the centre and Patrick told us that there are even areas where they have warning signs telling you 'This is a smash and grab area'. Criminals smash car windows and grab what they can find. Fortunately we never saw any of these things happening.
The newspapers are always full of stories about foreigners being attacked. These foreigners however come from Somalia, Ethiopia or other parts of Africa where there has been unrest. The influx of these people has been tolerated because some of the neighbouring countries gave refuge to the outlawed ANC party members during apartheid and now that the ANC is in power they are indebted to the people who helped them. However, the unhappy locals who have no work, or who are not progressing as well as the foreigners with small stalls or shops are showing their displeasure by burning property and beating up the foreigners. An interesting point is that many locals like to employ illegal migrants from Milawi as they are honest, reliable and hardworking gardeners or maids rather than employ locals so I am sure this adds to the number of illegal foreigners working in the country.
As we got off the highway to Boksburg we saw huge yellow hills. We were told that they were tailings from the gold mines that were worked in the area. Many of the houses sit on top of a huge underground mine and in the past they could feel shakes from cave-ins in the mines. We could relate to that with the earthquakes in Christchurch, NZ happening while we were in Boksburg.
Patrick was a great rugby fan so we were able to watch SA get beaten by Australia in the Tri-nations match.
We were not able to add any more blog postings in South Africa because our mobile network connection expired even though we hadn't managed to use up all the data bundle that we had paid for. We still have a lot of things to learn about how the internet works when you use mobile modems.
Patrick is waiting another 3 years when his son turns 18 and can join him on a Cape to Cairo trip by Landcruiser. He is unhappy with the violent crime but absolutely loves Africa and wants to see as much of the continent as he can. Maybe we will be able to run his backpackers while he is away!!
We were really looking forward to meeting our friend Sue's sister Jane, in Bryanstown, but her mum was unwell and she had to rush off to Cape Town to see her. We also couldn't connect with Colleen's friends as they were off on a month's holiday.
We had a few maps and photo CDs that we were carrying and as we are soon to return the rental car we have to reduce our surplus gear and make sure everything fits into our packs. Since we left home we have bought a small tent (really small as it doesn't fit our packs), a double mosquito net, foam sleeping pads, a new cooker, an extra guide book, 2 cutlery sets, and a shopping bag with provisions for tea and coffee, on the road snacks, as well as emergency food!
Drove 350 kms on the N1 through wheat fields, cattle grazing ranches, and private game parks to Louis Trichardt where we spent a night. The next morning we got pulled over by the Limpopo police doing some kind of check. A policeman made us move away from his colleagues and spotted a can of coke in the car and wanted us to give him 10 rand so he could buy a drink. John mumbled his way around that and distracted the man with comments about the World Cup soccer and the All Blacks and he sent us on our way without his 10 rand!
Crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and handed in our rental car at Mussina, being the nearest town to the Zimbabwean border. The Avis lady was kind enough to say the crinkle that John made under the sill of the car, when he backed into something, was not significant to worry about and arranged a driver to take us to the border. What a great company!
