Adventures to Kruger Park

I headed out on a train to Johannesburg on Friday, April 27th at 10am with Shob. Trains and arrived in Jo’burg at 1pm on Saturday. I decided to take the train as the scenery was suppose to be spectacular and thought it would be a great start to my first adventure outside of Cape Town. In addition this was my first real train ride. I apparently took a train when I was a couple years old…but that doesn’t count as I can’t remember it! It was long 26 hours, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who has the time, just make sure it is one way otherwise it could be grueling. I booked a 4 person sleeper cabin and ended up with only one other person. It would have been crammed, so I am glad it was only one. Her name was Dominique and she is originally from Clarksburg which is approximately 4 hours by train away from Jo’burg. She is 20 years old and is studying to be an Estheticians in Cape Town. It was a delight to have here and she was extremely sweet. Two of my top highlights would have to be a place where we entered into the mountains, it was one of those moments where you expect a train to take you and the beauty of it was spectacular! The other memory is us stopping at a little town right after nightfall and these kids begging for food from outside. This town is in the middle of nowhere…and they truly have nothing or anybody. It isn’t like in a big town where they can sit on the street and people will drop money, they are in the middle of nowhere in which that isn’t an option, so begging when trains stop is what they have to do. Dominique and I looked in our cabins and luggage trying to find any food that we could give them. Unfortunately all we had was junk food…so we threw out a bag of sour jellybeans to these 4 little kids and they devoured the sweets within seconds. If I had known, I would have seriously brought a bag of food for them…so for whoever takes a train next, bring healthy food to give away!

When I got to the train station in Jo’burg I had arranged for the hotel to come pick me up…and 2 hours later they still hadn’t arrived. I called every 15 min in which they kept saying “we are coming now” or “we are coming now, now” yet “now, now” still doesn’t mean NOW apparently. I kept asking if it would be safe to walk and they person on the other line said no, wait we will be there, but after 2 hours I was honestly pissed and headed out the door to walk. The hotel was no more than a mile…but when everyone tells you it isn’t safe, you have to trust them. When I got outside a beggar offered to walk with me to the hotel as I refused to spend R100 for a taxi when the hotel was walking distance. So in and out of all the street vendors we went to find my hotel. The whole time I was praying and holding my luggage that was attached to this vendor in few I might get pick pocketed or him running away with my bags. Normally, I am not too concerned with safety as I feel I can protect myself if necessary, but carrying my camera, binoculars, my passport…there were a lot of valuables that were important for my trip. The beggar got me to the hotel safely; THANK YOU JESUS and I had a small scuffle as he wanted more money than the taxi! At this point it is 3pm and I only had one night in the town before the tour company was going to pick me up. Since it was that late, many things were closed or ending so I couldn’t do much. I wanted to go to the Apartheid museum, but the closed at 5 and it wouldn’t have been enough time to really soak up the information. I had tried to book a massage weeks back but the hotel told me that it wouldn’t be a problem getting one the day of…well 3pm apparently is too late and I couldn’t get a massage. The only option that the concierge could give me was to walk down the street to the Carlson Hotel which has an elevator that will take you 50 stories to “Top of Africa” for a scenic view but that I would have to back by 5pm. Thanks! So off I went to find this hotel and a lovely worker named A.V. walked me around the top and pointed out all the lovely things of Jo’burg. When I got back, one of the hotel workers named Steve took me to the township Soweto for a “true” African dinner. The township is about 20-25 min away and tourists would have had to pay him about R200-R300 each way, but the hotel felt bad and gave it to me for free! So Steve took me, I paid for his dinner, saw Nelson Mandela’s house, and met his friend Watu. Memory from that night was eating dinner and then it started pouring rain, amazing!