Fiona D
  • Home
    • My Adventures
  • WA - My Home State
    • Sandy Cape
    • North West Adventure >
      • The Route
      • Day 1 Perth to Bilyuin Pools
      • Day 2 - Bilyuin Pools to Karijini
      • Day 3 - Dales Gorge
      • Day 4 - Day at camp
      • Day 5 - Hancock Gorge
      • ​Day 6 - Hammersley Gorge & Karijini Eco Retreat
      • Day 7 Karijini to Sandfire
      • Day 8 Sandfire to Langi
      • Day 9 Langi to Fitzroy Crossing
      • Day 10 Fitzroy Crossing to Mimbi Caves
      • Day 11 Mimbi Caves to Wolfe Creek
      • Day 12 - Wolfe Creek Crater
      • Day 13 Wolfe Creek to Purnululu
      • Day 14 & 15 Purnululu National Park
      • Day 16 Punurlulu to Kununurra
      • Day 17 Kununurra to El Questro
      • Day 18 & 19 El Questro
    • Murchison Station
  • Egypt
    • FLY OUT DAY
    • Day 1 - Arrival >
      • Nights 1, 2 & 15 - Mena House Hotel
    • Day 2 - Cairo
    • Day 3 - Cairo >
      • Night 3 - Movenpick Aswan
    • Day 4 - Nile Cruise : Aswan >
      • Nights 4, 5 & 6 - Steigenberger Minerva
    • Day 5 - Nile Cruise: Aswan, Kom Ombo and Edfu
    • Day 6 - Nile Cruise: Abydos & Dandara
    • Day 7 - Nile Cruise: Luxor >
      • Nights 7 & 8 - Steigenberger Luxor Hotel
    • Day 8 - Luxor
    • Day 9 - Luxor and Hurghada >
      • Nights 9, 10 & 11 - Marriott Hurghada Hotel
    • Day 10 - Hurghada
    • Day 11 - Hurghada
    • Day 12 - Hurghada and Alexandria >
      • Days 12 & 13 - Sheraton Montazah
    • Day 13 - Alexandria
    • Day 14 - Alexandria and Cairo
    • Day 15 - Cairo and Home
  • South Africa
    • Fly out day
    • Day 1 - Johannesburg >
      • Night 1 - Protea Hotel O.R. Tambo
    • Day 2 - Hazyview >
      • Nights 2 & 3 - Hippo Hollow Country Estate
    • Day 3 - Kruger National Park
    • Day 4 - Swaziland >
      • Night 4 - Lugogo Sun Hotel
    • Day 5 - ST Lucia & Surrounds >
      • Night 5 - Protea Hotel Umfolozi
    • Day 6 - Durban >
      • Night 6 - Protea Hotel Umhlanga Ridge
    • Day 7 - Drakensburg >
      • Nights 7 & 8 - Drakensburg Gardens Hotel
    • Day 8 - Sani Pass
    • Day 9 - Chinsta, East >
      • Night 9 - CRAWFORDS BEACH LODGE
    • Day 10 - Port Elizabeth >
      • Night 10 - The Paxton Hotel
    • Day 11 - Knysna >
      • Nights 11 & 12 - Knysna Hollow Country Estate
    • Day 12 - Oudtshoorn
    • Day 13 - Cape Town >
      • Nights 13 & 14 - Protea Hotel Sea Point
    • Day 14 - Cape Town
    • Day 15 AM - Shark Dive
    • Day 15 - Home Time >
      • Home
  • Northern European Cruise
    • Copenhagen >
      • Palace Hotel
    • Day 3 - Bergen
    • Day 4 - Alesund
    • Day 5 - Lerwick
    • Day 6 - Thorshaven
    • Day 8 - Reykjavik
    • Day 11 - Oslo
    • Day 12 - Helsingborg
    • Norwegian Star

JOHANNESBURG






20th September 2015



​

Today we land in Johannesburg.

Upon arrival we will be met and assisted to our shuttle transfer service to the hotel.  We have the remainder of the day at leisure until 7 pm when we meet at the hotel reception for a briefing on the tour and a chance to meet up with our fellow travellers
​

Distance travelled - 8303 km's
The flight was not too bad, although I don’t think Nathan would agree, I reckon between Nathan and myself we got a maximum of eight hours sleep, combined, for an 11 hour flight.  We were seated at the front of the plane not business class (unfortunately) which meant we were the last group to be boarded, but we got our meals nice and early, there was a bit of a mix up with the gadget I ordered from Fly SA Duty Free but I got it eventually, I now have a pair of sunglasses that records video, sorry about the tilt of the camera, I will learn to hold my head straight.  Our flight landed 10 minutes early, I don’t think that made any difference for us leaving the airport, going through border control we had a bit of a chuckle, before they even look at your passport you have a thermal scan done, for Ebola!!! 
We then found out that we were in the wrong line, only after we had handed our passports over, let’s go join another queue…. We were met by this big guy called Tutu, with our names written on a sign (made us feel special) to transfer us to the hotel from our flight.

When we were in the planning stage, the plan was that when we got to go Johannesburg that we would want to have a sleep, then do the hop on hop off tour of Johannesburg.  We were too wired to sleep so we had a second breaky and headed out, Wellington (being his English name) a driver from the hotel took us to the train station on the way Nathan asked him what should we be weary of?  The biggest thing was if you are paying via credit card don’t hand your card to anyone, and while paying with the credit card for the train tickets he told Nathan to hand his credit card to lady at the counter and in a return comment “Wellington man you tell me not to hand over my credit card and here you are telling me to hand over my credit card” with a laugh, he also told us how it was safe for us to do the red bus tour and he was very patient with us, explaining numerous times what train and stop to get on and off, he even organised the Gautrain passes for us, although we did discover that we had not put enough credit on the cards, Johannesburg has cards exactly like Perth and Sydney’s transport system.  There was an interesting sign at the train station, I think it is a way to see if a car has been hotwired.....
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Johannesburg was an eye opener, being a Sunday there were many areas that the bus could have stopped at but didn’t as places were closed, mind we were both looking at each stop and saying we would not feel safe getting of the bus and walking around, the commentary on the bus was great, very interesting, we even had “That smell in the air when the wind is heading in the right direction, or the wrong direction, is coming from Johannesburg’s refuse dump” It was huge, and boy did it stink.  We did get off at the Apartheid Museum and walked around, there was many interesting displays to see, the pictures show some of what we saw, although there was area’s where photos were prohibited.  12 stops for the hop on hop off bus and we only got off for the one stop plus the end of the trip.  It’s funny getting used to the currency here, simply remove the 0 from the value and it is close to AUD, we are amazed at the cost of things, we brought water, biltong and the essential packet of smokes for Nathan, not me, R99.95 (Rand) which works out to $ 9.99, his smokes cost only $4.50.  We found our way back to the train station and rang for our driver to pick us up, did I mention that they insisted in driving and picking us up, not even a taxi was safe in this area, or possibly any area…

Back to the hotel, beers and scotch and we were ready for a power nap before meeting everyone else on the tour and of course Craig our tour guide, interesting group we will be, some Aussies, a Mexican, a range of American’s and two from Finland.

Dinner at 8pm, Nathan found the best pepper sauce in the world.  As part of our tour we get discounts on our meals at some places, 50% here so dinner of 2 steaks cost us R240 less discount R120, I know you can do the math but convert that to AUD it works out to be $6 each for dinner plus drinks.  We were told everything was cheaper over her but WOW.  Have a read of the sauces on the menu, one should stand out like monkeys. 

It is now 10 pm here which works out to 4 am Perth and 6 am Eastern States time, I am heading to bed, we have an early six am wake-up call.
SOUTH AFRICA
FLY OUT DAY
DAY 2 - hazyview
Day 3 - kruger
Day 4 - swaziland
Day 5 - st lucia and surrounds
Day 6 - durban
Day 7 - drakensburg
Day 8 - sani pass
Day 9 - chinsta east
Day 10 - port elizabeth
Day 11 - knysna
day 12 - OUDTSHOORN
day 13 - Cape town
Day 14 - cape town
Day 15 am SHARK DIVE
Day 15 PM Home time

Click on the below boxes to discover more about my other holidays!

Kimberly/Pilbara
Egypt
South Africa
Northern Europe
  • Home
    • My Adventures
  • WA - My Home State
    • Sandy Cape
    • North West Adventure >
      • The Route
      • Day 1 Perth to Bilyuin Pools
      • Day 2 - Bilyuin Pools to Karijini
      • Day 3 - Dales Gorge
      • Day 4 - Day at camp
      • Day 5 - Hancock Gorge
      • ​Day 6 - Hammersley Gorge & Karijini Eco Retreat
      • Day 7 Karijini to Sandfire
      • Day 8 Sandfire to Langi
      • Day 9 Langi to Fitzroy Crossing
      • Day 10 Fitzroy Crossing to Mimbi Caves
      • Day 11 Mimbi Caves to Wolfe Creek
      • Day 12 - Wolfe Creek Crater
      • Day 13 Wolfe Creek to Purnululu
      • Day 14 & 15 Purnululu National Park
      • Day 16 Punurlulu to Kununurra
      • Day 17 Kununurra to El Questro
      • Day 18 & 19 El Questro
    • Murchison Station
  • Egypt
    • FLY OUT DAY
    • Day 1 - Arrival >
      • Nights 1, 2 & 15 - Mena House Hotel
    • Day 2 - Cairo
    • Day 3 - Cairo >
      • Night 3 - Movenpick Aswan
    • Day 4 - Nile Cruise : Aswan >
      • Nights 4, 5 & 6 - Steigenberger Minerva
    • Day 5 - Nile Cruise: Aswan, Kom Ombo and Edfu
    • Day 6 - Nile Cruise: Abydos & Dandara
    • Day 7 - Nile Cruise: Luxor >
      • Nights 7 & 8 - Steigenberger Luxor Hotel
    • Day 8 - Luxor
    • Day 9 - Luxor and Hurghada >
      • Nights 9, 10 & 11 - Marriott Hurghada Hotel
    • Day 10 - Hurghada
    • Day 11 - Hurghada
    • Day 12 - Hurghada and Alexandria >
      • Days 12 & 13 - Sheraton Montazah
    • Day 13 - Alexandria
    • Day 14 - Alexandria and Cairo
    • Day 15 - Cairo and Home
  • South Africa
    • Fly out day
    • Day 1 - Johannesburg >
      • Night 1 - Protea Hotel O.R. Tambo
    • Day 2 - Hazyview >
      • Nights 2 & 3 - Hippo Hollow Country Estate
    • Day 3 - Kruger National Park
    • Day 4 - Swaziland >
      • Night 4 - Lugogo Sun Hotel
    • Day 5 - ST Lucia & Surrounds >
      • Night 5 - Protea Hotel Umfolozi
    • Day 6 - Durban >
      • Night 6 - Protea Hotel Umhlanga Ridge
    • Day 7 - Drakensburg >
      • Nights 7 & 8 - Drakensburg Gardens Hotel
    • Day 8 - Sani Pass
    • Day 9 - Chinsta, East >
      • Night 9 - CRAWFORDS BEACH LODGE
    • Day 10 - Port Elizabeth >
      • Night 10 - The Paxton Hotel
    • Day 11 - Knysna >
      • Nights 11 & 12 - Knysna Hollow Country Estate
    • Day 12 - Oudtshoorn
    • Day 13 - Cape Town >
      • Nights 13 & 14 - Protea Hotel Sea Point
    • Day 14 - Cape Town
    • Day 15 AM - Shark Dive
    • Day 15 - Home Time >
      • Home
  • Northern European Cruise
    • Copenhagen >
      • Palace Hotel
    • Day 3 - Bergen
    • Day 4 - Alesund
    • Day 5 - Lerwick
    • Day 6 - Thorshaven
    • Day 8 - Reykjavik
    • Day 11 - Oslo
    • Day 12 - Helsingborg
    • Norwegian Star