I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. RL Stevenson

What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare? Welsh poet, William Henry Davies

Monday, July 18, 2011

JOHANNESBURG

27 JUNE – 1 JULY 2011
JOHANNESBURG
Welcome Terry to South Africa
When the train pulls into Park Station, I chat to a malawian off the train who is heading to the taxi rank and he invites me to follow him through the maze of station, stalls, lanes and streets. I soon find I’m at the wrong rank and ask again. This kindly lady tells me her daughter is heading out to Melville and she will be here soon, to wait with her. After 30 minutes of small talk I eventually ask from where her daughter is coming? Melville, but she will be here soon. I make a decision to head back to Park Station to get a drop taxi out to Melville and make my way back to negotiate with rogues. I eventually give up, head back into the station and ask the Tourist information to telephone a taxi company. Soon enough I’m headed for Melville for a correct price, to check in and thaw out at Thulani Lodge in Melville, a groovy suburb of Johannesburg.

Look, he's VERY happy
Later in the day I get a drop taxi out t Randburg, to visit the Girl Guides there but unfortunately I get someone who pretends to put the meter on, who takes me to a street with the same name, in another suburb and eventually after 80 minutes I give up on him and leave the taxi, refusing to pay because he didn’t take me to where I wanted to go! A bit of argy bargy follows but he is the wrong and has no idea where to go. I get directions from the Girl Guides and eventually walk there to arrive just before the last staff member is about to leave!! Phew  SAGG is a big organisation with accommodation on iste out in Randburg and a lot of history in display. They are preparing to attend the World Conference and other Guides are heading to Germany later in the week. The gorgeous Tshidi Tsati kindly drives me down to the transport to save me the walk again and puts me in a reliable taxi whose driver then spends the trip wising me up to how to get about to Sandton, back to Randburg etc etc. A trip well spent and I made notes the whole time. The next day I head out downtown to Johannesburg, via the impressive Nelson Mandela Bridge, to spend the day familiarising myself with the Jo’burg streets, taxi ranks, finding my way around town to save Terry some angst when he arrives. The Metro bus information man is particularly helpful, thank you Sir! The Market Theatre complex includes a Jazz Walk of Fame (novel), the Mary Fitzgerald Suare (named after South Africa’s first female trade unionist) and the SAB World of Beer (think I’ll save that for when Terry is here). I visit a few museums that I know Terry wouldn’t be interested in:
Africa Museum – Very comprehensive collections here with some great historic photography. A little like our Powerhouse Museum at home in Sydney but I thought it needed some good curating.
Johannesburg Art Gallery – small but some nice pieces with a whole floor devoted to the current school Arts curriculum! Dream on, Arts KLA at home!
Workers Museum – Compact and well curated with great video and audio ‘memories’. Fabulous insights into the hostel arrangements and conditions under which black and coloured workers were required to live in Johannesburg and elsewhere during the Apartheid rule. These hostels were segregated on sex with many families only seeing their husbands and fathers when they returned to villages once a year.
My partner, Terry arrives today and I catch the Gautrain to the OR Tambo airport – fab system built for the World Cup but at 105 Rand perhaps a little overpriced for most locals and with only one line needs expanding to be really useful?? Terry’s flight is delayed 4 hours due to being rerouted because of the ash cloud over Australia but eventually he arrives, exhausted after the 15 hour flight over the Indian Ocean. It is wonderful to see him here and I’m very excited to hear all the news from home. To return to Melville I’d stipulated a metered taxi but this one’s meter span faster than a roulette wheel – bugger, ripped off and very annoying. Next day we move to my original choice of accommodation, the lovely Sunbury House also in Melville. We gradually sort all the goodies that Terry has brought over for me, including my fab down jacket –I will never be cold again here and some lucky street security guard is the recipient of airline blankets that have faithfully served me – thank you Air Namibia and Kenyan Airways!! 
Today I’ve planned for us to visit the Apartheid Museum and introduce Terry to some of South Africa’s recent history so we get a local combi into town over the Nelson Mandela bridge to find Gandhi Square the home of Metro buses, walking through some of central Johannesburg. Now this square is a huge mass of bus stops and when we find the correct bus the bus driver doesn’t know (or couldn’t read) the street names of his bus route, only the way there!! Luckily the maps are enough to get us there after we hop off and soon enough we both have museum entry tickets that class us either white of black, for the racial classification entry into the museum to illustrate life under Apartheid. We’re both very impressed with the Apartheid Museum which is informative, evocative and very thought provoking. It makes me question what my opinions of Apartheid were during the 70s and 80s and I have to conclude that I had very little knowledge or interest in it, really. Just an acceptance that this was a system in place ‘over there’ without giving a thought to what people’s lives were really like under an appalling regime – the ignorance of distance and my youth, I guess? I’m ashamed to say that Indigenous issues at home in Australia were of more interest to me at that time. There is lots of oral, photo and video history here tracking the introduction of apartheid laws and various by-laws to reinforce it over the decades. Then came the development of black consciousness followed by activism and sacrifices by the many personalities such as Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Otambo, and Walter Sisulu  to name but a few. Continual uprisings locally and protests internationally, eventually garnered support worldwide for the abolition of the apartheid system, initiated by the release of political prisoners and political discussions with the ANC.
The Apartheid museum also included a detailed account and tribute to the life and times of Nelson Mandela of whom they are justly proud. The final piece was a list of Mandela quotes and visitors select their favourite quote and place a corresponding coloured pole into the accompanying display making it a very personal and organic exhibition. Mandela comes across as such a wise statesman even after his prison experiences would have left most embittered and I have conclude that statesman/women are in short supply within the ANC now, judging by the newspaper headlines each day The current President, Jacob Zuma is a polygamist, has been on trial for rape in the past and is on record as stating that he showers after sex to avoid HIV infection!! The current leader of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema is currently under investigation because he flaunts a ¼ million rand wristwatch, is building 2 new homes, one of which is valued at over16 million rand all on an income of less than 20,000 rand per month. Julius called for the nationalisation of SA mines and was taped pouring vitriolic abuse upon a journalist. Alas slightly controversial and suspected of creeping corruption.
Next day we head out to the Soweto township using another Johannesburg transport option, the Rea Vaya, to visit the Hector Pieterson museum. This was named after the youngest child shot and killed during an armed reaction by South African police here in the Soweto in 1976, in response to an unarmed protest by schoolchildren to the enforced education in Afrikaans language. 
 
After visiting the museum, we adjourned for a kuta, slang for a quarter loaf or bunny chow (see my post for Soweto). Terry hated it! Ah well, can’t win them all! After walking down Vilakazi Street, home to both Nelson Mandela and Desmund Tutu, we return to town to visit South Africa Brewing’s World of Beer – all you ever wanted to know about beer but were afraid to ask!!
On our last day in Johannesburg we visited Constitution Hill and South Africa’s Constitution Court which hosted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. It is a beautiful space built from the bricks of the now demolished Johannesburg prison where many freedom activists, including Nelson Mandela were imprisoned and sentenced. In the afternoon we head to the chaotic Park Station investigating if the Gautrain is now running as advertised starting today, direct from Johannesburg to Pretoria – alas no. So back to the MTN taxi rank to travel to Pretoria, 50 Km away. Pretoria is the administrative centre for South Africa but seems more staid than Jo’burg. We call into the tourist office come against ennui and lack of knowledge, more’s the pity! We called into my second favourite grocery store here in South Africa, Woolworths (my fav is Pick and Pay) to buy a couple of sandwiches and soon found ourselves in a 50m queue. We ate our sandwiches while waiting and locals explained that it was extra busy as everyone is paid monthly and today is the first of the month, which saw everyone paid overnight! Terry abandoned the line in disgust and left me queuing when I found a sign that asked me if I had been waiting too long in the line and if so to ring the manager, which of course I did. He apologised and appeared very soon afterwards. Where is THAT sign at supermarkets and banks at home, I ask?? Eventually we locate the bus stop to get out to Will and Jills’ home in Pretoria and chatted a woman (white) who was a little downcast about Pretoria, its future and current safety issues. She was even too frightened to use her mobile phone because “they’ll just run up and snatch it off you, punching you in the face at the same time”! I was happy to see her get on her bus home! Our bus arrived, the driver very knowledgeable about his route, knew exactly where we were headed and kindly indicated when we should disembark. It was lovely meeting up with Bill and Jill again and they are very welcoming if a little surprised that we’d used local transport to their place. We meet their lovely daughter Bethany (who also praised Oppikoppi) and soon enough we’re walking back down their street to Toni’s Pizza. 



We’re told this place is consistently listed in Pretoria’s good food guides with very yummy pizzas – mine was a ham and artichoke mmm. After dinner and a couple of sherries, Bill and Jill kindly invite us to stay overnight but alas as we are flying out the next morning we’re very keen to return to Jo’burg tonight. We are more than happy to get a taxi back to Jo’burg however they would not hear of it and kindly insisted on driving us both back to Johannesburg – 50 Km each way. We parted with promises for me to stay over next time I return to Jo’burg.

FACT: Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial segregation which was created by the government of South Africa. In addition to giving preference to a very small minority of white South Africans, apartheid also created class divisions between native South Africans, forcing people to migrate to “homelands” which were divided along ethnic grounds. Blacks, Indians, and Asians were treated as second class citizens in South Africa under apartheid, a system which endured from the late 1940s right up to the early 1990s. Long live Democracy and may apartheid remain where it belongs, in a museum.

DURBAN, South Africa

22 JUNE – 26 JUNE 2011

SOUTH AFRICA – Country number 14 for the 2ND TIME – SOUTH AFRICA
DURBAN

Entry into South Africa from Swaziland at the Lavumisa/Golela frontier got a little complicated for a moment because this was my second entry into South Africa and the official only wanted to give a seven day extendable entry. Not exactly what I wanted so I explained quickly that technically this was my first visit to South Africa at my last entry I was only transiting.
Calm streets
Enough said, he then gave me 90 days free entry. A trouble free travel along one of South Africa’s main national highways, the N2 we get to Durban’s outskirts. According to my travel guide the bus station where we are headed is a tourist no-go area and when I telephone ahead the hostel confirms that I shouldn’t walk from there. So I do a rough recke and ask to be dropped off just outside the bus station area to walk to the hostel without a problem, taking in the local area on foot.
I check into Tekwini Backpackers in Morningside arriving to find gorgeous decorations being put up around the pool area. I ask them were they expecting me but it turns out that they are hosting wedding celebrations for one of their friends tonight and we are all welcome to join in with them.Such a lovely friendly vibe here – how nice to invite the lodge residents to join in on your wedding celebrations. We had lamb on the spit with yummy salads then the wedding cake desserts were a choice of either heavy chocolate or ‘just sublime’ cake – I go with the sublime mmmm Unfortunately my manners have declined so far during my travels that I neglected to find out the couple’s names but I did manage to congratulate them AND I did find out the groom was South African and the bride was Spanish (and pregnant!). It was a really relaxed, fun affair and a great introduction to Durban, the hostel’s personnel and my fellow guests.
Christian Church providing background
Now Durban prides itself on its arty scene but unfortunately that’s a little overshadowed by its reputation for violent crime. But as I had picked up an Arts map of Durban I was more than happy to traipse for days discovering the ways about Durban. Even the neighbourhood I was staying was home to several galleries on Florida Rd including the wonderful African Art Gallery – great place stuffed to the rafters with everything beaded, woven and painted by local artists.  There are also numerous restaurants, supermarkets, bars etc here on Florida Road a little like our Chapel St at home in Melbourne.

The next day, I visit a lovely jeweller’s gallery when one customer calls in and recounts her car jacking experience after her last visit to the shop. We all chat about it and confirm that 1. She shouldn’t have had her phone in view when driving, 2. She shouldn’t have left her bag open in the front seat, 3. At least she wasn’t hurt apart from some bruising from when she resisted the thief by hanging on to her back and 4. She shouldn’t have resisted! Eventually we all admired the gorgeous renewal the jeweller had given her at rings she was picking up today.
I loved this place

Other galleries I visited in Durban:

KZNSA gallery with a fantastic exhibition ‘Recollect – a turquoise journey’ by Hendrik Stroebel. Amazing embroidered pictures (complete with imaginative mounting and framing) of travels in Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Iran.
BAT Centre on Durban’s harbour. Mixture of paintings, ceramics with artists working there.
artSPACE Durban – A couple of local artists exhibitions including some gorgeous vessels.

Gallery 415 had a great exhibition of skateboard culture photography and deck art
Muckleneuk – built in 1914 by Sir Marshall Campbell, a sugar magnate and politician, the home has been granted to SA’s university for exhibition and research and includes varied and valuable collections of his two children. The William Campbell furniture and picture collection and the Mashu museum of ethnology –  Killie Campbell’s vibrant collection of colourful traditional beadwork and costume reflecting the dynamic and vigorous traditions of southern Africa - – ‘a reflection of humanity through efforts of creativity and love of culture. Also included there are the country’s foremost holdings of indigenous costume studies done by Killie’s friend Barbara Tyrell. Now I get the meaning and the beauty of the Zulu beading.
Victorian drinking fountain and African homeless

I visited the lovely old Botanic Gardens complete with a canteen staffed by volunteers producing wonderfully cheap Devonshire teas complete with a choice of scones or crumpets (pikelets) – I chose the scones but only for research purposes so I could tell you they were very yummy home made scones and accompanied by good jam and cream! mmmm
City buildings and streets

Durban also has a system of public transport implemented in time for the World Cup, known as the People Mover buses running 3 main routes all about town for the paltry amount of 10 Rand (A$1.20) for all day travel, 7 days a week till late at night. – Wonderful sightseeing through the centre of town to admire the massive town edifices including City Hall, Post Office and various other colonial structures. There is also the very new Moses Mabhida stadium I visited with Sara from US, a vollie in Lesotho as she gathered enough nerve to try the Swing from the huge arch above the stadium. Alas by the time we made it there the Swing was about to close so no go – instead Sara goes for the thrill of almost being run over on our way home. The car was so close that I honestly expected to see her body fly through the air and she admitted she could actually feel the car as it sped past her!!
Madrassa Arcade and Mosque

Durban has a great large vibrant Indian and muslim neighbourhoods studded with temples, mosques and churches. This includes Juma Musjid, the largest mosque in the Southern Hemisphere, the huge and lively Victoria market and Madrassa Arcade with locals shopping for all their traditional costumed needs. 

AIDS is always upfront



City buildings - Town Hall







A very modern church!

COLD cold train back to Jo’burg – great sleeper all to myself BUT no heating and 3 hours late due to no signals because of copper cable theft – the Shosholeza Meyl. It is sad to see a system being run down where people are reluctant to use it and hastening its demise.
But I loved Durban
FACT: The Kwa Muhle Museum in Durban is housed in the original Native Affairs Building where the Durban System was practiced. The Durban System was an infamous system implemented during apartheid whereby people were classified by race which limited their movements and sought to control the influx of black people by requiring them to have permits/passes to be in town.
Rather self explanatory
The Durban System would have cost ratepayers a lot of money, but the authorities worked out a way to make it self-sustaining by passing the Native Beer Act in 1908. This meant Municipalities in Natal obtained the sole right to brew and sell beer within their boundaries. The Durban municipality soon began to brew its own beer and sell it through a network of beerhalls, which it established. The first municipal beerhall opened in 1909 and soon the system was reaping huge profits. Nothing was to be allowed to threaten this situation and every effort was made to stamp out the illegal brewing and sale of beer through regular police raids.

Durban has a penchant for renaming its streets

SWAZILAND


19 JUNE – 21 JUNE 2011
SWAZILAND – Country number 16 – SWAZILAND
Travelling from Maputo, Mozambique to Swaziland I soon discover I’m on the ‘denim express’ – because a group with us are importing (?) denim jeans from Mozambique. This means that we are held up at the Swazi border while Customs count all 400 pairs of jeans so the importers pay the correct tax on them. This holds us up for an hour and a half at the border and again at another customs check in Swazi but in deference the views throughout the sunset over those lovely southern Swazi hills are magnificent. 
Arriving after dark in Manzini I get directed to a mini bus with instructions to “go there straight away”. Repeating my destination, Ezulwini using my best Swazi accent, I find the correct minivan and fortuitously get dropped directly out front of the Lidwala Backpacker Lodge. Their tented dorm accommodation is very comfy and after a week at Tofo on a sleeping mat, the bed is extra comfy! Gorgeous big garden, kitchen is great, the lounge has cable TV and I meet Donna from Adelaide and Shaun from Geelong who have joined folk from many first world countries to volunteer with All Out Africa. Their 6 weeks includes a week in Kruger and a week at Tofo so a whole month is devoted to contributing positively to communities here cause that’s what they paid huge sums of money for! But I’m enjoying their backpackers anyway with good, varied company! On my second night there we celebrate Babette’s 19th birthday with cake, drinking games and copious shots; all good fun with lots of laughs. Ezulwini is a very pretty valley in Swazi with a nearby shopping centre that includes cinemas and a KFC -all a young volunteer needs really! lolThere are also many crafts being sold nearby at many places but they are all identical, not so attractive and I soon find beaded ‘things’ very mundane which was not good news for the souvenir sellers!
To track down the Girl Guides here, I had previously emailed Swazi Guides but no reply so on arrival here I scoured the local telephone book to find Boy Scouts but no Girl Guides, so I tried the Boy Scouts who give me a contact, who gives me a better contact who in turn promises to pass pn my number to someone else. In the meantime I emailed South Africa Guides and I also ask at the local tourist office where a staff member (who used to be a Brownie) gave me her girlfriend’s number because” her mum was a GG leader”: these women are often a best kept secret! I visit Mbabane to check out the capital of Swaziland but it has little to offer other than a couple of shopping malls. Soon enough I get a call from Ester, Swazi’s National Trainer who gives puts me in contact with Mrs Zanele Hlophe, Swazi’s Chief Commissioner and we arrange to meet the next day in Manzini after she finishes work teaching. Next morning I visit the nearby valley of Lobamba to pay my respects to the memorial of King Sobhuza II – the most revered of the Swazi kings. As their leader during the formative years he led them sagely and safely through to independence and at his jubilee his last speech included a reference to the fact that he had no enemies, Anginasitsa.
Unfortunately the current King and cabinet have not been nearly so frugal not wise and national newspapers are reporting that the cabinet bank accounts do not currently have enough money to pay their fuel bill for government vehicles. What cash they do have is being saved to fuel their ambulances, police cars and fire engines! They are currently awaiting the outcome of a loan application to the IMF (not looking good) and an application to the African Development Bank (possibly favourable).  I also visited the nearby National Museum which has recently undergone a good renovation that included videos showing the many dances, costumes and customs of Swaziland – all in good working order and condition – such a contrast to the many museums I visited of much larger countries in West Africa. When I arrive that afternoon in Manzini I can’t help but notice a new health campaign aimed at reducing the risks of contracting HIV by promoting male circumcision. 
 
Combis are plastered and billboards are all about to advertise this new campaign to ‘conquer HIV for Swaziland’. Apparently circumcision will reduce a man’s chances of contracting HIV during unprotected sex! Who knew? Pity the many wives and girlfriends of these newly circumcised men who will be the victim of their men’s promiscuity because men understand that they may be safer from contracting HIV regardless of their sexual activities.
Mrs Zanele Hlophe, Swazi’s Chief Commissioner

That afternoon I make it to Manzini and find my way to the Post Office to meet with Zanele who is friendly, charming and very knowledgeable. I give her my small tokens of Australian Guiding to pass onto her National team with my good wishes. Zanele then takes me to a store where locals buy their traditional cloth and mahiya, as she is under strict instructions from Ester to present with me with a Swazi souvenir, which I am very embarrassed to accept. She helps me find the correct combi to take to get to Durban tomorrow and we part ways. I head back to Ezulwini for my final night in Swaziland - I have really liked it here – the very peaceful valley where I’ve been staying and the laid back travel here.

WOT HAIR?
FACT: It was reported in The Times of Swaziland, a national newspaper that Swaziland’s minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation had slammed advocated for multi political parties on the grounds that there is a lot of witchcraft and no peace in countries where that are multi political parties (that would most countries in the world). Due to Swaziland’s monarchy there is a Tinhundla system of governance, meaning there is no opposition. The minister also added that “Even the bible is against multi-parties, but respect for the royalty is encouraged in the Holy Book”, citing the Book of Mark 9:33 and even Jesus Christ is also against multi-parties confirmed by the bible, Luke 2:13. He said that during a recent trip to Ethiopia he met a man who used to be a soldier in that country and related to him how much he now regretted that they ousted their King. He also added that the financial crisis that the country is facing is not the fault of Swazi’s system and reassured his audience that Tinkhundla will, without doubt, revive the country’s ailing economy I wish them the best of luck with all that!

TOFO, INHABANE


14 - 19 JUNE 2011
TOFO, INHABAME: PARADISE
Eight hours on Fatima’s tourist shuttle through the lovely Mozambique countryside brings us to Fatima’s Nest at Tofo beach in Inhambane where I spend the next five nights lying about, napping, reading interspersed with daily walks:
Colourful streets of Tofo

Fish? Prawns?

Give me shelter from the storm

ANOTHER sunset??

More struggles, more monuments

My view at breakfast
Pitch my tent for a pittance under a shelter, protected from the sun
Lounging in the warm sunshine falling asleep whilst reading Robinson Crusoe
Sitting about in the beachside bar, drinking, listening to groovy music and playing pool
A beach so wide, white, clean and fine that it squeaks as you walk on it
Forays to the market each day, only a 10 minute walk, to pick my dinner that day from the catches of the day; fresh lobster, prawns or fish?
There is plenty of papaya, pineapple, passionfruit (this would be the ‘P’ food group?) and bananas to make my fruit salad lunches.
Meeting lots of friendly campers and tourists, getting the heads up on lots of places to visit in South Africa.

Only drawback I can find here are the groups of South African school leavers who talk about their mummies and daddies (dare I day in their peculiar whiney accents) and then consistently wipe themselves out each night.
TOFO - TRULY A BLISSFUL PART OF THE WORLD – I wanna come back here again one day.
Too soon my seven day visa is due to expire forcing me to leave and head back south to Maputo. But who said this shuttle left at 4.30am? I saunter out at 4.20am thinking I’m early to find that that for whatever reason they were late and should have left at 4am! That would have left me in a pickle trying to exit a frontier 10 hours away with no transport. But the gods are smiling on me and soon enough they are kind enough to drop me directly at the combi park to find another minivan heading straight across the border right through to Manzini in Swaziland. EASY PEASEY

FACT: Mozambique has been a Commonwealth of Nations member since 1995 making it the first member never to be ruled by Britain at any time!

MAPUTO, Mozambique

13 JUNE 2011
MOZAMBIQUE – Country number 15 – MOZAMBIQUE
MAPUTO

A long but comfy overnight bus ride brings me to the Mozambique border where there are umpteen transports heaped with all number of goods and food, lined up awaiting the frontier opening.
The profit margin must make it worthwhile, I guess, even down to the many bags of onions and loaves of bread my fellow passengers are carrying. Locals wearing coats are frisked and many run to the front of the line, pushing in. I’m lined up with a young south African (read white) couple when one BIG bloke (read black) pushes in tempting me to have a go at him whilst the South African bloke is very quiet. Eventually the pusher in removes himself to stand behind me, where a women there tells him off and he heads off somewhere else. 
In later conversations with the couple, he tells me that he couldn’t believe I dared to say anything to the pusher in, and he thought we would all be killed there and then. I reassured him that I find it really annoying that folk allow other folk to lord it over them and of course I have a big mouth! 
Malangatana mural
We are all headed to the same backpackers, Fatima’s Place in Maputo and we share a taxi on arrival in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo. Soon enough I’m traipsing Maputo’s streets trying to see as much as I can in one day as I have an early 5.30am departure to Tofo tomorrow morning. First stop is the ATM to get a pocket full of Metacals (or metz) before discovering Maputo. The Portugese influence here is very eviden, not least with the language which has only small nod to Spanish. I quickly practice my sim, nao, obrigado and bom dia (yes, no, . thank you and good day). The streets also have plenty of the African clamour that I have been missing from Southern Africa so far. 
Maputo Railway Station
There is plenty of colours here with street stalls, huge coloured mansions and a gorgeous ‘wedding cake’ railway station, tastefully restored and dating back from 1916.
There are six museums here in town but I give a wide berth to the Coin, Revolution and Geology Museums as only the art interests me. The Nucleo De Arte (artists’ co-op) is dismantling an exhibition and the National Art Museum has an open door with staff inside but “we are closed today”. I make a last effort to drop by the Natural History Museum to view the Manueline architecture and a fab Malangatana mural.
I finish my day with fresh vegies cooked up with a Maputo classic, Piri-Piri prawns at Fatima’s outdoor kitchen! Mmmm
Oh but those drunken girls bursting into the dorm at 1am to sing happy birthday to their mate annoyed me somewhat – the pitfalls of dorm accommodation so it’s a good thing I can fall back asleep again at the drop of a hat!

FACT: Vasco De Gama landed at Mozambique Island in 1498, en route to India. Trade centred on ivory, gold and slaves in that order. In 1975 Mozambique gained independence but as the Portugese pulled out in a huff they left the country in a state of chaos. So what else does a newly independent country do but embark on a radical social change. Alas by 1983 this Marxist ideology had the country bankrupt and susceptible to be destabilised by South Africa and Rhodesia governments distrustful of of their politics which then led to a 17 year conflict that ravaged the country.

Soweto, South Africa

11/12 JUNE 2011
SOUTH AFRICA – Country number 14 –SOUTH AFRICA
SOWETO


An easy arrival into South Africa, getting a 3 day transit to tide me over till Mozambique. Arriving at Jo’burg’s City Park, all information tells me that Johannesburg is dangerous so I go with an offered pickup from Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers and await a pick up outside the Wimpy restaurant in the complex. And I wait, and wait. 1 hour later I am gathered up and taken directly to Orlando West, a suburb of Soweto to check in and find a fun environs with a great vibe here.
@ Lebos
I sign up for the home cooked dinner on offer here to save wandering out looking for dinner later. Free wifi here so I get to skype a couple of times with Terry and with Lynda Blanche. The guys here are all amused to wave to Australia when I ‘m chatting. I also sign up for a bicycle tour of Soweto tomorrow  – a four hour eco-friendly treadley ride around Soweto suburbs all in glorious sunshine, discovering many places that would be hard to find on your own, let alone Soweto being a no go area for tourists. 
Orlando's Soccer City Stadium
 There’s the Orlando cooling towers where some choose to bungy jump, Soccer City Stadium and of course the memorial to Students being fired upon during Apartheid protests. We get a kuta for lunch – a Soweto version of Bunny Chow, which I first saw in Botswana; this is a quarter loaf of white bread hollowed out to hold a filling, todays has chips, an egg, a slice of luncheon meat. Totally bad food but extra yummy cause it’s freshly made and we’re all hungry after 2 hours of bike riding! Then off to Vilakazi St, the home of Nelson Mandela AND Desmond Tutu. We also visit a shebeen to sample the beer and another backyard bar, all the time being greeted by little kids who are so amused by us passing by. Another lazy afternoon sitting in the sun before packing up and getting back to Park City to catch the night bus to Maputo, Mozambique. Park City is a cold place to wait for a bus – thank god for airline blankets!
One of many organisations for AIDS orphans

FACT:  Sadly, the funeral of Albertina Sisulu, was yesterday, 11 June 2011. Albertina is considered the mother of South Africa's liberation struggle during Apartheid and thousands of mourners attended her funeral held in the Orlando football stadium, Soweto following a week of national mourning, during which flags were flown at half-mast. Albertina Sisulu was 92 and died at her home.
d South African President Jacob Zuma attedned her funeral and was quaoted as saying "One of the most steadfast, dignified and disciplined pillars of our struggle has fallen. An era has ended."
Sisulu's husband was anti-apartheid leader Walter Sisulu (dec), imprisoned with Nelson Mandela for many years. In his book, "Long Walk to Freedom," Mandela said the couple's home during the fight against apartheid was "a mecca for activists. It was a warm (and) welcoming place," Mandela described Albertina as having "a wise and wonderful presence."
Albertina Sisulu said she never regretted her life struggles. She is quoted as saying "Although politics has given me a rough life, there is absolutely nothing I regret about what I have done and what has happened to me and my family. Instead, I have been strengthened and feel more of a woman than I would otherwise have felt if my life was different."

Shebeen 'bottleshop'

How true!

A sowetan shebeen



Flats being built to replace slums

Kuta restaurant bill of fare

Flash house in the township

Hector Pieterson Museum Memorial

Say no more




Add caption

Loved this interpretation

A private shebeen