Jo’berg the concrete city – Joberg was very disappointing, its infrastructure failing, empty buildings and really for a woman travelling on her own not really the place to be. Thankfully I was only in Joberg for a couple of days – I needed to do something other than shopping – this was my last few days in Africa before going home and I wanted to connect with the land. By far Africa is one of the last wild frontiers so I decided that I would do another safari or some sort of tour. I had booked a Hot Air balloon experience which included a balloon safari, which I thought was so novel, fancy flying over the top of the animals of Africa. If you ever spend time in Johannesburg book a hot air balloon experience, it was one of the best things I did in Africa. Bill Harrop’s Original Balloon experience started with Mary collecting me from my hotel at some ungodly hour (4am ish) and then driving to her property – we were greeted with a beautiful hot cuppa and the other 4 people who I was travelling with in the Balloon together with our pilot. We climbed aboard had our safety brief and was ready for the adventure and watch the sun rise over the Magalies River Valley. It was breathtakingly beautiful experience, I never felt afraid at any point and saw many animals from the air – after we landed (by the way the pilot was amazing) we were treated to a fabulous English breakfast. I would highly recommend this trip for anyone who has some spare time. The hospitality of Mary and Bill was outstanding.
The second part of the day was spent with a remarkable man Tim Smith from WildSide Tours & Safaris. This was a one on one tour in which I had the most incredible experience getting up close and personal with the Elephants. We also visited a safari park, with lions (the one where a woman was killed by a lion). Lions are one of my favorite animals they are truly magnificent, as we are driving through where the lions were sleeping, I wondered how would anyone be so silly to get out of the car or even have their window down. In saying this when we were travelling through in the caged 4 wheel drive with a guide who was very knowledgeable about the lions, one of the men in the group asked the guide to “please can you wake the lions up so I can see they move” – i thought to myself you stupid fool….. there is one in every group.
Overall I had a fantastic time in Joberg – the city itself was a disappointing however I stayed in Sandton which is shaping up to be the new Joberg – The Sandton City Shopping Centre is first class – all the great & exclusive brands – not that I really wanted to do any shopping I much prefered the safari’s.
Reflecting on life! 