Upington

This was our final stop in South Africa, nothing that special in this town. In fact the best thing to come out of Upington was the overnight bus we took to Windtoek, Namibia.

So there you go, before we knew it we had already finished one big country. OK, we did race through a few areas and missed others out, but I think you tend to move pretty fast especially with a hire car, no point in dilly-dallying. Plus there's always the "save it up for the next time we visit" factor.

So with the car gone and back on to public transport it felt like the 'holiday' was over and now the real ' traveling' was about to begin. This, of course has many implications, some good, some not so good. It was now time to realize how heavy our backpacks actually were. It doesn't matter how many times you go on holiday or go traveling, I think most people, no matter how good their intentions, are guilty of over-packing. These days the main culprit of the over-packing beast is the demon charger. Well, I wish it was only one, but it seems like a quarter of things in my bag are chargers for powering certain electrical equipment. Don't get me wrong, technology is great and makes some things a lot easier and smaller (i.e. I no longer have to pack a little case full of CDs and a CD player), but if the technology is so advanced these days, why not have just 1 charger that will work for everything. Forget world peace, forget global famine, forget about environmental issues how about a big push for a universal charger. Surely everyone will feel the benefit and I'm certain that vendors in bus stations around the world will find something else to sell.

Apart from the amount of chargers in my bag, the other huge difference I've noticed in Africa is the amount of mobile phones. A phenomenal amount of people out here have them, it's unreal. They are so cheap to buy, so cheap to run, 'airtime' top up vendors are as common as Coca-Cola outlets and there are antennas everywhere, which means you can get a signal virtually everywhere except in a certain national park just south of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe - more about that one in good time. You see shepherds in the middle of nowhere texting. Ladies, not only carrying huge sacks of onions on their heads but also texting (I thought the balancing thing was hard enough). But the most scary one, and the one you seem to witness the most are the guys driving and texting. Most Africa roads ( and vehicles) are scary enough on their own without this added impediment.

So, overall, it's great to be back in this part of the world. It's interesting to see the changes and great to see the things that have remained the same, the huge smiles, the laughter at the slightest hiccup, the smell of street fires, the biltong and the fact that traffic lights are still called 'robots'.