Etosha to Sun City
25 October 2004

We got word that our motor was ready in Pretoria and on its way back to Grünau, Namibia. This couldn't be further from the truth, although we weren't to know this yet, and decided to head back to Swakopmund, the coastal resort town where we hired our car, and make our way back to the kombi. But not before checking out the largest meteorite known on planet Earth.

It lies outside of a town called Grootfontein in northern Namibia. It arrived about 80,000 years ago, is made up of at least 82% iron and looks like a great lump of solid steel. It weighs 50 tons, is 3 meters long about a meter wide and over a meter thick. Pondering on this for a while, over a few quiet beers (or quiet a few beers, I can't remember which), as to why it didn't make a crater the size of Namibia itself. (or vaporize on impact). We came to the conclusion that either it was a non crater making meteorite, or that lots and lots of people over the last 80,000 years, had been quietly filling the hole in. Why we're not quiet sure, but can only speculate it has something to do with covering up the evidence of an alien craft believed to be racing it, beat it, and now lies underneath it.

We hit the coast and hand our car back with a 2000 km contribution on the clock for our past 4 days effort.

There's about 2 hours before a bus leaves for the capital, Windhoek. I arrived as it was leaving and boarded however Tom hadn't made it. I figured I'd catch up with him at dirty Harry's (a hostel we'd stayed at before) but just then I see Tom hailing the bus down and hops on. He was at the bank and the teller couldn't find his red pen. Tom, fed up with all the waiting in the bank, yells out "has anyone got this guys red pen" which seemed to help and was able to catch bus.

The bus ride was about 5 hrs and quite comfortable. We had a couple of seats each as it wasn't full. Now about Dirty Harry. A nickname we'd bestowed upon him, mainly because of his stories. He was pleased to see us again and we shared more beers (and stories). We stayed in Windhoek for a couple of days looking around and finding good lunch spots.

Went to a bar called Joe's one night. The most amazing bar I'd seen. The place was huge and full of people and had excellent rustic African decor with thatched roofs on the bars. There were lots of nooks and crannies, ponds with fish and animal trophies all over the place. Tonight wasn't the night to contemplate vegetarianism. Tom ordered zebra and I ordered a tasting plate of zebra, springbok, ostrich, crocodile, kudu, and chicken. All fairly gamely but tender and tasty.

Catching the night bus to Grünau after hearing our motor was stuck at the boarder, although our mechanic would pick it up tonight and install it tomorrow. This bus ride was a little different. It was a double decker that was absolutely chokers. It was a hot night and seemed to be losing ground all the time.

The best was made of the trip and sat up talking through the night. Arrived at 3.30 in the morning and no Kallie (the mechanic), there to greet us as he said he would. So, walked the 2 Ks to the hotel and wake Altus, the owner to get a room. It was the following morning we learnt, that the motor wasn't at the boarder and lost in transit somewhere. Kallie must have felt a bit guilty about the delays and offered his car for our use. We took it and said we'd be back when the motor has been located and installed.

The map was found and saw Sun City a mere 1200 km away, so then and there, throw the bags into this car and head for Sun City- South Africa. Driving through the night, found a place to crash for a few hours and get there by mid morning the next day. Sun City is the playground of the rich and famous for all of Africa and beyond. It is a massive complex of hotel's, golf courses and casinos.

The minimum room was 1500 rand ($400 Aust) and spending a night in the African room would cost a lazy 36,000 rand ($9,000 Aust). Of course everything else as in restaurants bars, watersports etc, were charging like a wounded rhino. Had a good look about the place which went on endlessly. Settled into a poolside bar had a swim and watched the sun go down before checking out the casino. A game of golf was organized (at $200 a head), on the lost city course. An absolutely stunning course, lush green, magnificent waterways, and a pond with over 30 crocodiles to play over.

We had a cart and teamed up with a businessman (deals in phone service contracts), from Jo'burg named Carlos. A nice bloke who we shared a few beers with.
On the third day, we head for Pretoria, the capital of SA. A pretty city with a square and most streets lined with jacaranda trees in full bloom. Had lunch there and move onto Johannesburg, an hour's drive south. A fairly big place this one with over 8 million people. End up at the city center and find a marketplace with hundreds of street stalls. There was a section where girls get their hair braided, stalls selling all sorts of clothing, food, car parts and cosmetics.

There's a volunteer to look after our car while we're away. The country is full of people offering this type of service and expect a payment when you return. Most of the time we don't worry about this but today we got a guy called Titus, who was so attentive we gave him a hefty tip.

Another type person that always seem to get tipped but more by their cunningness, is the service station attendant. Whenever the car is fueled up, they leave it about 20 rand under the nearest 100 mark and its expected that you l! eave them the change. We laugh about this as they do it every time and suspect we don't know. These guys make lots and is a sort after job.

We go and have a look at Soweto, the crime capital of the known world. At lunch time we read in the local paper of 6 rapes that took place on the weekend including 3 under 10 and the others under 15 years old. I say this just to give a feel for this place. Its an over populated black area with angry blacks wanting to get even for being suppressed for so long and seem to be struggling to improve.

We were told not to drive through this area, that there's more than a good chance of getting robbed, our car taken or get shot! Killing happens easily around here. We accidentally did drive through and it was worth seeing first hand. We drove through in the afternoon before all the action happens, it seems. We did see the poverty but no murders or robberies. We left Johannesburg after that. We headed back towards the kombi which took us a day and a half, as the motor had been found and put in. We picked up a new radiator in Uppington, came through a huge storm and got back by nightfall.

Expect to get going in the morning after the radiator is installed, but not so. There was something wrong with the motor, somewhere, but the mechanic didn't know how to fix it. It took another 3 days to eventually find a simple gasket needed to be changed. Meanwhile we borrowed the car again...... Meanwhile it wasn't the gasket, the mechanic had given up or was it we'd given up on him so we drove it up to Windhoek 700kms away. Caught up with Dirty Harry and dropped the kombi off at the vw center.