Summary:
The Southern Africa leg of the journey commences and ends in Johannesburg. We arrived in August and, mainly because of the weather, we headed fairly quickly across the country towards Namibia planning to return later after a loop around southern Africa - likely in November we thought. We had a few days in Jo'burg getting over our jetlag and getting organised. We stayed in Melville and didn't wander too far, a day spent walking to Sophiatown and visiting the cultural centre was a highlight. Morning Coffee on the "Cafe-styled village" that is Seventh Avenue helped us gently transition.
Then we hired a car and drove west across the Kalaharim, stopping overnight in Kuruman and doing then taking a side trip to the Aufgrabies falls before dropping the car off in Upington then getting an overnight bus to Windhoek in Namibia .
Johannesburg:
We arrived at JNB on Monday after two long, but relatively comfortable connecting flights (the cheapest ticket was with Etihad via Abu Dhabi). My previous arrival that airport around ten years ealier had been incredibly chaotic and annoyingly slow in unbearable heat so we organised a pick up by the guest house. Arrivals processing was much smoother this time. Arriving at the guest house however we discovered that the room we had booked had instead been given to a prospectively long-term tennant who had arrived the day before and we had rebooked us somewhere else. It turned out OK. The driver took us to another place that the owners had organised, they gave us what was supposedly a better room at the same price we had agreed. It was OK, pretty ordinary place, and seemed a bit expensive for what it was, but it worked out OK.
We spent the first couple of days around Jo'burg staying in Melville. We will be back in Jo'burg later so we just used the time to get over our jetlag and start changing some of our bad "suburban lifestyle" habits. One afternoon was spent walking on a small part of the Melville Koppies; We visited Seventh Avenue for our morning coffee and we had an interesting day in Sophiatown - including a visit to the cultural / heritage centre. I became interested in it's history after reading an excerpt of Marlene Van Niekerk's book Triomf during a literature course. The cultural centre was interesting enough, apparently they have jazz there once a month and it would have been nice to have visited, but the timing didn't work out. We had a guide to some significant sites and did a self guided walking tour. Sadly the historically and culturally significant Oak tree in Bertha Street had died in 2009.
Weather was dictating our itinerary, so we decided to head west across the Kalahari to get quickly to Namibia so it would still be dry season in Etosha. The bus timetable was against against us so we picked up a hire car and hit the road.
To Kuruman:
We drove across to the Northern Cape, stopping in Kuruman and Upington. The place we stayed in Kuruman was pretty nice, though expensive - it was called "the hedge". We were welcomed like long lost friends and introduced to everyone as if they had been waiting for us to join them. But after the inroduction everything went quiet and we went back to our room. A very mediocre dinner in a too expensive motel restaurant. We did a pleasant walk around a lake in the centre of town called the Kuruman "eye" in the morning.
A friend from home had some contacts nearby that were involved in a foundation, but again we couldn't get the timing right and drove straight past. A missed opportunity as it turned out - the first of many.
To Upington:
A very pleasant day's drive to Upington/ We stayed the first night across the river in a sprawling government run camping ground in pretty basic self contained "cabins". For reasons I can't explain I couldn't get comfortable and couldn't sleep - so we just stayed the one night and headed off to Aufgrabies falls the next day. We gave the car back in Upington so had a second day there after the falls. This time we stayed in a funny garden roundhouse. The couple who owned the place were pleasant and treated us well, but they complained about how expensive things were now and how nothing was quite as good as it used to be (before the end of Apartheid one assumes).
Aufgrabies Falls:
We stayed in grand sweeping lodge nearby whose grandeur was long past. We drove out to the falls national park and did two of the walking trails - the first was overgrown and lush along a creek, the second rocky along the ridge of the falls with some spectacular views. Highly recommended.