Sunrise and Sunset

I think I mentioned before how early it gets dark here. Sunset is at 5.30pm.

"Yeh, but it is their winter" you are thinking.

Well, true it is the heart of winter now. But even in their warmest month (january), sunset is at 7pm!

Basically we are still pretty close the the equator here, so the differences in times between day and night are pretty constant, whatever time of the year (i.e. about 12 hours daylight always).

Which takes some getting used to. I remember being in Capetown in October (dark just before 7), and you are so used to summer == long nights to do stuff, that it keeps surprising you when it is dark so early.

Quite a lot of folk seem to start work early all year round (and schools start early), so you get a bit of daylight to do stuff at the end of the day. But it is still a far far shorter day than we are used to getting in our summer... for example, length of day in the UK just now is 16 1/2 hours.

It sort of affects everything you can do, when 6 months of the year you are used to an extra 4 hours of daylight at the end of your working day (even if the weather is rubbish it is still light) which they just never get.

Change of plan

Right, so with stops on the bike, etc you are talking a 12 hour trip there, and a 12 hour trip back.

Which is totally mental. It's mental in a car even with 2 folk to share the driving. It's insane on a bike.

So I have chickened out and booked a flight direct joburg to richards bay. get there saturday 10am, leave at 1600 on the sunday.

Aileen (my neice) has went back to Varsity near Durban so I'll have to drive 100 miles or so down to there to see her either saturday or sunday, so I will see about hiring a bike in Richards bay to do that as it looks like a cool drive down the coast. But failing that, I'll get a hire car.

Even then it will be a 200 mile round trip.. so say 4 hours driving. So that's a nice amount for biking.

Dunno if I'll be able to hire a bike in Richards bay though. But I can but try.

Hmm.. it's a long long way to ...

Funny how you look at Africa, and yer sub concious I reckon changes it to 'britain'. So you look at pretoria to Durban and think: aye, thats like london to Brighton.

And you see 600Km but it's km so it doesn't mean much anyhoo.

Oh, and I need to go to Richards Bay, not Durban.. which is another 100 miles up the coast.

According to Brabys Road Map, it is gonna take 9 1/2 hours.

http://tinyurl.com/5d67g3

which is quite a way to drive in a day in any vehicle.. never mind an Enduru Dakar motorbike.

So.. having second thoughts that I have bitten off more than I can chew here tbh.

I'll need to work through it tonight I think.. but I am thinking that 10 hours each way is a bloody long way.. possibly too long to do in 2 days on a bike... might need to think again.

Bungie Swing

The blokes at SARS think I'm a bit of a nutter with the biking thing. Plus, I suppose, the fact that last time I was here I jumped out a plane.

So one of them showed me something they thought I might like to try today...

Aparently quite closeby there is a closed powerstation that has 2 of those massive concrete water towers.. you know the ones you see with steam coming out them sometimes ?

Well some bright spark has run a steel cable between the tops of them, about 200m apart.

And half way between the 2, at 400 feet high, attached a rope and seat...

so you climb up one tower, grab hold of the rope, and jump of the tower... and feel like you are going to die, until you start swinging all the way over to the other tower, and back again.

Not particularly clear to me how you are supposed to get off right enough.. maybe there is a lake in the middle and you jump or something.

Anyway, if the biking doesn't come off, that will be a definate.

Bikes

Looked into the bike hire a bit today. There is a company half way between here and Joburg that do a BMW 650GS for 1600R for the weekend (aboot 110 quid).

So plan is to try and get that delivered to the hotel friday evening so I can get an early dawn start on saturday.

This assumes I go to Durban. I've sent my aunt an email, so I'll have to wait and see if it is convienient for that weekend. If not though, I'll still have the bike and go down to the national parks.. I reckon it will be well cool to drive through the national parks on a bike.. loads of great scenery and wildlife... clearly I'll have to be a bit more careful about where I stop than when in a car if I want to avoid getting eaten by lions or stomped by elephants, but will be a larf anyhoo.

Security

Just sitting in the bar with the laptop here while my room is cleaned (they forgot to do it today...)

The Sheraton in Pretoria is the sort of best big hotel in Pretoria, so because of that and the fact that Pretoria is the governmental capital of SA (and the embassies, etc are here) it tends to be the place all the world leaders, ambassadors, etc stay when they are here.

I think something or other must be on this week, as the hotel is fully booked.

I've been watching them set up a conference room at the end of the corridor opposite the bar.. security folk, etc all setting up... so they have this security metal detector thing.. you know the sort of doorway thing, folk have to walk through and it beeps if it detects metal, etc...

So they set it up in the middle of the corridor in readiness for the conference delegates.

They spend the next 10 minutes testing it by walking through it again and again with various metal objects... so talking it all seriously.

Finally, the staff all arrive (20+ people) and need to get in. So.. the security guard has a bit of a brain wave and clearly thinks:

"hold on, this security barrier will hold up all the staff, so I'll just lift it up and move it to the side so they can all get in".

Once they all pass, they put the barrier back up.

class.

Out to SA again!

Well, writing this from the BA executive lounge in T5 Heathrow. It's pretty special. Terminal deserted, and no queues at security.. obviously no flights on sat nights ? Anyway, 2 big lounges each end of the massive glass building for us business types :-) Really nice facilities.. every wine and spirit, beer and fruit juice under the sun..except champers.. no bloody champers.. I think I will complain.. Nice fresh sandwiches, soups, etc. Top nosh.

So now got a couple of hours to kill before the departure, so sitting in a sofa typing this on the free PCs with a glass of chablis.

I notice Gordon Ramsay has a restuarant here. It was empty. But then again, the whole place is empty.. I've never been in an airport during the day when it is so quiet. very weird.

Just watched an AirIran plane take off... could this be a connected fact ?

So, Im off to Joburg/Pretoria for another 3 weeks. 2 weekends to do summit or other... after crashing and burning on the sky diving, I have been thinking of something else I can do.. and today it came to me!

I have an aunt in Durban, which is about 650km away from Joburg on the east cape coast.

I was originally thinking of flying down, but it would be a bit much to go down for the whole weekend in Durban with my aunt and uncle.

Then it struck me... if Mr McGregor can do it, so can I !

Long way round it may not be, but I can still have 2 mini-weekend biking adventures.

So, the plan is to hire a BMW motorcycle (same one as he used) for the weekend, and blat down to Durban, see my aunt, uncle and neice, and then blat back.. so about 1200km in 2 days. Which, if you are a biker you will know is a lot of miles. An awful lot of miles.

But it will take me through the Zula Natal, through some amazing scenery I'd miss in a plane.

Assuming I am still alive, the next weekend, the plan will be to hire a bike again, but this time go to some of the national parks and see some wildlife on the bike.

I've brought my HD video camera, and my bridgeSLR, so I am all gadgeted up to take some good footage. I've even brought my satnav with SA maps, so I won't get too lost.

I've got a seperate bag with my helmet, gloves and leathers in.

Let the adventure begin!

Comin' Home

Well, fly back tonight. Was hoping to get a lie by the pool today, but it is crappy weather, so thats knocked that on the head. Maybe go shopping, but since I'll be back now in 3 weeks, there doesn't seem the urgency to stock up on cheap stuff anymore!

Here's a piccie showing football is big everywhere:



I was just looking at my hotel key... wonder if anyone else noticed that maybe the swastika pattern wasn't the best design choice:

Relaxin' at the Hotel Pool

Well, that's it for the weekend I think.

Tomorrow is the holiday I was telling you about, so I'll just work from my hotel room. Should be ok. Might have an extended lunch and get some rays if it's sunny.

The hotel pool is even colder than the sky diving one, but all the better for it.. a few dives in did me the world of good. Though I reckon if you tried to stay in for more than 5 minutes you'd have hypothermia.

The drive though sex shop

Had to get a picture of this, just in case folk didn't believe me.

Go Kartin!

On the way back from my walk, I found a gokart track in the basement of the building opposite the hotel !

It's just a smallish track, but not too bad. Only R60 for 22 laps (aboot 4 quid) so had a go.

Anyway, ended up getting one of their fastest times. Just call me Stu-Coultard-Smith.

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Beggars

There are quite a few beggars on the street. Most have some sort of disability. A bit like in Egypt where that was the case. Whereas in the UK they just seem to be mostly hippies. Maybe there is no disability payments here. I dunno. Anyhoo, gave her some cash.

Breakie

Wimpey are over here! It's stuff like Wimpey that make you realise the strong historical connection SA has with Britain. Wee things too, like they have fish and chip shops (have you seen a fish and chip shop anywhere outside the UK?). I asked for tomato ketchup with my meal (sort of hedging my bets between USA 'ketchup' and uk 'sauce').. didn't know what I was talking about.. "oh.. do you mean tomato sauce".. again, just like the UK.

Had a wee breakfast and a nice coffee. Total less than 2 quid.



Here is a picture of downtown Pretoria:

Stalls

Most streets have wee stalls that folk run. Sort of informal market stalls, but they look like they are probably permanent structures.

It's good to see the old singer manual sewing machines still in use! - loads of these around the street corners, offering sewing, etc: "curtains made from material: 18 rand" (about a quid), etc

Sunday in Pretoria

Quite day today. Got up and went for a wander downtown. The hotel staff advised against it, but I figured they were just being pussies. None the less, I left my passport and wallet, etc in the hotel , and hit my money in a sock down my pants.

Walked around the downtown shops and stall for an hour or so. Counted 2 whites in all that time (100s of blacks). Still, I am sure I blended in with my shades, camera and shorts and t-shirts while they went around with parkers and woollen hats on.. they probably just took me for a local. Master of disguise, that's me.



I've never seen as many bloody hair dressers in my life. Every other shop is a frecking hair dressers. If it isn't a hair dressers, it's either a sex shop, a pub or a church. The churches are just 'shops' in amongst the other shops (see piccy). Being sunday, obviously they were full and in full gospel mode.



Never had any bother from anyone. Clearly my disguise worked. :-)

White's Only

No, not really. But clearly sky diving is a sport for the 'white man' as far as I can make out. Much like cape town, the only black faces to be seen at the club were the guys cutting the grass.

Giving it a miss

So, we had a debrief of my level 3. Although generally happy with my stablity, etc the instructor was concerned that I didn't check my alti enough (or at least she couldn't see I was).

So, they wanted me to then start from level 5.

Level 5, 6 and 7 require one instructor rather than 2, but still cost R1000 (60 quid) a jump.

After them I'd then have my 2 sky dive solos again (level 8 and 9), then a final 'hop and pop' where you jump out the plane at 4500 feet and deploy immediately to show you can do this if there is an emergency.

Anyway, there is no way I am going to have time to do 6 more jumps. They were going to struggle to fit one more in today, and that would only leave sunday.

I really don't see the point of me doing levels 5+ again. Sure if I was going to take the sport up and continue, but I'm not. I prefer paramotoring.

So, all I'd achieve is being 200 quid lighter just to get to the point of doing a solo.

I think it would be worth it if I hadn't done a solo before, but since I got 2 nice solos in last time at Cape town, I feel there is nothing to be gained by continuing through the course again.

So, for now anyway, thats the end of the sky diving. until next time....

Well, when I got back I was still feeling a bit woozy, so I decided the best thing was to strip down to my scants, and jump in the freezing (empty) pool.

ah! just what I needed. though the locals thought I was mental.

Let's Sky Dive

Well, I spent a few hours getting some refresher training with the instructor. They decided I should do a level 3 sky dive to start. Even though my last jump was a level 9, it was 18 months ago, and the rules say that for 'currency' you need to do a level 3 refresher. This is a jump with 2 instructors from 11K (so expensive.. aboot 100 quid), they keep you stable and then they try to release you, and you show you can remain stable, then do a 90 degree turn to the left.

At 5000 feet you pull.

The plane was a lot bigger and faster than the wee cessnas I was used to. There were 10 of us crammed inside. We all sit on the floor inside (no seats). I was stuffed in at the front facing backwards. All I could see was the end of the plane.

I'm not a very good backseat passenger in a car or train if I can't see where I am going and have external reference to my surroundings.. After take off the thing shot up into the air at about 45 degrees and started bumping around, and all I can see is the inside of the back of the plane...

Anyway, suddenly I'm sweating like a paedo in a playground. I can hear my ears buzzing that way they go when you are going faint, and I feel as if I'm about to be sick.

Not stress/nervousness I don't think, just not being able to see anything. Anyway, got through the first safety checks but by 5000 feet I was really feeling like I was going to be sick. The instructors were looking at each other, and clearly about to abort it all.

Bugger that, so I told them I was all better, and ran through all the jump rehersal (though still not sure how I avoided being sick). I figured I'd probably be ok once I jumped out.

We got to 11K, and got out of the door (you stand up in the door with your head out of the door in the airstream, check with the instructors (one either side) and then jump out in a star shape (your stable arch position).

I did this and got stable right away, however my left instructor was no where to be seen.

I checked with my right and was going to continue with the dive, then I saw the left instructor below me, making back up to join, so waited for her.

Once ready, I did my instructor checks, my practice touches (where you check you can find the pull), and then did my 90 fine. I shouted no more work at 6000 feet, and pulled at 5000. Chute came out fine, and after doing a flare, and 2 360s to test it flies ok, I glided down.

Still feeling like I was going to puke up at any minute I might add.

Anyway, with the competition on, I had to pilot my chute around the competitors, avoid the busy runways and helicopters, and land safe. That went fine, landed on my feet and level 3 complete.

However, I can't say I enjoyed it much, though I imagine the sickness didn't help.