Arriving in Johannesburg

After a ten and a half hour flight we touched down in Johannesburg airport at 8:30am South African time. Getting through security was super easy. Hand over our covid certificate, show our passports and walk straight through. It was our fastest security check ever.
After collecting our bags we proceeded out of the airport to the taxi lot and once there we contacted our hotel via WhatsApp. Once again this was super easy and within 15 minutes our airport driver was there to collect us. He was a nice guy and gave us a short South African history lesson on the short 5 minute drive to the hotel.
Our hotel is the Aero guest lodge in kempton park, it’s a very small place with only 6 small lodges but it’s clean, tidy and has a pool for us to relax by and the room is big enough that we don’t feel claustrophobic. We’re only going to be here for 24 hours so we just need a bed and a shower, anything else is a bonus.
We were both really tired after the flight and although I did get a little sleep on the flight, Ellie didn’t get any atall so I had a quick dip in the swimming pool and had a cheeky beer, while Ellie had a tea and then we had a sleep for a couple of hours.
We couldn’t go anywhere I’m even if we wanted to, Johannesburg is currently the murder capital and car jacking capital of the world and if those statistics didn’t put you off there was a local guy sentenced last week for nearly decapitating his girlfriend. On top of that, this particular hotel is in the heart of the red light district and they were advertising in the streets on the way in, but not to worry. Nobody can get to us because we are behind an 8 foot wall topped with an electric fence and huge electric security gates.
Yes, it does feel like we are staying in Pablo Escobars prison but, it’s calm this of the wall and we’ve just got to stick it out for 24 hours.
This evening we ordered a take out which of course was delivered and we had dinner with our airport driver and later we were joined by a German man and his 18 year old daughter, Lilly, who is trying to be a tour guide. The German man actually owns his own safari camp in Zambia so we spent a good couple of hours picking his brains on where to go and what to do.
Tomorrow, all being well Pieter and Hilde will meet up with us a our African Adventure will really begin.Read more