Moving Forward...

Many people speak fondly of Cape Town, including everyone in Joburg, and rightly so. Great views, food from around the world and a very laidback and gay-friendly atmosphere. Stellenbosch around the corner for a youthful university town, Franschhoek for champagne-tasting and Simonstown for a stroll on the beach. Saying goodbye to Devon was positively no fun.

Mooning Cape Town from the roof of our apartment-building.

Champagne tasting, the right way.

The beauty of Table Mountain.

Pinguins at the Cape .

Great views near the Cape.

CT is also home to many wealthy Europeans.

I’m not surprised.

Mike bargaining hard. He joined us for a couple of days around Cape Town.

Do not drink…

Stellenbosch University: heart of the Afrikaans-speaking community.

South Africa’s vastness and diversity can probably be appreciated best by driving across the country. Saying goodbye to the guys in Joburg was hard, but our trip was absolutely fantastic. Devon and I enjoyed some of the best things South Africa has to offer. The Garden Route area has natural beauty all around and plenty touristy-yet-great-fun attractions.

“If you haven’t seen Plettenberg Bay, you’ve seen nothing” – we were told.

Nightfall in the middle of nowhere.

Port tasting in Calitzdorp.

Romantic dinner at Wimpy’s.

Most useless bridge ever

Impressive sky over South Africa.

Southernmost point in Africa: Cape L’Algulhas.

If you think apartheid ended somewhere around 1990 as I did, Johannesburg will come as quite a shock. Segregation between the black rundown downtown-area and poor townships and the white luxurious northern neighbourhoods is almost perfect. The dividing lines are invisible yet razorsharp. I stayed with three amazing guys – thanks R&L&S! – with whom I stayed a whole month! This is a city I wrestled with to understand. And still do. But it’s fascinating and tantalizing.

Joubert Park, downtown. I’m positively the only white guy around. Not safe.

Disturbing sight at the Apartheid museum.

Bentley’s for sale at Hyde Park Mall. All visitors white. All servants, security personnel, parking attendants and waiters black. Classifying Johannesburg as 2nd world makes no sense: it’s 1st and 3rd world.

Great autumn/winter colors of Zoo Lake.

Isolation cells for black people at Constitution Hill.

View on downtown from “Top of Africa”.

A penthouse without a view?

More Johannesburg pictures.

This park is amazing. Even without venturing out of your car, you can see stunning wildlife every other kilometer. This park is packed with animals.

Mooning Kruger Park.

How cool is that!

For sizing.

Right in front of you when you’re having lunch.

Hyena.

Comfy huts.

Relatives.

It took us forever, but there’s a leopard on the lower right branch of the tree!

Magical sky.

More Kruger Park pictures.

Voortrekker monument is where you can commemorate famous white people with Dutch names killing many black indigenous people.

The plan: you invite your friends and drink as much as you can, stay up as late as possible, set the alarm for 6 am, continue drinking and then… go out there and fire guns. To me, this sounds as a not-so-smart idea. Quite a South African experience!

The hunt is on! On a game farm you can shoot everything that moves, and everything has its price (giraffe is expensive, buck is cheap).

A scary sight in the early morning.

Impala down. Marco happy.

The start of the show (note Ilona in the back )

Skin.

Intestines.

Impala, undone.

Ilona & Head of the Expedition, father Paschkewitz.

More Pietersberg pictures.

So good to visit Ilona in South Africa! The very first day Ilona brought me to this chocolate-cum-champagne tasting evening… now that’s quite a change from Iran!

After 40 tough hours of travel (including my first nighttrain)…

Ilona picked me up at the airport (priceless!)…

Got me set up at the shabby place of one of her colleagues…

And showed me her Joburg-(night)life…

Touristy but loads of fun.

More Johannesburg pictures.