A little bit of Joburg life

Hi all,

About time I did this. I mean really, I'm not good with email updates, phone updates, SMS updates or letters. Lets see now, if I'm able to do this right. You see, there are so much to this African adventure of mine that's worth sharing.

Right, so I arrived in Joburg, South Africa in the midst of the World Cup 2010 excitement. The whole country was on their tip-toes, and you could really feel it: The World Cup was upon us. The whole city was filled with this incredible atmosphere, and my friend and colleague Line and I were thrown right into the middle of it - and we loved it! Together with our Californian "sister" Marie Claire we went on a road trip trip to Durban to see the Spain-Switzerland and the Japan-Netherlands games. Driving past the breathtakingly beautiful Drakensberg mountains put this Norwegian "fjellgeit" into a lyrical mood, and Durban was warm, lovely and great fun. And when you get to surf with dolphins, everything is just euphoric from there.

Roads and highways in South- Africa are amazing, but despite this the numbers of car accidents are very high. Luckily we avoided getting into one of the about 10 car accidents that happened on the way from Joburg to Durban. And really, driving on the left side of the road is not so bad. Returning to right-side driving in Norway might be tricky though.

After the World-Cup-mania was over, the tourists had gone home and things went back to normal around here I've been able to experience more of the "real" South-Africa. Joburg -  the economic hub of Africa, buzzing, burning with activity... it really is the New York of Africa. There are so much going on so much to see, so much to do... if you have a car that is. We did not for the first three months. Life in Joburg without a car i would go as far as to say equals isolation. And when you live in a compound with high concrete walls around it, not very tempting. Public transport is nearly non-existing here. Everyone has a car. So when we finally got our little white Polo Classic we were thrilled.

Joburg is also an excellent point of departure for visiting other places and countries in Southern Africa, and I have really taken advantage of this. So far I've been to Cape Town, Tofo (Mozambique), Livingstone (Zambia) and Vic Falls (Zimbabwe).. although that last one is a story in itself.

More detailed "letters" from my journeys past and to come will follow. I'm now off to have dinner with Tuva in Sandton before going to the Mountain Club of South Africa Johannesburg Section (puh) meeting to sign up for some rock face action.


So long everyone!