04.50 We’ve started to descend towards Johannesburg. I am looking forward to get there. I want to stretch out my legs, walk around. I’ve slept well on this flight from Abu Dhabi.

05.15 Our plane has been waved forward to its place; people have stood up, some too early and have been commanded/asked to remain seated. Everyone will soon go out. Do I want to get out? It is +3˚C out there. We are at O.R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.

SOUTH AFRICA

05.55 We are sitting on a bench in the arrival hall. It is all but warm here. We will get a transport from here but not now. I guess we will find out what we´ll do next.

06.46 Soon we will get muffins to go with our coffee. This morning we are having our breakfast at Mugg & Bean. It is left hand riding in the escalator up here. Well the upgoing escalator was the one on the left. There were also the classic signs about what you could and couldn’t do in the escalator. There was also a sign which was new to me. It seems that one is forbidden to ride it with bare feet. I am glad that we had our sandals on.

07.34 Our muffins were big and came with grated cheese, butter and marmalade/jam. Now we will put on our jackets and get in touch with our future home for some transport there.

07.57 We've called for and now await the transport. I was asked how they should recognise us. I answered that they should look for two white guys dressed in shorts. "In shorts?" they replied. Christer just said that actually it isn't that damned cold. We’ve actually seen one other person with bare legs but he quickly entered a car and left.

08.17 The transport arrived in form of a small white Volkswagen Golf driven by Rob Hicks. He is taking us to our home. The sun is about to rise and Mr Hicks behind the wheel wonders if this is our first trip to the country. It is. We’ve never been to South Africa before. July is the coldest month here and we can tell and confirm that. We´re passing people with thick knitted caps.

Peter is standing outside of our little "house (shed?)" at Shoestrings Airport Lodge.

09.01 The positive thing is the fact that it is +11˚C warm. The negative thing is the fact that this is indoors. The really bad thing is that it is just around +4-5˚C outdoors. We can hear cars and aeroplanes. We are staying at Shoestring’s Airport Lodge. It is a house in a district which is called Rhodesfield just close to the airport. Rhodesfield is in turn a part of Kempton Park which this area of Johannesburg is called. We stay in a small ”extra room” which seems to be built out from the main building. Our walls consist of risen planks and boards. Our room also lacks a number.

Christer doesn´t think there is much to see in Johannesburg.

Christer is freezing in our room. The small radiator is not doing its job properly.

Peter at the entrance of our first home in South Africa.

11.46 We’ve slept some and Christer is still sleeping. It is cool in the room and feels great to be in bed. I think I crawl back in under the cover again or? Christer has chosen to sleep in the lower bed of the bunk bed. It was too much rocking in the upper bed since the bed is unsteady to say the least. Cold air comes in from the slot under the door.

13.35 The time has come to get outside to get us some lunch. There is supposed to be a small centre further away from here. We’ve managed to figure this out through the excellent site http://www.streetmaps.co.za. We are stiff and in the need to get moving.

Gladiator Street in the quiet neighbourhood Rhodesfield.

14.49 We didn’t find any restaurant but a small grocery shop. There we bought our which is about to be cooked. We’ve bought spaghetti on can. We’ve also seen several people who just sat around and looked. One was sitting on an electrical cabinet.

17.24 We didn’t get any large portions. Perhaps we should have bought a can each. We’ve been sitting in the garden after the lunch reading a detective story each by Ian Rankin. Now we are back in the room to gather strength and heat. The later will be hard.

18.20 Darkness and temperature falls. I wonder which will get the furthest, lowest. We are sitting in the main building and are about to ask for a ride to some great, nearby restaurant. One shouldn’t walk around in Johannesburg after dark, although this is a pretty much a safe part of the city.

18.54 The beer is great and the salad was fresh. Soon we will find out about the main courses. We are at Montego Spur at Garden Court Hotel. It was a short car ride (we were driven) but we’ve entered the district called Isando. The restaurant is one of many in a chain called Spur Steak Ranches (http://www.spur.co.za). The rinsing water for my fingers just arrived. I am having pork ribs. Christer will be having a steak. We saw ice outside of the hotel. Yes ice, it cracked under our feet as we walked on it.

A really tasty dinner at Montego Spur.

19.41 It was plenty of food and ever so delicious. They did charge us for the salad. We had understood it as the salad was included. We would have eaten more of the green stuff if we had known this. We’ve spoken to a gentleman in the reception and now we await the taxi he has called for.

20.12 The taxi driver overcharged us and added some. A couple of minutes in a taxi cost us 100 rand, US$13. I must admit that we wouldn’t have walked this distance on our own.

22.15 We will pull the duvets and blankets up to our noses. We will expose as little bare skin as possible. It is time to go to bed. I did my best to block the slot under the door before I went to bed.

Peter is waiting in a (as it turned out) very expensive taxi.

Wednesday 22nd of June

08.31 What’s positive is the fact that we slept great in the cool room. What’s negative is just that, the cool room and that we have to crawl out from all the layers of covers that we´ve swept around us. It is around +11-12˚C here in the room. A bird can heard from outside. It sounds like it is singing "pole-vaulter", "pole-vaulter" etc.

10.34 Our breakfast has been eaten in the garden. We had toast with marmalade and coffee. We heard more about the pole-vaulter during the breakfast. We are making plans for the day. Is it possible to get to a nearby mall by foot? We will once again use the computer here to find suitable answers. Sure, we could get a lift but that will cost us 50 rand, US$6.50 to get there and back. So we will walk if it is possible to walk!

The sun is making cold air warmer and it was pleasant having breakfast in the garden.

Shoestrings Airport Lodge has a very nice back garden where you can read a book, relax,
listen to the birds and the arriving and departing planes at the nearby airport.

11.55 We’ve been sitting in some plastic chairs just by the pool. We’ve found suitable routes to the mall Festival Mall. There seem to be several options. The question is if one of them includes getting there without a car. We are on our way to find out.

12.19 It is looking good. It is so far so good. We just have to head on towards our goal. There are several people along the road. What are they doing there? Do they live there; are they running some form of business? Some of them are like the ones we saw yesterday. They are mostly sitting down looking around themselves; some are just sitting in the grass. Maybe this is how you turn out after being unemployed for a long time?

We´re actually living this close to the airport. You have to drive around the whole airport
to reach the main entrance and the arrival and departure building though.

Peter is writing in his journal inside Festival Mall (http://www.festivalmall.co.za).

South Africans making attempts to skate, some are successful, some are not.

12.47 We’ve made it to and inside the Festival Mall, a modern and really huge mall that offers almost everything. We are looking at an icerink. Out on the ice some people are making brave attempts to skate. Some are OK and some are no way. We had plans to rent some skates and for once be one of the best but we didn´t.

13.08 It is time for lunch. We are at Steers, a fast food place. Christer just got his hamburger with fries. I am waiting to be served a ribs meal. It will be great with food. It is a strange thing that one now and then needs some food.

Christer has just had lunch at Steers.

13.35 It was tasty ribs and many ribs. The food is eaten and we are heading on. We are about to see more of this huge mall.

14.43 I’ve just finished and Christer is about to finish the afternoon coffee break. We had coffee and muffins at Juicy Lucy. We are on our way to do some shopping. The mall is like so many malls we´ve seen before, huge and filled with different kinds of stores and people. There have been plenty of white people here. We didn’t see any on our way here. I guess they came in their cars.

15.35 We visited a huge supermarket, Checkers. We’ve bought dinner for tonight and different kinds of seeds to bring home. We are about to head home. We will try another and hopefully shorter way home.

17.24 We had no problems getting home. We found a narrow subway under the railroad and got up in more central parts of Kempton Park, loads of people and plenty of minibuses. Since arriving home we have without any problems been reading in our books. It didn’t go that well to charge the batteries in Christer´s camera. I’ve brought four different kinds of adapters with me and none of them seem to fit here in South Africa. We have to keep our eyes open for one in the days to come. Why didn’t we check this earlier? I bet we could have bought one in the mall.

Peter preparing mutton sausages, those together with noodles will be this evening´s simple dinner.

20.37 Today’s dinner consisted of mall-bought sausages of minced mutton meat, noodles, rosé wine and bread. It was both delicious and cheap. Sheep is cheap. We’ve now returned to our numberless room. We will see what we´ll do next. The candy that Christer bought at Checkers is also being sold in Australia, Portugal and on the French island of Réunion. There is strangely enough information in Hungarian on the candy bag.

21.36 Change of plans! Roberth who will be arriving to Johannesburg tomorrow will not be landing on the nearby airport, Oliver Tambo International Airport. That means he will not be able to swing by here tomorrow morning. We are about to inform him that he can call the next accomodation and ask them to pick him up at the airport of his arrival, Lanseria.

22.51 We are having a mall-bought evening beer each. I am having a Namibian Windhoek and Christer is having a license brewed Hungarian Dreher.

Thursday 23rd of July

07.49 Our friend and travel colleague Roberth is hopefully on his way to arrive at Lanseria Airport. We pretty much just woke up. We can hear infernal racket from outside. The pole-vaulter has been accompanied by several speeches of tooting, playing, singing birds

09.42 I am outside of our room. Christer remains inside. Roberth is also inside. He on the other hand is already in our next home and room. It seems that he took a taxi there. To the hostel that is.

We are waiting for our taxi and we´re saying goodbye to Shoestrings Airport Lodge.

10.02 Our host Rob has called for a taxi. We are waiting for it outside of our old home. Rob has just driven some guys who had entered the wrong Airport Lodge to the right one. Couldn’t he have driven us instead? It has been a great place. I bet it is even better in the summer with decent temperatures. It might even be a piece of paradise during summer, which is in midwinter in the northern hemisphere. The next room can’t be colder. Our host has been good. I wonder if we ever will see him again.

10.31 We are riding a taxi along a highway. We are chatting with the driver about apartheid and soccer. He is a fan of one of them. We are on our way to Kensington, a district of Johannesburg which is more central.

Ghandi Backpackers Lodge, this place will be our home during one day in our lives.

Perfect street signs! We are living in the corner of Roberts Avenue and Doris Street.
Roberth´s mother is called Doris and Roberth´s name is...eh...Roberth....

10.59 We’ve reunited with Roberth. We’ve checked in at Ghandi Backpackers Lodge (http://www.ghandisbackpackers.co.za) at 15 Doris Street. Mahatma Gandhi himself is supposed to have lived here. He is also on a picture here in the house. We are chewing on some air-dried meat which Roberth has brought with him. It is kudu and springbok. This room which we are staying in has a number, it is number 10. We were met here by some small rascals which might have enjoyed the meat, some barking puppies.

13.10 After having walked along Roberts Avenue we´ve done some shopping in a small grocery store. The store was filled with Portuguese people. There are apparently plenty of them in this part of the city, some got here as Mozambique became independent in 1975. The food has been carried home, cooked and consumed. Now Roberth is telling us about his earlier travel days on this trip. He has been doing a lot. His friend Jacques saw some pictures of us and thought that I resembled Elton John. It isn't the first time that this has happened.

We were taking a walk to discover the soul of Johannesburg.

Roberth and Christer on their way to the Kensington/Fairview border.

Jumbo Liquor Store. In South Africa you can buy wine in the grocery stores but
beer and stronger alcohol are sold in liquor stores like this one.

14.13 We´ve had some coffee on the side of pool and are about to get to know the neighbourhood and surroundings.

15.03 The area around us didn’t have much to offer, mostly dwelling houses and small stores. We turned back at a school. There were both a girls school and a boys school. The school uniforms looked like some prison clothes. We’ve found a Portuguese restaurant, Adega do Monge (http://www.adegadomonge.co.cc) though. There we booked a table for 19.00. We are buying Roberth a birthday dinner. He is turning 36 today. We are checking the internet for various facts. There is a computer by the bar here at the hostel.

The air is cold and the water is cold. The swimming pool looks nice but we´re not going to use it!

Mahatma Gandhi once lived/stayed in this house built in 1889.

16.42 Christer and I have been doing some more shopping. Roberth took the opportunity to take a nap in the room while we were away. We bought ice cream and something to munch on tonight in the nearby grocery shop. I also bought a beer at Jumbo Liquor Store. It is a liquor store which has one pink elephant on the roof and one in front of the store. Once again an elephant plays a significant role in our lives.

19.06 We are sitting at the restaurant Adega do Monge and have ordered quails for starters. Roberth and I have chosen pieces of rump roast for main course. Christer has ordered piri-piri chicken. We are drinking Franschhoek Cellar Merlot, a wine from the Cape Province. Roberth actually went to the town Franschhoek yesterday. The restaurant is safe, really safe. A heavy iron gate had to be unlocked to let us in.

The birthday boy has picked a good wine, Franschhoek Cellar Merlot.

Roberth enjoying his birthday dinner.

Peter writing down the memories from this nice evening.

20.43 It was amazingly delicious, everything from the quails to the dinner, wine and the coffee afterwards. A couple of tables away there were some really connoisseurs when it came to wine. They tasted, questioned and compared. I guess we are great guests. We like whatever wine they serve us. Now we are heading home to find out what the bar has to offer.

22.03 We are back from the bar. My colleagues had the South African lager beer Castle. I had coffee and the country’s liqueur, Amarula. Now we´re watching TV and thinking about tomorrow. Roberth is also thinking about sleeping with his jacket on tonight. Yes, this room is cold, really cold!

Epilogue: The bird we heard was a ring-necked dove.