Johannesburg Trip, May 2013

    The planning of our little trip began with an invite from ArchiCAD South Africa to join them for their 15th Annual Conference and the launch of ArchiCAD 17. So, we decided to drive down instead of flying and  and make a little road trip out of it.

Day 1, Sunday:

    We hit the road on the 5th of May. I got up at 2:10am and began making coffee and toasted chicken mayo sandwiches. We all got dressed and ready and were on the road by 3:05am and heading for Botswana. Joani and I slept mostly until Gobabis, where we filled up with fuel and hit the border just after 6am.

    It was a long day - we pretty much drove all day. We made good time until we got to Kanye in Botswana, and then between the animals in the road, taxis, and people unable to drive in anything higher than 2nd gear, we got through Skilpadshek eventually at around 3pm and then, to our utmost delight, the South African government had decided to put a toll road up. Well, that 1.3 kilometers in almost stationary traffic took almost two hours to drive, before having to pay an extortionate R71.00 toll fee!!!! And all that to drive on a rubbish road and get stuck in traffic!!!

    Highly disgusted and frustrated, the sun was almost down before we got moving again, and kept driving int he dark. We passed by Hartebeespoort Dam and landed up driving through Diepsloot, which momentarily scared the crap out of me! A township after dark is not a pleasant place, but we blindly followed the sat nav as we had no other choice. We did eventually decide that the sat nav was taking us in the wrong direction, and pulled over to try and figure out why; oh joy, there are four Smit Roads in the greater Johannesburg area and I had picked the wrong one! Of course I had, why on earth would I be so lucky as to pick the right road the first time??

    We finally found the right road in the right area, and headed out again. We found our guesthouse, arriving just before 9pm, which gave us a total of 18 hours of travelling. Needless to say, we were exhausted, grumpy, stiff, and starving. This, only to discover that the only restaurant we could find after having the quickest shower in history was MacDonalds! How, in a city the size of Johannesburg, could we only find the crappiest take away on the planet???

    This experience only increased my resolve to never eat MacDonalds, and I have gone for all thirty years of my life without ever having Mac D's, and after this first experience, it was the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten in my life.

Day 2, Monday:

We had Monday off as such, and because of the time difference we got going a bit later than we wanted to. Our first stop was Gold Reef City, but they were closed for the day and so we headed over to Monte Casino, which was great. we wandered through the "town" and casino, which has the most beautiful old Italian style architecture, before going for a trip up the Hyundai balloon for views of the city. 

Monte Casino shops and restaurants

A beautiful river near the casino

    After the balloon ride, which left me with tingling feet and slightly panicked, we decided to try hit some shops and look for a camera as mine had broken and we needed one to take photos for the company functions and installations etcetera. And also, on the sideline, to take pics of our mini-holiday! 

Hartebeespoort Dam after the sluice gates.

Hartebeespoort's sluice gates.

The bridge before you drive through the tunnel.

The Drinking Arm.

     It took a couple of hours, but we found a neat little Canon 1000D that serves the purpose and it was on special which was great too. After not having a camera for so long it was great to be able to take photos again!

The Drinking Arm.

Squire's for dinner.

Inside Squire's for dinner.

  

Armed with a camera, we hit the road to Hartebeespoort Dam as it was always so beautiful there, and spent the afternoon wandering up and down the dam wall and through the town. We stopped at the Drinking Arm for a quick drink which we washed down with some interesting and rather vile jello shots that came in a bunch of different flavors.

We then moved onto Squire's for dinner where we sat out on their deck under a nice gas heater.  There was a lovely man with two beautiful Labradors that we got to cuddle as well. Dinner was good although expensive for the amount that you got and we mostly came away hungry, but we really enjoyed it.

The drive back to Johannesburg at 10pm was a bit daunting, and we were sad to leave Harties behind, as it really is a lovely place. The village is quaint and the people very sweet and helpful. The lake itself is really beautiful, and we wished that we had instead chosen to stay there instead of in town!!

Day 3, Tuesday:

Our first day of the ArchiCAD conference, and we arrived horrendously early as neither one of us had read the details clearly enough so we had 40 minutes to kill. We went for coffee at a little place around the corner until we could safely go in.

    

    Meeting the ArchiCAD people was a little daunting at first but they were all absolutely lovely and really helpful. I stupidly managed to lose a contact lens for the first time in my life, and they got me off to an optometrist and had me sorted out and refused to take payment. 

    The conference was held at The Venue in Melrose Arch, a beautiful place with fascinating decor. They fed us breakfast, tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and snacks at the end, really lovely food.

    The first day of the conference was really interesting and we both realized that we still have a lot to learn regarding the processes and how ArchiCAD works, but we have been given the training material and will be starting as soon as possible. 

    That night the guys from ArchiCAD took us out to dinner at a lovely Chinese restaurant with terrible service which gave us a good laugh. The food was OK, although Pio seems to think that it isn't as good as our Yang Tze here in Windhoek.

    We mostly discussed the progress of the business and where we want to be versus what they want us to do, and had a few bonding moments with the girls (Karlien and Mineshree). They are all from Durban, so it really did make me miss Durban a little as I haven't been there in so long.

    We had a reasonably early night and made it home for a good nights sleep.

Day 4, Wednesday:

    On Wednesday there was the actual launch of ArchiCAD 17, which was interesting up until the time when their presentations stopped working correctly and then it just got boring. They had a few different people in to do presentations of the different businesses linked to ArchiCAD like Auto Spec, but they weren't hugely informative.

The bar at Parkers.

    Luckily, before we all fell asleep at the tables, they called it a day and we were treated to some gorgeous cocktail canape's and drinks. They then had a presentation where they handed out various awards, and I got one as a Reseller for ArchiCAD which was quite sweet of them. We left rather late, and only got to pick Joani up from the guesthouse after 7pm.

The evenings host.

Rob Van Vuuren

    We raced like mad to get to Monte Casino again as Pio wanted to go to Comedy Central and see the comedians, so we didn't have the time to do dinner before. Parker's was great - I didn't expect to enjoy the evening but the comedians were really quite good. It was improv night, and the guys had to really make things up as they went along. 

     

    After the improv, Rob Van Vuuren came on. I didn't realize, but he had a cameo in the Leon Schuster movie about the world cup, where he turned the game on Leon. He was absolutely fantastic and a laugh a minute. I really am glad that we went to see him as it was great fun, although their drinks were absolutely extortionate!! R40.00 a glass of wine or draught was scarily over-priced!

Comedy Central.

    

    After it ended we took a walk through Monte Casino again and as all the restaurants were closing, we had a quick dinner at Spur before heading home to the guesthouse. It was really surprising that Johannesburg really had so little to offer and it all closed so early.

Day 5, Thursday:

  
    The final day of the conference was training, so I got to skip it but Pio had to attend for a few hours. Joani and I wandered around town and looked at a few shops, before begging Pio to call it quits!! He eventually got out of there and we went to Sandton City Mall to get a few things to take out to Marcel. We managed to get out of Johannesburg just after 2pm and drove out towards Marcel's place.

   

 It took a couple of hours and we got there around 4pm. It was so fantastic to see San-Mare again after so long, as well as Domino and Fugly who I remember from the last time we visited them at Predator World in 2006. Theyhave since left the zoo and bought a lovely little plot 75 km's away from the Lost City.

    

Sitting around the braai.

    

We had a fantastic evening, braaiing with San-Mare, Marcel, Uncle Andre and their two veterinary students that are there from Germany at the moment.

    San-Mare made us a fantastic dinner of pap, gravy, salad, and some awesome meat on the braai.

        Marcel made a huge bonfire that we got to sit around until late after eating. Earlier on, we were introduced to Bob, the crazy little meerkat, but as he seemed quite feisty we left him alone. I had to use San-Mare's bathroom  as I couldn't find the light for the main bathroom, and got charged by a very vocal and fierce Bob. However, after scratching him behind the ears he calmed down and I got to cuddle him all evening.

Bob hiding in my jacket.

    

He spent the evening cuddled under my jacket around the fire, going off at anyone that tried to touch him or come near him which was really sweet. He is an absolute sweetheart. It would have been absolutely amazing to have one as a pet; and I am sure we will still get there one day.

    

    After dinner the new camera came out and Pio and Marcel spent ages playing with it and taking some really weird and whacky photos which was a lot of fun. The photos below of the stars are absolutely amazing, and we learnt a lot about the camera which was fab.

    It was a great night and we got to catch up properly and for me it was fantastic to be there. They have a fantastic plot, so much potential, and so much work, but it could be well worth it in the long run. The farmhouse is just that, a real old-style farmhouse and they have these fantastically authentic things throughout, like hanging rails made from logs and a basin made out of an old tin bowl. Anyway, night over, move on to the next day!

Day 6, Friday:

    We woke up early, had a fantastic breakfast made of leftover mealie pap, wors, gravy to which San-Mare added eggs and made little tartlets in the oven. It was very different and very nice :). After that we hit the road to Sun City. The German's booked themselves onto the elephant experience that afternoon, and then we wandered around the welcome center, playing on the machines and having a laugh.

Setup for the SAMA awards.

    Sun City was in the process of setting up for the South African Music Awards that evening, which would have been amazing to watch! All throughout the day there were lots of arrogant music type people wandering around, and later on that afternoon whilst at the shebeen there was a rather full of himself star of some kind being followed by his reality cam's as they set up for his enormous after party!! 

    We went across the bridge and were too early to have it shake, so we did that much later that afternoon and were dismally disappointed by how pathetic it was. You could hardly feel a thing. I'm so sure it was a much bigger shape the last time I was there! But anyway, it was worth the wait lol.

    San-Mare and I decided to do the monkey pose on the fountain whilst people looked on as if we were crazy, and then from there we took a long walk around the golf course and through the aviary's. We stopped at the Waterfront by the lake for a drink before going to the petting zoo and then on to the Shebeen for lunch. We got fantastic burgers and managed to get them down inbetween being attacked by chickens!!

    The cheeky chickens actually jumped on the table and stole off our plates, which was hysterical at the time. San-Mare ordered the vet students some mopane worms, and I have honestly never seen anything so vile in my life! Give it to the German girls, they took it and tried the worms! Much braver than me!! I tried to feed the leftovers to the stray cat, and after eating chips he wouldn't touch a worm!

   

    After lunch at the Shebeen we walked down to Kwena Gardens and got to look at all the crocodiles, big and small! The largest croc there was Arnold, but sadly you can't tell his absolutely enormous size from a photo!! He was massive! On the way out, San-Mare greeted one of the guys that she knows there and he gave us all the chance to hold a baby crocodile. They have really soft and supple skin at that age, was really odd. 

Mopane worms in tomato sauce.

    We then dropped the German girlies off to go on there elephant experience and spent our moment on the bridge, waiting for a shake that was rather pathetic or non-existent. When we met up with San-Mare again we popped down to the Shebeen to wait for them. We spent the hour and a half watching them set up for one of the "stars" after party - so ridiculous lol but it was quite amusing.

Me with the baby croc.

     We got back to the farm after dark and Marcel had made us a fantastic poitjie, we ate til we were stuffed and then sat around the fire chatting til late.

Day 7, Friday:

    I woke up early and scooted into the shower; there are benefits to getting up early! By the time the early birds had showered everyone else had a cold one wahahaha! 

Pio with the baby croc.

    San-Mare was taking the girls off to Hartbeespoort to do the curio shops and the dam, but I wanted to spend some more time with Marcel so we stayed. We got to chill and drink coffee with Clyde, a friend of Marcel's, Marcel and Uncle Andre before we started working on his fences for his sheep so he could inject them and whatnot easily.

Booger, the 69kg Boerbul cross Great Dane :)

The boys working on the farm.

Bob cuddling in my arms.

     Booger is an absolutely enormous girl. She is a real gentle soul, although has apparently already killed two other dogs, so maybe not so gentle, but if she could have climbed on your lap to cuddle she would have, bless her. 

    Rodriguez is gorgeous, a little Spaniel cross mutt that spent the night with us, cuddling on the bed and under the blankets til the next morning. He really is a sweet little thing.

    There was also Domino and Fugly, whom I know from years ago the last time we were there, of course little Bob who is super feisty and did nip me twice before I left, drawing a wee bit of blood. It was always when there was food around, so that was my own fault as I shouldn't have stuck my fingers in when he was around food lol :) 

     

    Two very cute cats and another odd little dog, plenty of chickens, ducks and geese and 12 sheep make up the menagerie on the  farm.

    We had an awesome day of working on the fences and then made a wicked dinner before getting an early night.

Marcel and his bull-ring.

All of us :) 

    Up at 2:30 the next morning and drove back with a vengeance, arriving shortly after 5pm that night. We will miss the farm, but was happy to get home and be with our dogs and our family again!