Day 23: The Next Episode

Day 23
Today I'm in: Johannesburg, South Africa

Well, 13 hours actually went by pretty quickly.  I slept for six of them (intermittently) and woke up off the coast of Madagascar, with only about 3.5 hours left in the flight.  We landed in Johannesburg at seven in the morning on what was shaping up to be a really nice day.  As expected I felt cold, dry air right when I stepped off the plane - it was only about 40 degrees when we landed, although it warmed up to about 65 later on.

I picked up my rental car in the airport garage and headed for my guesthouse in the city.  Even at rush hour, Johannesburg seemed very organized - drivers stayed in their lanes and kept to posted speed limits, unlike in Asia.  The city is very sprawling and is linked up by a complicated web of freeways and tollways.  Johannesburg was founded during South Africa's gold rush in the late 1800s and today the city is dotted with large heaps of gold mine waste, many of which are now covered in homes or warehouses.  Between the freeways and the suburban sprawl it felt very much like home. 

I'm staying in the Melville neighborhood northwest of downtown Johannesburg.  Melville is near the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand, two of South Africa's largest colleges, and so it's acquired a reputation as a trendy area for students to rent apartments.  7th Street is the main drag through Melville and is lined with hip bars and restaurants, but feels pretty relaxed.  The sidewalk overhangs and drive-up parking reminded me of small towns I saw in Australia.

Most people in the US know Johannesburg for its appalling crime rate.  By most reports, violent crime has dropped in the last five years, but it's still a city where you need to look over your shoulder.  There are a lot of shady-looking characters loitering on just about every street corner, even in fashionable neighborhoods.  Houses are surrounded by stone walls topped with barbed wire and electric fences, drivers are allowed to run red lights at night if they feel threatened, and every home and business pays for a private security service that promises an armed response in five minutes or less.  My guesthouse hides behind a thick plaster wall and electric fencing, and my room has a red panic button that will summon an armed-response team.

Despite this, life seems to go on as usual here and I haven't seen anything to suggest that people don't enjoy living in Johannesburg.  On this pleasant winter day I passed plenty of drivers with their windows open - something the guidebooks tell you never to do - and saw kids of all races walking home from school unsupervised.  You have to be alert here, sure, but not paranoid.  As is the case everywhere in the world, most people here mean well.

After a shower and change of clothes I drove to Rand Airfield, the capital city's general aviation airport, for a visit to the South African Airways Museum Society.  It's a group of former SAA employees and enthusiasts who have amassed a pretty amazing collection of memorabilia and an even more impressive collection of historic aircraft.  When SAA retired the 747-200 and 747-SP (two early models of the type) a few years back, the society convinced them to donate the aircraft, and so both are on display at Rand Airfield.

I met up with Barry Els, one of the society's directors that I'd been corresponding with for a few months, and got an up-close tour of several of both 747s as well as a DC-4 and DeHavilland Dove that are parked on the premises.  When we finished up there, we drove over to the main airfield, where several more historic aircraft - airworthy ones - are kept by Skyclass, a charter company that's a friend of the society.  There I got to go inside a DC-3 and DC-4, and admire a Lockheed Constellation that's under restoration.


Yes, that's right.  I spent 13 hours on a plane and still felt compelled to spend my day going inside even MORE planes.  This is where traveling by yourself is nice, because I don't think anyone else would want to do this, but I had a great afternoon.  Tomorrow I'll be going on a private guided tour of Johannesburg and spending some more time exploring various parts of South Africa's largest city.