Johannesburg tour.

We saw a lot of Jo'berg today. It is a large sprawling city with a remarkable mélange of architecture, all pointing back to 1886, when a reef-load of gold was discovered.

We were given a 6-hour tour of the town by Chris Green, a native of Jo'berg, who has watched the city change profoundly in his 50-odd years. He actually started the tour at 2.2 Billion years ago, when the bolide impact that is responsible for the modern shape of the geologic "reef" that is the source of Jo'berg's rich gold deposits.

The gold was discovered around 1886, and almost every aspect of Jo'berg can be traced back to this deposit, from the shape of the city to the colonial, art deco, and modern architecture. But just as gold mining defined the city for the first 100 years, it has been Apartheid and the post-Apartheid re-alignment that defines how the city operates now.

We visited a shopping centre which was once considered "failed" as the White shoppers did not frequent it, but it was bustling with the Black middle class. There was even a Santa on site, granting children wishes. It is the Black middle class that is building the City now.

But the gold deposits are never far away. As few as 20 years ago there were underground mines operating in and under the Central Business District, and the sepia-toned ridges surrounding the downtown are not only the waste rock of mining's past, but are being re-worked, reprocessed through more efficient gold-extraction methods, and re-claimed as commercial, industrial, and residential space.

At the same time, old mine workings kilometers under the City are abandoned, and filling with groundwater. The groundwater is becoming acidic through its exposure to metal-rich ores, and present a future threat to the fresh water supply of Jo'berg. This has been recognized as an issue for decades, and may come to a head in the next 5 years. But like most pending environmental disasters, few concrete actions are being taken to address this issue.

Aside from acidic groundwater, there are also the expected structural issues with building a modern city on top of a century of mine workings. Chris showed us a special site in the foyer of the Standard Bank Building, where an 1880s mine shaft was discovered during the excavation for the building, and instead of plugging the hole with concrete, the Bank decided to preserve the original mine workings an the basement to the foyer as a museum to the city's past.

Finally, Chris took us to the Constitutional Court, built on a hill overlooking the City, symbolically built on the site of one of the most notorious prisons in South Africa. A place where people's rights were lost to unaccountable imprisonment and torture, now a place where peoples rights under a new Constitution are enshrined and protected.

It was a great tour, and I am not doing justice to Chris' encyclopedic knowledge of the City's geology, architecture, history, and culture. It was a day well spent. Followed by a great dinner in Melville. A great first day.

Arrival

In yet another victory of science over common sense, our plane landed safely in Jo'berg.


Our driver Percy met us at the airport, and we drove across Jo'berg to the Melville neighbourhod, along empty streets the whole way. The streets at night are almost eerie, for the lack of people.

South Africa has a bit of a crime problem, and Jo'berg has the reputation of a rather dangerous place. Most guides would recommend not going out at night in the cities. Usually, we would take this advice with a grain of salt, people say Hastings & Main is dangerous, but when I see the locals avoiding the streets at night, I might just keep my guard up.

Our confidence was not boosted by Percy taking us to guesthouse different than the one we booked. Apparently the proprietor of the place we booked had us sent here. She would "explain everything" in the morning according to Percy. We were a little nervous but Percy called Sandy, and the new spot we were at looked nice (although the streets were abandoned).

We have arrived.

A good nights sleep, with only the pouring rain outside to occasionally stir us. The daily search for coffee was easy, (7 for strength, a 5 for flavour).

After the morning we need to spend some time today finding Rand without getting robbed of it immediately, an electric plug converter, figuring out the lay of the land. Maybe a tour.

One night in Amsterdam

Entering The Netherlands was so curiously fast, we felt like we must have missed something. No lines, one guy glanced at our passports, no questions, and we were in Amsterdam. Our hotel at the airport is a 5 minute walk from the gate, and all Ikea Euro-slick. Another 2 minute walk to the train station.

The Station was steps from our Hotel. We skipped the premium for high-speed rail and took the regular train to Amsterdam. Trains run every 15 minutes, and it takes about 20 minutes to Amsterdam Central. Smooth, very quiet, double deck train. Less than 4 Euro each.

Oh, and all you turnstiles-for-Skytrain types: It is run on the honour system here.

Amsterdam, for those who don't know is the world's coolest city. I don't mean temerature (although it was freaking cold out this evening), but cool in the Fonzie sense. Everyone is chilled out, and pretty much anything goes. There is a breezy attitude about drinking, eating smoking (whatever), and depraved carnal acts. It is also expensive.

Standing at the Central Station, one can see river ferries (Amsterdam is a City of navigable canals), lightrail/street cars, the occasional deisel bus, and thousands of bicycles. It is Saturday night, it is close to freezing, and people are travelling around the entertainm nent district on bicycles. There are a few cars about, but they crawl between the other modes. People "salmoning" on bikes on the sidewalks, people talking and texting while riding, people (mostly women) riding in coctail dresses. Bikes as an alternative to walking, not as an alternative to driving: that is what the tram is for.

With limted time, we walked about, enjoying the vibe, remarked on buildings (and the general lack of vertical walls; 300 year buildings in a swamp tend to lean), and had a cone of fries on the street. We had a few drinks at cute little pub (the smallest one in Amsterdam, but I rarely trust hyperbole in advertizing...) then cruized the red light district declining various offers, both charming and distubing, from the local entrepreneurs.

(note ketchup on fries, not mayo... clearly a tourist.)
We found ourselves in a coffee shop with a one-drink minimum, and I practiced my oragami skills, rusty since high school, only to watch my creation go up in smoke. And one thing led to another. Getting too old for this...

Needless to say we got a good nights sleep, as we were sleeping a ten-minute walk from our departure gate. Currently, we are 10,000m above the Mediterranean. Headed South. I can just see the Barbary Coast down there.

No adventures yet.

Unless you consider strapping yourself into a wide-body jetliner and hurtling at 1000 km/h, 10,000 m over the north pole as an adventure.

We flew sitting next to slightly strange fellow from Vancouver who was flying to Frankfort for a day, just to fly in the plane we were sitting in. It was a KLM MD-11, a Boeing update of the old Douglas DC-10. You know the one: three engines, one of which was typically falling off? Well Boeing modernised the plane (and apparenty fixed that engine-falling-off thing) then stopped selling them. KLM is the only major airline to still fly them, and only have about a dozen left. So dudes like our seatmate are, it would seem, rushing to get chance to develop deep-vien thrombosis in a soon-to-be or already obsolete plane.

The worst part of the trip for me is his only reason to take a trip. I may still be bitter because he had the window seat and used the bathroom 5 times in an 8-hour flight.

So we have not slept in 24 hours, but we are in Amsterdam for 22, I hear they have cures here for sleepiness.

Malaria

When going to Africa, Malaria pills are recommended. It is not as sure to prevent malaria as an immunization, but it significantly reduces the risk, and is a good precautionary measure.


There is more than one anti-malaria pill available, and they vary somewhat by the strain of malaria in the region you plan to visit. For southern Africa, there are basically two choices: Mefloquine (the cheap one) and Malarone (the expensive one). The main difference is that the expensive one has much less dramatic side-effects.

How much less dramatic? Let me give you an example. Along with the dizziness, headaches, nausea and other regular side-effects listed for Mefloquine, is this little note:

“Some people taking Mefloquine think about killing themselves.”

Yikes! I would hazard to say suicidal tendencies are the main effect of a drug, and preventing malaria a side effect, wouldn’t you?

We bought the expensive ones.

We're Back!

Another trip, another blog.


Back by popular demand, we will be blogging our upcoming trip to Southern Africa. After encountering some technical flaws in the Cuban internet, we have done a bit of technology prep work for this trip and should be able to make it blogtastic.

The plan so far:
We fly to Schiphol in Amsterdam, for a 24 hour layover. Best we can figure, that should be just enough time to get the vibe of Amsterdam, without any time to waste in museums...

The next day, we fly to Johannesburg, South Africa. From there, we will work our way down to Lesotho, entering from th3 west and driving through the highest pass in Africa to drop back into South Africa around Durban.

Once out of the mountains, we will wander north of Durban, up the Elephant Coast, to hopefully spend Xmas around the Holiest of all places: the border of Mozambique.

Things get less certain after this, we will either pass through or skirt around Swaziland, en route to Gabarone, the Capital of Botswana, and up to the Kalahari or the Okavango, depending on where the water [and therefore the animals] are.

We have a month to get back to Jo'berg once we arrive, so we don't know what will be filling our time, and emptying our bank account.

We are almost prepared for departure... but I'm not sure I am ready. I’ve read Joseph Conrad.

Blogging after the fact.

Turns out the state of the Internet in Cuba is one of those things that makes it Cuba, and plans to Blog while on the road were pie in the sky. And there is no pie in Cuba, either.

Which provides the opportunity for a little post-blogging of our trip. It also frees me of linear narrative, allows me to hit themes, and gives me time to write at leisure.

So following is the story of Tig ‘ n’ Pat spending Christmas with a jolly fat red guy with a beard: