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Wow, South Africa has been amazing! After a ten hour flight from London, during which I had to endure sharing my seat rather large Nigerian man who literally overflowed into my seat squashing me into the non-existent remaining space (He also tried to convert me into some strange form of Nigerian christianity but that's another story!), I finally arrived at Joburg airport. It was a little odd at first stepping out into the 30C morning heat in a thick jumper after leaving the freezing darkness of London behind. After waiting for what felt like an eternity for my bag to arrive, I marched out into the Joburg arrival terminal to be greeted by a large crowd and several porters who seemed intent on grabbing my bag (I learnt later that these 'porters''carry ones bags to the taxi rank and can then charge as much as 50R for their services (Ha - Gypsies, I wasn't so easily fooled!)!). I had to wait for two hours at the airport for my shuttle bus pickup, which could have been a nightmare had I not chatted to a local outside Nando's about South Africa and it's problems. He reiterated what I already knew about Joburg and it's dangers, he had been both tear-gassed and threatened with a screw-driver in the past year in broad-daylight. I quickly realised that Joburg was a stark contrast to the dozy country lifestyle I'd grown used to in that rural paradise known as Dorset.
The driver arrived at 12.30 and after a 40 minute drive I arrived at the Backpackers Ritz. The first day was quite boring because asides from swimming in the hostel's pool there was very little else to do except watch repeats of 'My Super Sweet 16 on MTV' whilst chatting to some of the hostel's less intelligent american guests. The 22 bed dorm room was also slightly dodgy. To the left of my bunk was a bearded biker who, disturbingly, slept only clad in a leopard skin blanket (he also doubled up as the hostel's cook), in front of me was a Korean man who seem obsessed with all things concerning knees and seoul. Needless to say I was somewhat relieved when at 5am I left this asylum of lunatics to depart to Kruger.
The drive to Kruger took around 9 hours as we took the scenic route through the mountains which seperated Kruger from Joburg. The views were spectacular as we drove past the world's 3rd deepest canyon and stopped by to observe several waterfalls and potholes which litered the route to Kruger. The loneliness of travelling alone was relieved by my fellow travellers. At the first pitstop, I befriended Phil and Claire a couple from Wales who were visiting South Africa on holiday for Christmas. 30 minutes and one steak roll later, we were back on the bus to Kruger passing yet more spectacular scenary (photos to follow soon).
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