Amazing travels

I landed back in London yesterday morning, and am now fully immersed again in overcast skies, laundry, defective Central Line trains, publisher’s rejection letters, social networking, being woken up by the cat and, of course, being back in the office. It’s not all bad though; I’ve been out of touch and have little idea what everybody here has done for the last fortnight. I look forward to rectifying this, as soon as I get time to read through everything.

Johannesburg is initially less alien-looking than I’d expected it to be. The signs/posters are mostly in English, people drive on the left, that sort of thing. You do tend to be hassled at traffic lights (which they call ‘robots’ for some reason) by people trying to sell you junk, or even do funny dances for money, and most houses have big, unfriendly looking fences and gates, which all highlight the massive rich/poor divide, but it certainly didn’t feel like I’d travelled all those thousands of miles from home. Most of the main roads are being dug up or worked on in some way, in preparation for next years football World Cup (this provided a popular conversation topic with all the taxi drivers). Pretty much every night there was lit up by impressive lightning storms.

I met some more of my other half's friends and extended family, as well as seeing the house where she grew up. SA seems like it was (and to a large degree still is) a nice place to live, but I can see how the decreasing job market and rising crime have forced some to leave.

We spent five days inside the enormous Kruger National Park, at which point it suddenly did feel like I was a long way from home. It was incredibly hot out in the bush, and I became ill for one of those days, probably from drinking tap water (which I’d been told was safe). The wildlife is beautiful and I loved seeing all those animals living their normal lives, without cages around them. Safari was a great experience… which, being me, I captured on video. The insects in the bush were a lot more unsettling though, especially at night when they swarm towards any light source. I’m normally okay with bugs, but I began to freak out quite embarrassingly when three inch beetles and six inch millipedes began crawling under the door to invade our holiday hut.

We spent two and a half days in Cape Town, which was also lovely. Jo’burg seems mostly like a bustling city of commerce, while Cape Town has a prettier setting and a more laid back atmosphere, reminding me in some ways of San Francisco. We went up Table Mountain and took a yacht trip around the bay. I booked a session of scuba diving in a cage, to say hi to the great white sharks, but this got cancelled at the last moment, because of strong winds at sea. We instead took a tour of some vineyards in nearby Stellenbosch, and also took a slightly more sobering drive through one of the nearby townships.

Back in Jo’burg again for the last two days, the African summer had taken an unexpected dip into English winter conditions, with biting cold and torrential rain. People seemed to be pretty confused about this. I got a new tattoo done on my forearm, at a place called Kustom Ink; this hadn’t been part of the original plan for the holiday, but I had some spare money left, after the cancellation of my shark diving. We also had a couple of lovely dinners at the Fratelli's restaurant.

And that’s about it. Back to reality and no more trips for me for several months now – possibly Whitby will be the next time I go anywhere, next April (TBC).

I have, unfortunately, had to return straight to work, with only a few hours of sleep, so this will be a hurried update, and maybe a bit of a shambles, but I’ll try and post another one later with photos and stuff.

* Depeche Mode were great. Needless to say, they’re huge in eastern Europe and the atmosphere was terrific. Unfortunately, it was in an open-air athletics stadium (Puskas Ferenc, I think) and, two songs into the set, the heavens opened, and Paul and I left the gig looking like we’d been swimming in the Danube. I didn’t care though… it was a warm evening and I’d been on the Jaegermeister since lunch time.

* There was a DM Afterparty at the Retropolis night club, which we also went to. I even did karaoke there, much to my shame - normally, you wouldn’t get me anywhere near that, but I was a bit too trashed to care by that time, and I reasoned that at least I wouldn’t be able to understand the heckles I received! Had a bit of a dance. The Hungarian goth/DM/electronica/eighties crowd seem friendly.

* We had some excellent food at the recently refurbished Lukács Cukrászda on Andrassy Street.

* As an unexpected bonus, after hooking up with my other friends in Buda, I also got to watch a second gig; metal band Prong were playing the night after DM, at a grungy alternative bar (unfortunately, I forget the name of the place). I used to listen to Prong as a teenager and it was great to hear some of their old songs... I must dig out that album when I get back home!

* We explored the newly opened Hospital In The Rock museum built in caves within the Buda Hills. Morbidly interesting stuff - it looks like they could use the place as a great film set! They were selling lots of antique medical instruments, which I’d love to own, but probably wouldn’t have been allowed to carry in my luggage.

* I arrived back in London early this morning, after our flight to Gatwick was delayed by mechanical problems. Slightly surprised upon landing, to hear that Michael Jackson’s dead - a kind of wave of hysteria spread through the plane, as people started to switch their phones/blackberries back on after landing and saw the headlines. Then we learned Farah Fawcett was gone too, to which a few people made grunts and ‘meh’ sounds. I crashed at my parent’s place, as it was far too late to contemplate getting to Wood Green.