29.03.2013 Ladybrand and Lesotho

Shortly after our arrival we were lucky enough to be hit with a four day Easter weekend. Unfortunately we hadn't actually taken into consideration that pretty much everyone in the country was planning a holiday that weekend too. Four days before the big hols, I managed to book us into one of the last available places in a guesthouse all the way down in Ladybrand on the border with Lesotho. Yes, at last - road trip!

Rainbow on the long road through Free State

Somehow we had the idea that Ladybrand would be about 3.5hours drive away. Not quite. As it turned out it was 5 hours straight across the whole Free State. And so we arrived in the dark once again, luckily at least the Chinese takeaway was still open.

Sunset at a Free State truck stop

After a good solid sleep in the Top House B and B, followed by an excellent breakfast we inquired about getting to Lesotho. Again we were slightly mis-advised, 'there's a beautiful waterfall near the dam, you can drive there in 2hours'. Yeah right, try more like 4 hours. We never did get to that waterfall.

Lesotho

So back to Lesotho. After a week in Sandton (probably Africa's wealthiest suburb), Lesotho's capital Maseru was a complete contrast. This is a very poor country. About 40% of the people here live below the international poverty line and the majority of the population live in rural communities with few amenities. The border is very straight-forward though (just bring your own pen!) and South African Rand are happily accepted everywhere, so from that angle this is very easy African travel.

God Help Me Pass

Maseru is not worth stopping by for tourists so we just drove straight through and headed for the mountains. For at least the first half an hour on the winding roads up the mountains I was convinced something was going to go wrong and it would all suddenly turn to dirt track. But it didn't. Lesotho in fact has some of the best roads in Africa. They were built by the Highlands Dam Project to help access the huge dams built up in the mountains which provide neighbouring South Africa with water and power.

Unfortunately it was raining during our trip to Lesotho, so we missed the full extent of the beautiful mountains here, but certainly this is a real 'wow' place. The 'Roof of Southern Africa' as our guesthouse owner called it. Just 2 million people populate the 'mountain kingdom' and 80% of the land is over 1,800metres high up. Towns and villages here consist largely of small round thatched roof huts and there's a genuine sense of unspoilt beauty.

I'd love to come back when the sun is out.

Mountain Kingdom

Ladybrand

Back in Ladybrand we spend the evening at the local Italian restaurant and bar which happily enough was populated by a very mixed clientèle of friendly black and white youngsters hanging out together. Free State has a reputation for being a bit red neck so here was some great stereotype busting going on. We were also going to investigate further and head for the incredibly loud nightclub in the back of the chicken shop, but in the end we thought better of it.

On Easter Sunday we thought it would be a good idea to go catch the Easter service. We went to the local Anglican church and again the congregation was very mixed with an even smattering of young, old, black and white.

St James's Anglican Church, Ladybrand

Now I'm not a particularly religious person and I still consider myself as a bit of an agnostic, however, this service really genuinely moved me into floods of tears. The music was modern Christian stuff and people were all singing and praying as they wished (hands in the air, holding hands, hands on hearts, heads down in prayer, on their knees etc). The priest was an incredibly charismatic man who told some very moving stories and put a magical spin on the Easter story. I loved it. Nothing like a spiritual experience to add something special to a weekend away.

With the rain gone and the sun out we spent the rest of the day clambering up a nearby rocky boulder hill and lying on the plateau on top chilling. Unfortunately pretty much all the photos I took of Ladybrand and it's strange wandering horses, colourfully dressed church-goers and the nightclub in the back of a chicken shop, got destroyed when a few days later wine was spilled all over the laptop. Doh!

Looking out over Ladybrand

Verdict: Top House gets full marks. The owners were lovely and accommodation was very comfortable. Ladybrand is no destination in itself but much preferable to staying in Maseru. If you want to drive down and really see Lesotho, you would do well to give it a week. And come when it is not raining. 

04.2013 The Carlton Centre - Roof of Africa

Right in the centre of downtown Johannesburg stands Africa’s tallest building, the foreboding 222 metre high Carlton Centre. For 15R (about 1 pound) you can ride the lifts up to the 50th floor to the Roof of Africa viewing level (the ticket office is in the lower part of the shopping centre in the building’s base - just ask someone, it’s not obvious where it is). From way up here on a clear day you can see 30km or more out over the Gauteng area and get a feel for the incredible number of skyscrapers in downtown Joburg, and for the huge size of the indistinct sprawl of green suburbs which spreads out from it. The view of all the lights at night must be incredible, but alas nobody visits downtown after dark and even if they did it wouldn’t be open anyway (closes at 18:00). 

Back in the 1970s this building and the huge (now closed) Carlton hotel next door were the most prestigious in the city, full of imposing gold-rush city wealth and success – and even a sky-high ice-rink of all things. I like how the local writer and novelist Christopher Hope put it;

‘We boasted about the Carlton - it was said to be the greatest concrete erection in the world - another triumph attributed to those razzle-dazzle boys who ran the town…See how the knee bends, the head bows at the magical invocation of true, ingot-dripping, bullion-loaded dazzle.’

Nowadays, the building looks dated and a bit skuzzy at the edges, while the hotel next door is empty and closed. The state monopoly Transnet (which runs all of South Africa’s freight movement), has the Carlton Centre as its HQ, while other floors are occupied by civil servants. Meanwhile in the basement levels a lively mall has sprung up and the occasional tourist like yours truly makes the journey 50 floors up to join a handful of others in gazing out over this strange and intriguing city.

How I got there: We walked to the Carlton Centre from Park Station following the grid system down Rissik Street and then along Commissioner Street. That’s a 25plus minute walk at African pace, but you do get a feel for the irresistible buzz of downtown street life along the way. Alternatively you can also take the lazy slow route and hop on the Rea Vaya bus from in front of Park Station (be aware that buses do not run regularly at weekends).

04.2013 - Graffiti - Maboneng and Troyeville

City of Gold Festival 2013



Johannesburg recently held a week long ‘graffiti festival’ called the City of Gold Festival. As an art form, graffiti seems the kind of thing which doesn’t really suit itself well to something formal like a festival. For that reason the largest part of the event took the form of film screenings and talks. As for the actual on-street graffiti side of things a few huge walls (this city is full of huge walls) were designated as massive canvases for local street artists and a few international visitors to make their mark.

The best way to find your way around these ‘exhibits’ of course is on foot and with a guide who knows where this stuff actually is. The fantastic girls at Past Experiences were organising a graffiti tour and for 120R and I was very excited to join my first Joburg walking tour.

Maboneng



Maboneng

The tour started at a tiny little street café called Uncle Merv’s in a very attractive inner-city area of about 4 blocks called Maboneng. The Maboneng area is all owned by one guy who bought up a bunch of old warehouse buildings and then was determined to get the city’s cultural movers and shakers in and get gentrifying. If you think about it too much it’s a strange kind of place, but all-in-all it's still instantly attractive and a generally hip part of town. Packed with stylish, characterful cafes and bars, friendly faces and all very clean and very safe - it's a good idea well-executed. 


3 blocks from Uncle Merv's

The odd aspect (for me) is the contrast between the blocks around Maboneng and the area itself. There are no big walls or gates, but somehow the slightly rundown and gritty air of the rest of downtown is conspicuously absent. On the same street you’ve got some very fashionable warehouse flats and slick cafes and literally just around the corner it’s all derelict buildings and overflowing rubbish bins. Somehow there’s still no in-between ground. All extremely high contrast. I guess that’s a Johannesburg thing.

Uncle Merv's

This crazy eye is made from pebbles

Love monsters

 Troyeville

From Maboneng we began our walk straight up Commissioner Street into an area called Troyeville. Along the way we saw some murals which had been painted during a previous street art festival, controversially not by locals but by famous international street artists. Controversy aside, I still thought some of them were really interesting.

Troyeville is historically an area where new migrants to the city first set themselves up before finding their way into other parts of town and is one of the oldest districts in Johannesburg. Sadly over the years serious neglect has fallen upon the area’s historic houses. According to our guides, the locals actually really like what the city’s street artists are doing with their walls - it adds colour and life to the concrete jungle and brings art into their lives. The artists for their part of course love that Troyeville has embraced what they are doing and appreciates their art and many artists have actually decided to move into the area themselves. Win, win situation.

At one point, walking down one of the quiet pedestrianised backstreets of the area, we came across an awesome piece which had just been done by a group from Reunion Island as part of the festival. We bumped into 3 guys there who live in the building and they all agreed that it was pretty darn cool (see below).

Artists in action

Back over towards the Maboneng area and heading for the end of our tour we were lucky to find some of the City of Gold artists in action. Four artists, three of them South African and one from the UK, had been given a huge wall to do with as they wished. Their works didn’t really correspond with each other in any particular way, although according to the British guy he had been told that the local guys like to use bright colours so had thought through his own palette accordingly. Watching people paint is admittedly not hugely interesting, but seeing how they manage the scale of what they are working with was definitely impressive.

 

Now I have to admit that I was first more attracted to this tour because I thought it would help me with my street confidence to be shown around the areas around the CBD which I would be too afraid to venture into by myself as a newbie. I also thought, 'ah I'd prefer to be taking my camera out in company' (safety in numbers and all that). The graffiti and its purpose was something I hadn't really considered too much.

However, seeing the reaction of locals to the artists on their streets and witnessing how huge pieces of colourful graffiti in public spaces (rather than on the side of railway lines or on motorway flyovers) are actually embraced by the people who live there…well it put a new spin on things for me. What these guys are doing is not just marking their space and having fun. In this city of high walls and peeling paint, this form of street art is genuinely contributing to the better enjoyment of the inner-city for its residents.
 

Waiting by Faith 47 (bottom left corner)

HOW I GOT THERE: On the way there I took the Rea Vaya circle route (C3) bus from outside Park Station to the Carlton Centre and walked about 6/7 blocks (20mins walk) straight down Commisioner Street to the Maboneng area. Returning I was introduced to the easier mini-bus option (index finger up to head back into town). It runs along Main Street before crossing Rissik Street (from where you can walk to the Gautrain or get the Rea Vaya) and ends at the Bree Street minibus mega terminus.
 

24.03.2013 We arrived! What are we doing here?

Almost exactly one year after my husband applied for a new editor job at Bloomberg in South Africa, we finally arrived to start our new life in Johannesburg.

 When you are an expat people always like to ask you why you decided to up sticks and start anew abroad. Well for us it was a combination of needing to escape the chaotic Russian life (and the brutal Russian winters) after many years and seeking new opportunities in other exciting emerging markets where English is the official language and the sun shines a lot.

Getting drunk after picking up the visas in London - finally!

It took us so long to finally move largely because the South African visa system is very complicated (and I'm saying that knowing the Russian system, which expats constantly moan about). It takes a long time to get a work permit approved here (if you get it approved at all). My husband left his old job in June 2012 and took the summer off before starting at Bloomberg in October. In the meantime we prepared to apply for the visa in Moscow and track down an insane amount of documents. By January 2013 our initial visa application had finally been rejected by the Moscow Embassy and I’d left my job at In Your Pocket guides. So we huddled down in Edinburgh, Scotland while my husband worked out of the office there and we reapplied for the visa in London.

Suddenly in mid-March our visas had been approved, our belongings had been shipped off and we were on the next (business class - niiice) flight to OR Tambo.

Alright, I know I look like a total dork here, but it was really fun being in the business class. Seat goes up, seat goes down. Seat goes up...endless entertainment. Also cold beers in a real glass, nice touch

Now we are here, there’s a lot to get used to. For me it’s mostly strange not knowing my way around. Having spent years writing about tourism, entertainment and leisure in Moscow and St. Petersburg I had a street knowledge far better than the average taxi driver. Now I am back at square one and really struggling with the inner distance calculator, not to mention the street names and areas. Joburg is a sprawling city, and much of it is devoid of major landmarks to keep you on your way. Public transport is tricky (more on that later) and of course half the time I don’t really know exactly where I want to go anyway.

Another incredible sunset from the balcony

The easiest things of course to get used to are the weather and the people. The weather is gloriously sunny and warm (especially after winter in Europe) and the locals are almost all approachable, friendly and helpful. People walk at what I like to call ‘African pace’ - i.e not too fast at all, which suits me perfectly and wine is especially cheap and good. The sunsets are gorgeous and fantastic nature and wide open space are all within easy access...I could go on and on

No question there’s a lot to like here and I am sure once we have the home, transport, friends and social life sorted out, not to mention a job for poor old unemployed expat wifey me, we are going to love this place. 

 

Feeling pretty darn lucky to be here!