South Africa - the other Africa

My small rental car, South Africa

Well, the last 3 1/2 weeks, I spent in South Africa. 2009, I did not visit South Africa; also I did not go to Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Already at that time, I thought, this might be good for another trip.
South Africa is definitively different from all the other countries of Africa, I have visited. Very European, very organized, lots of street signs (almost as many as in Germany), everywhere white folks (locals and tourists), good streets, stylish hotels and hostels, townships, where mainly black people live, but there are also white beggars. South Africa is different.

South Africa has great landscapes and gigantic national parks with lots of animals. It is a beautiful country. For me it is also an approach to Europe. Also, when it comes to temperature, there are a lot of extremes. Capetown suffered from extreme cold - and with extremely I mean extremely - I speak of snow and gigantic hailstones! Not funny at all....

But I started my trip through South Africa in Johannesburg. This is also worth to mention. Not, because it is a nice place, but because I got lost in this gigantic town several times. The bus from Zimbabwe arrived at Park Street, and exactly there my car rental station had an office. How practically! However, hmmm - is right in the middle of town. That is - the streets are in five lanes. One in each direction for sure.   And the traffic - well, that is not so much European. Besides, on the wrong side - left hand side!!!! The lady in the rental station, explained, how to go to Nelspruit. She said it would be easy... IT IS NOT!
It took only one wrong turn - and I ended up in a kind of highway. Only a few exits - then I was almost in Pretoria. Okay, back to town - I knew that I had to watch out for N12. I was very happy, when I found it, but - I did not pay attention and, unfortunately, took the wrong direction. It took a while, but when I saw the exit to Soweto, I knew, this is not a good sign... As this is on the other, wrong side of Joh´burg....
A nice Indian helped me out and drew a simple map. This little map was great and I was able to beat bloody Joh´burg. The whole thing cost me 2 1/2 hours of my life, plus a whole bundle of nerves!!!!!
In Nelspruit, I found myself having problems to find my Hostel. Then, I decided to buy a navigation system!!! I simply cannot do everything at the same time - driving on the left, keeping an eye on the traffic on several tracks, finding street names and studying the map.
In a gigantic shopping mall in Nelspruit, I found a Tom Tom. These navigation systems are not so expensive here at all - 70 euros. The rent for 3 1/2 weeks would have come on 120 euros. Well, and maybe, I can find someone in Namibia or in Germany, who might be interested in buying something like this...