Farewell Jo'burg

Today we leave Johannesburg & head for the country.  Our stop today is in Ladysmith - heading towards Durban.

Yesterday we spent our last day shopping at Sandton City shopping centre - Chloe was the shopper of the night.  Clothes are really cheap, except Superdry bahhhaa :-(

We also spent most of the day at Gold Reef City Theme Park & Casino.  Was a great day.  Cheap as chips to get in ($20) each, and $5 for each photo.  South Africans think it's expensive, but I guess it's all down to their wages.

Here are some photo's:

 On our way home, we stopped at a set of lights and saw this:

 

This lady was fas asleep in the middle isle of the street, with her baby next to her (you can just see the feet of the baby) - we see this quite alot here - we are so lucky!

Jo'burg & Soweto

Today we were on the sightseeing hop on/hop off bus including a tour of Soweto.  It has really opened up my eyes as to how poor this country really is.  At times, it was smelly, garbage everywhere, buildings run down & tired with smashed windows or completely guttered inside, barbed wire everywhere, from the 'rich' houses/area to the shanty houses in Soweto.  I feel for the poor.

A few photo's from the Top of Africa at Carlton Tower.

The mining centre of Johannesburg

The 'nice' part of Soweto (close to the freeway)

The shanty side of Soweto

FNB Stadium where the funeral for Nelson Mandela was held - put your instruments down!

 

 

This hospital in Soweto is the 3rd largest in the world.  Has a department for every body part, 6,500 beds (imagine being on bed cleaning!) is free of charge - our tour guide said that if you need a hospital - this is the place, all you have to do is wait...  But he didn't tell us how long.\

 

 



Coal cooling towers, like Loy Yang - these towers gave electricity to Johannesburg only - not Soweto but the towers are situated in Soweto - what the?

Orlando Stadium was used as a training venue for the Brazil & Germany soccer world cup - go Riley!

 





We had a 15 minute stop where we had a man tell us a story about the 1974 Soweto uprising - 600 students killed over a period of time because they didn't want to change their language to Afrikaans - they wanted to speak more English and they felt that the teachers weren't competent enough to teach Afrikaans.  The girl in the picture is still alive today - she is 55 years old and works at the Hector Pieterson museum in Soweto. 

 

 

 

Ther was a little market across the road from the Museum - Jeff went into a little milk bar kind of place - it was all enclosed with bars, you paid on one side, collect on the other.  

 





RadissonBlu Gautrain

The first thing I need to say is that Chloe was sick on the plane!  Overtired, lack of food - she was vomiting as we were decending into Jo'burg.  She thought it was from jetlag, but it got us through immigration quicker as she was looking a bit pale (I told her to sit at the end of the line and wait for us and the lady directing passengers pushed us through - thank you!) The next was walking into the wrong hotel (it was amazing) and me almost getting stuck in the lift doors...

So, after a 14 hour flight to Doha (Hamad International in Qatar - which is a country of it's own - learnt something new today!), and a bit of a rush to the next gate for boarding the next 8 hour flight to Johannesburg, WE ARE IN AFRICA!!!!

First impressions of Africa - WOW!  Driving to the hotel has opened up my eyes - electric fences on top of gates/walls, dodgy solar hot water panels on top roofs everywhere - it sure is a different feel. Blokes & big momma's at traffic lights wanting to wash your windscreen to make a few bucks, cars running red lights everywhere, no real speed limit, I feel so sad already for the poor.

The RadissonBlu Gautrain in Sandton, Jo'burg is our home for the next few days.  Lovely hotel - nice outdoor pool on the 3rd floor overlooking the shopping centre Chloe & I are keen to look at tomorrow.  We are also keen to do the double-decker sightseeing bus as well, looking forward to seeing more of Jo'burg & Soweto tomorrow.

Goodnight - hope everyone had a great Christmas...  xxx

One More Sleep....

One more sleep till Christmas Day and one more sleep till our awesome holiday.
After 6 loads of washing: all socks/jocks/knickers/shorts/tshirts/bra's to stripping the beds (love the smell of fresh linen to come home to).  All have been dried & folded ready to be packed into the suitcases tonight.  The aim is to pack light!

We depart Melbourne at 23.55 for a long 1420hr flight to Doha, arriving at 0615 Boxing Day (happy birthday Valerie) - we have enough time to perhaps freshen up/wake up/walk around or get a drink with our first bit of currency - the Dirhams.

At 0745 we depart for Johannesburg, arriving at 1520 (0835hr flight).  The South African Rand is our next currency to use during our stay.

For the next few days, we are staying at the RadissonBlu in Johannesburg - I will be in that pool on top of the hotel in a matter of minutes!  Check out the website:
https://www.radissonblu.com/en/hotel-johannesburg

Check out the photo's - looks amazing.  Thanks to Jeffrey for booking this little surprise.

Have a wonderful Christmas friends - will blog as we travel...

J, L & C xx

Ready for take-off

17 more days to go until Christmas, and 17 more days till we take off to South Africa via Doha - flying with Qatar airlines.
We are all getting pretty excited - flights are well & truely booked and payed for, hotels are booked & paid for, Kruger National Park booked & waiting to be paid off, Sun City day tour done, flights from Cape Town to Jo'burg booked & paid for, car hire done, accommodation done, gifts ready to be given to host families, hot air balloon ride booked (I'm praying that we have good weather for our last day before we fly home). 
But more importantly, spending money has been raised.  We have worked our ass's off (not sure about Jeff, but I've worked my ass off getting loads of shifts) and can do anything we want to without worrying that we don't have enough. It's an awesome feeling!
Nelson Mandela (Chloe - aka: Morgan Freeman) - I can't wait to see your country..