Hello from Joburg. I had a very smooth journey to South Africa (SA) from Zambia. South African Airways were great, really comfortable and excellent service. The flight was only 1 hour and 45 minutes so that may have helped. On arrival I went through customs, usual long queue, but being British I didn’t need a visa, so probably quicker than some other nationalities. I did still get a stamp in my passport, they are starting to add up ?
Exit Zambia 
Enter South Africa
Once I had cleared customs, I went to collect my hire care. My 1st mistake (and I’m sure there will be many more), was that I had booked the car from 29th October, not the 28th ? Bloody idiot….but it all got sorted, for extra of course and I was on my way into the city.
Driving into the city was fine, pretty much like being on the M25 and then going along the a23 through South London. I found the hotel without any problems, thanks google maps. The hotel was nicer than I was expecting as I’m obviously doing this all on a budget. I had chosen a proper hotel for Joburg because of the bad reputation it has and I didn’t want to take any risks. It then turns out I had been given a suite, so much room for just 3 nights. The room also has a balcony with an amazing view and I was just in time for the sunset. There is also a TV which I haven’t had for 5 weeks, but made the mistake of watching BBC world service….I’m not missing the brexit mess one bit….I turned over pretty quickly.
Today (Tuesday 29th Oct) I had planned on taking a bus tour Hop on Hop off around the city, but before I left the hotel I thought I would check my phone bill to see all was in order. This is when over 2 hours of frustrations began??? I will try not to bore you with the details, but I am supposed to be on a plan with Vodafone that allows me the same roaming in SA and several other countries, that we have in Europe, so in theory not extra cost to me. This wasn’t the case, hopefully it is sorted now, but currently my phone bill is stating £50.02 instead of £26. It’s very frustrating trying to sort out things away from home.
Once the phone bill got, maybe, sorted I headed out for the bus. It’s the same company that we have in Brighton, and all over the world in different cities, reliable and I knew what I was getting. My 1st stop was Gold Reef which I thought was where I could visit a gold mine, which is what Joburg is famous for, and the whole reason for it’s being. I somehow ended up in a casino, I didn’t gamble. After some confusion, it turns out the gold mine was across a bridge in a theme park. Subsequently the theme park is closed on a Monday and Tuesday. My frustrating day continued ?
Back on the bus. It wasn’t the best of tours, Joburg doesn’t really have loads of great things to see, but they tried their best and it was interesting to hear how Joburg grew because of gold being found on a farm, and all the people turning up to mine it. Without the gold this city probably wouldn’t even exist.
My next stop was Constitution Hill. This is SA’s new Constitutional Court and it’s been built next to the notorious Old Fort Prison, where Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Ghandi served time. The court building was really beautiful with lots of thoughtful touches, which I wish I could explain.
Entrance to the court building 
The bit in the middle is the door handle, which also has Braille 
The entrance is in all the different SA languages including Braille 
Ladder to freedom and moving forward 
Each rung represents a different layer in SA history 
The highest court in the land 
After the court building I did a tour of the prison. Prisoners were treated appalling especially the black prisoners. I had no idea that Ghandi had been a prisoner in SA. I’m so grateful to be able to travel and learn all these things and equally embarrassed by my lack of knowledge. The prison had an exhibition to Ghandi because he was very similar to Mandela and the SA’s respect both men. Mandela has long been a hero of mine, so it was great to learn more about Ghandi.
Cell that took up to 60 men 
To be fair these toilets seemed better than the ones at Glastonbury 
Tiny cell 
Solitary confinement cells 
After my visit to Constitution Hill, I decided to walk back to my hotel as it was only 10 minutes away. As I was leaving the area, a security guard asked me what I was doing. After I explained, he told me not to as I would get robbed!!! What a shame, because all the people I have meet have been fantastic and it would have been a lovely evening for a walk. I called the hotel, and they came and picked me up ??♀️
And finally…. to all the people I promised I would try something different, I ate this new vegetable??? It wasn’t horrible, but it also wasn’t chocolate ??
Apparently it’s a yellow button squash 