Dispatches from the sunburned wastelands

We arrived on a sweltering hot day in Johannesburg, but the arrival hall's ventilation was down. And, after negotiating our re-entry into the country of our birth via a sour-faced immigration official, so was the baggage delivery belts. Everybody's luggage (about six international flight's worth) were unceremoniously dumped onto the floor of the baggage hall. For a moment there, I was wondering whether we had, indeed landed in Johannesburg, or whether our plane had somehow ended up in the Congo, or worse, Bloemfontein. After solving a cock-up with the rental car, we headed north, towards Pretoria.

Everything changes, yet everything stays the same.

The signs of new-found affluence were everywhere - the highway was clogged with cars, many new, expensive, and German. Closer to Pretoria, we saw the first of many new so-called 'security villages', fortresses for the wealthy, where the affluent are hiding their wealth behind razor wire, electric fences and armed guards, living in palaces they would never be able to afford elsewhere in the world. We drove past new shopping malls easily surpassing those in Australia and North America in style and opulence. Clearly, reports of South Africa's imminent decline (by other recent SA expats) were greatly exaggerated. And yet...that night, we experienced the first of our daily dose of involuntary "load-shedding", as the country's electricity supplier calls the regular black-outs.

To be continued...You can look at more pics of the trip by clicking on the flickr button to the right of this post.

Posted by HannesB at 10:40 PM Comments