Trip to Southern Africa ... an adventure of a lifetime.. summer 1992

 This trip was (unbelievably) thirty years ago and many exact dates and some details have been forgotten but I hope to give a general overview.

My travelling companion for the next 8 weeks in Africa was Paul Slack my best friend at six form college. He originates from South Africa and still had relatives and friends in South Africa , Zimbabwe and Malawi. We also planned to visit my Uncle Ray who lived in Zimbabwe.  

 Flight London Heathrow to Johannesburg. Approx. 10 hours. 

Two memories I have of this long flight.

1. Flying over the Sahara desert and seeing many crescent shaped sand dunes. The Sahara seemed to go on and on.

2. Looking east out of the plane window to see the enormous snow coloured mount Kilimanjaro. 

When we arrived at Joburg we stayed at Barry's house. Barry was a good friend of Pauls from school. Driving from the airport to Barry's it was getting dark  I remember in the dusk seeing bare coppys or hills poking above the city and as it got dark many streetlights and houselights stretching into the distance on the hillsides. It was late when we got to Barry's parents house and Paul and I were given use of the " granny bungalow" in the back garden. Quite a nice size bungalow. We both crashed down into our beds and went straight to sleep.

Next morning I was surprised as I stepped out of the door of the bungalow to see .... frost !! This was this last thing I expected to see on my first morning in Africa ! Johannesburg is surprisingly high above sea level (1,753 Meters ... higher than Ben Nevis)  and not forgetting we were there in July ,which although it was mid-summer in UK, it was mid-winter in southern Africa being south of the equator.

That first day Paul Barry and me went into the centre of Joburg. I don't remember too much but we went up to the top of one of the highest buildings in Joburg and also I remember a big group of tribal dancers (probably Zulu) with their animal skin shields and war attire. 

Another day we went with Barry to a high rocky outcrop and cliff in the suburbs of Joburg , where I did my first ever mountain climbing and absailing . Climbing the cliff with ropes was much harder work than I expected using muscles in my body I don't usually use. When we got to the top we had to absail back down and that was pretty scary as you leaned back off the top of the cliff and started descending .