So what's it like there?

Obviously lots of people (both here and at home) ask me “what’s it like? How are you finding it?”
Instead of answering the question, I thought I’d note down a few things which I find interesting about this country.

The first thing that hit me was the amount of traffic. This is a country a bit like America, where everyone drives everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The high levels of crime and a complete dearth of public transport obviously don’t help. The blacks tend to do a bit of walking, and they’re pretty much the only ones you’ll see walking anywhere. There are lots of minibus taxis (think Toyota 15 person vans) which provide an affordable way of getting around for black people – but no white person would ever dream of getting in one.

Then you have the people at traffic lights (or “robots” as they call them here). These are almost exclusively blacks. Most of them are handing out flyers for property developments, or selling fruit. You also see quite a few begging – often with an emaciated child in their arms. It’s quite a heart-rending sight when you first witness this African poverty – but you soon develop a heartless indifference and a middle-distance gaze. I wonder what they’d do if they had roundabouts here.

The similarities with America extend to town planning. Australia, another new world colony, still has English-style city centres, streets which make for an interesting stroll, and parks. Here the mall is king. You can’t really walk around Sandton city centre as it’s just a collection of 2-lane roads, but you can go and park your car (no-one walks into town) in a huge car park and enjoy an enormous shopping mall with no windows. Nelson Mandela square is a similar let-down. Basically a group of restaurants around a small square, it has a rather contrived feel. No, South Africa’s charms do not lie in its cities. Well not this one anyway. I’m looking forward to a trip to Cape Town, as I am told it has a more European feel. I hope that means that is has streets you can walk down and maybe if I’m lucky, a park.

No, it’s the scenery and wildlife which are South Africa’s trump cards. Within 45 minutes drive of Joburg you can visit several different wildlife parks, where you can see lions, rhinos, springbok, rhinos, etc etc in something approaching their native habitat. I’ve only visited one, and I was pretty impressed. Most locals are quite dismissive of these kind of places, but I thought it was great! We had lions prowling around outside our car, and one even attacked the wheel of the car next to us and punctured the tyre!

A visit to the Kruger National Park is a must. It’s close by local standards (ie 5 hours drive). But it needs time, as it’s larger than Israel, so you can’t really do it in a weekend.