Johannesburg

Well I have been here 2 and a half weeks now and have spent that time mainly in the city. I have done a couple of day trips to outer lying areas but nothing extensive yet. It is definitely not what I would call a beautiful city. Walls around homes are topped with either barbed wire or electric fences, there are no gardens on the side of the roads, in some areas there is not even pavement, just dirt. People stand in the middle of the road at traffic lights trying to sell you everything from Sunglasses to phone chargers, fruit to toys, even mirrors. Some people just ask for money, others direct you when parking your car and expect payment for it.
There are constant makeshift shops on the side of the road selling random things. Some people steal part of a fence then cut it up and sell it as scrap metal!

There are some pretty areas of the city though and a lot of parks and shopping malls. Food is relatively cheap depending on where you go out. Alcohol is cheap too which is both a good and bad thing! 100 Rand is about AUS $12 and for 100 rand I can get 3 packets of cigarettes!

Last week Trevor and I drove about an hour and a half to Hartebeespoort Dam. It is quite a pretty area. We went to an animal park that had all sorts of creatures like snakes, vultures, cheetahs, chimpanzees, seals, hyenas, wild dogs, lynx and even hamsters! We had lunch there and I tried Springbok carpaccio, it was actually very good! We wanted to ride the cable car up the mountain but it was closed. There is an Elephant park out that way too that we are going to try and go back to.
On Sunday I went with Lisa and Beverly out of town to go horse riding. It was a mans private property and we rode up the mountain for a good hour and a half. He has wild Zebra and Wildebeest roaming his property. The wildebeest stampeded about 10 metres away from us it was amazing.
This Sunday we are going out to a rhino and lion park which also has a hippo walk and then Monday I am going on a bus that travels from Johannesburg down the coast to Cape Town. Its a hop on hop off thing so I can stop at over 40 different places on the way in a 14 day period.
I am very looking forward to Cape Town as I plan on going Shark diving and sky diving there!
I just bought a GoPro camera so will be sure to capture every second of both to re-live over and over!!