Images: Faces and places _ South Africa Joburg to Cape Town by car

Every thing went to plan for our departure from OZ until we got to the gate to find that the aircraft that was taking us from Perth to Johannesburg had not yet touched down.

Then came the PA that we would be departing 30 min late, that 30 min turned out to be one hour before lift off to joburg. Flight time was 11 hours and 1 min, the pilot advised us he would make up the one min.

The flight and landing was very smooth and we were soon in the terminal exchanging money and picking up our rental car for the trip ahead. Budget car rental were a real pain as I had booked a vehicle with insurance, on the net from a company called Auto Europe
Budget wanted more security than was offered by Auto Europe, however in the long run we had it sorted and I took a heap of photos of any vehicle damage like window chips etc before we got away.

Every time we come to joburg thing changes, they just keep adding new roads and toll road and even with clear instructions on how to head off in the direction we wanted to go we still managed to find the wrong road that had a road toll which set off a small box on the cars windscreen making us exit as soon as we could.

At the exit I realised we were at at shopping complex that we had been to to refuel the last rental vehicle last time we left from here.

at these shops we decided to pick up a few munchies and other supplies like bottled water , and with more clear instructions from a local black which was, keep going straight on through 7 robots and then turn right at the 8th robot ( Robots are traffic lights in South Africa )we did find ourselves on The N2 toll road heading out of town. We had driven this road a few years ago, in those days it was not a toll road, but the road had been improved vastly with a 120 klm speed limit now and the only thing to stop one now was several toll gates with tolls that ranged from au 80 cents to $4.

With five days to get to Cape Town the plan was to visit Mkhuze game reserve ( we had been here twice before ), to stay overnight, do some of the drives and visit the fantastic hides they have here.

On arrival we paid our permit and were lucky to get accommodation that we wanted, as they like you to book well ahead, We did explain were were not locals and it was just to hard to book ahead when we didn't know our exact travel details.

We had arrived at 5PM and by 6PM it was pitch black, you can only drive around from 6 to 6 so with the time difference between south Africa and Perth plus a day of driving we were soon in bed.

At 5 am we were up and set off at 6am to be the first car through to ensure that other vehicles were behind us not to scare the animals away. At 6 am it was still very dark, and within a short drive I sighted a Giraffe only meters away. guess what it was just to dark to get any good photos and my poor little flash on the camera was not up to the job. Four Zebras were near by again the flash was struggling.

As we drove down one dirt track Teresa said watch that big rock, but, that was no rock just one very rounded and big turtle sleeping on the track.

One of the hides here is very good for animal watching, but after we waited for 30 min the only sign of life was a bird in the water and a couple of very small turtle swimming around.

Every thing was lush green so we knew that they had plenty of rain, which in turn meant that the animals didn't need to visit the water holes at theses hides.

So with no time to sit around and just wait we set off on a drive that was new to us and within a few Klm a baby Giraffe was standing in the middle of the track just staring at us strange creatures, mum was just off to one side and we managed to get some photos.

As we drove around we did see plenty of the more common animals, but no Rhino or elephants this time .We were very happy with the animals that we did see in our short visit, but, the real Hi lite for us was baby giraffe and Mum.

With a long drive ahead of us we headed off towards Durban where we stopped again at a massive shopping centre ( Teresa needed a shopping Centre Fix) found a internet there to check e mails and also a store named GAME, which is sort of like a K mart store in Australia only much bigger. There was also a tourist Kiosk and the dark guy there was very helpful to where we should be looking to stay over night and with a plan to get there through peak hour traffic.

Durban has sure grown since our first visit there about ten or more years ago and it was a real traffic snarl with people trying to do 120 kph in peak hour traffic. we had a pleasant overnight stay south of Durban at one of the many beautiful beaches.

At 7am we were off again, keeping away from the high speed roads and just taking the slower but more scenic routes. We navigated our way towards East London for our next overnight stop. The route we took had us passing through several towns where we were the only white people in sight and these towns are just teeming with life, as you drive through, one has to edge a way through the traffic but, also a people jam, inch by inch in some places.

The main problem that we did not allow for was road works, not just the odd road work here and there, but most were at least 25 klm and one lot was over 100 klm in length, thus slowing us right down as the speed limit was 40 or 60 Klm making travel time a lot longer.

Years ago we were advised not to drive at night as you are risking your life and I have always tried to stick to that rule,but, all these road works had delayed us and we arrived in East London well after a few hours of night driving.

In East London we found a place to stay very quickly, a young white boy knew exactly where we wanted to go and gave Teresa exact instructions on how to get there.

In the morning we were up and ready to go by 7am when Teresa noticed a bushy tree near by was overloaded with Monkeys. Next thing they were all over the place and they were raiding a rubbish bin and Teresa was sure they were eyeing off the goods that we had in our car, she made me go to the bin to dump our rubbish as she didn't trust them.

We headed out of East London on the N2 for another day of driving our next major city PE as the locals call it Port Elizabeth. to Be Cont.......

Mkhuzi

Road to Mkhuzi Game reserve

Heading south on non toll roads

Morning traffic accident outside a school a small school bus got T boned, thank goodness no children in it

Teresa was shopping and this man would not leave me alone

Traveling through small black townships

These woman gave us a song and dance when we pulled the camera out, they then rushed the car when Teresa producded two small packets of biscuts to give them, The rear view mirror nearly broke off as they all hit the car very hard

From East london the highway to King William was good then on to Grahamstown we came across road works after road works. Its was saturday and in Grahamstown they were holding some event involving horses, the town here has lots of interesting buildings.

After Grahamstown we headed to PE (Port Elizabeth) The city and beaches had come alive with some race event along the beaches. PE has grown since our last visit with flash hotels and apartments along the beaches. We ate at Maccas (so we could use the net) overlooking the beach and the day eather wise was just perfect.

We had to be in Cape Town by Monday afternoon so we could clean the car up and board he MSC ship at about lunch time the next day.

We decided to follow the scenic route 62 and when we arrived in Humansdrop we followed Route62 through Kareedouw and then on to Joubertina where we stayed overnight. s we drove around this small town a white couple were unpacking their car, stopping to get directions for any accomodation in the area, the man told us of a guest house up the road to the guest house we were just about to go inside and find out how much etc. when the same man pulled up in his car and said he knew of a better place to stay at a good price and to follow him there. We followd to the outer edge of town to a accommodation place with several small houses, no one was there so he said to follow him to the peoples house, which was down a dirt road on a farm with lost of sheep and lambs. here there was more small huts around the main house. So with the sun setting we decided to stay in this Farm stay like property for the night.

The whole area and route 62 is very beautiful with continous Mountain ranges strung together for hundreds of Klms in fact all the way to Cape Town the road passes through wine and apple regions. Our overnight stay in Joubertina was very cold and the temp must have fallen well below zero as we were freezing with out heavy clothes to don.

In the morning the valley below the farm was very secenic with the cloud hanging low in the valley. As we drove the route we made several stops in the small towns where blacks only live, as we were cheching them out we could see that they were really interested in us.

In the Limited time we had we did manage to get a few photos.

We arrived very late in the afternoon in Cape Town and as we expected Table top was covered with cloud. After we checked about eight accomodation places we found a room a Big Blue all the other places did not even bother to answer their door bells.

A young Pom was running Big Blue and he had us sorted in no time A$35 for a room with a double bed

was very good value, but, we did have to use a common wet area. Shawn the Pom made us empty the car right out and helped carry our baggage inside, he said if they see any thing in the car they will break into it. Teresa said the night spent there was the best nights sleep she had had on the trip todate.

In the morning we had our baggage resorted and gave away any stuff we did not require any more. The black workers in Big Blue gladly took it all.

We dove off to find a car wash to clean the car up and clean the carpets inside, you would think that Budget would supply foor mats as the carpet got filfty with red dirt and the odd bread crumb. At a service station we pulled up and for 70 Rand about A$7-8, five blacks were all over the car, it was washed, shampoo-ed, dried, vaccumed and detailed insided and out, they did a fantastic job the car was like brand new, and much better than what we had picked up in Joburg Teresa took sepecial interest on how they cleaned the windows with old news papers. saying when she did that she got black ink stains on her hands and they got none of that.

At budget they took one look at the car and sent us into the counter to finalize the paper work.

I told them the car was fantastic and that they could send it out straight away as we had already had the hard work done , we had asked about getting a taxi to the cruise ship and when we went to get our baggage they had already loaded it in another Budget vehicle and took us right to the cruise ship entry, They even got us tough all the security gates and we didn't even get a chance to pick up our bags they had it all sorted for us.

Now the wait started with hundreds of other passangers to get on board.

(sorry time is very limited on the net and I know their is lots of errors but no time to proof read)