Last we left you, we were in Windhoek. While we were there we acquired information regarding Ania’s Visa application for Malawi. Instead of obtaining it in CapeTown like we’d hoped, we had to leave the Truck & journey to Johannesburg. We caught an overnight bus lasting 26 hours from Windhoek to Jo’Burg. Once there we stayed at the ‘Backpackers Ritz’ which is in a lovely part of the city. We had been told to keep our eyes & ears peeled while in Jo’Burg, as the city can often present challenging issues for the unwary traveller. Our first impressions of this city were very positive. We spent most of our time trying to source a way to obtain Ania’s Visa quickly, however the Malawian Embassy was proving hard to track down. First the address we had was incorrect, then they had a country holiday meaning the Embassy wasn’t open. This was going to set us back a few days considering the application process was reported to be at least 10 working days & we had arrived on the start of a weekend! Since there wasn’t much we could do, we decided to enjoy some of the things Jo’Burg had to offer. A SOWETO township tour was the first experience we embarked upon, and what an adventure that was too! Our guide was a very enthusiastic guy called Max. He had been born & breed within the township, and the stories he had to tell! SOWETO is larger than we thought, and has greatly improved since the days of apartheid. Most people now own their homes, the streets are all paved, and the area now has modern shopping malls not to mention 2 of the stadiums to be used in the 2010 Football World Cup! We were taken to Mandela’s old house which is on Vilakazi Street, just up the road from Desmond Tutu’s place. This is the only street in the world in which 2 Nobel Peace Prize winners have lived! We also visited the Hector Pietersen museum, which is an exhibition reviewing the years of apartheid, but also that tragic day in July 1977, when what was meant to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent street riot. We finished the tour with a beer or two in a local bar – which is actually someone’s private garage turned into a pool table room serving beers! Our next foray was something of the nature kind, we were off to Lion Park! This was a nifty little morning trip, where we were able to encounter for the first time these Big Cats, not to mention Zebras, Giraffes, Ostriches, Impala, Cheetahs & Hyenas! We we

re also allowed into a small enclosure where we could play with 3-4 month old lion cubs! Needless to say many photos were taken!!! We spent the remainder of our weekend in between shopping malls, & watching movies. This wasn’t due to the fact that we lacked desire to discover more, but because, for the first time on the trip, both of us were suffering a major stomach bug! We would only eventually recover from this just before we entered CapeTown. The start of the week brought renewed hope re: Ania’s Visa. Upon spending an hour or so at the Malawian Embassy, we were informed that Ania’s application would be processed in 24 hours, which was Fantastic. This enabled us to leave Jo’Burg the following evening via another coach, and catch up with our truck in Jeffreys Bay, just before the Garden Route!