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The hotel was one of those places where it was probably nice a few decades ago, and is now offering its rooms by the hour – I won’t spell it out for you, but in the space where you would normally find the Gideon’s contribution the world, I found condoms.

I did venture out, leaving camera locked in room. Very typically African, nothing to report other than when I returned to the hotel and said I could not find a bookshop anywhere, I was told by the desk worker that there was one but it is not advisable to walk that way.

Some Chicken Lickin’ and a bag of bananas later I was off to bed, good sleep except for the occasional gunshot and subsequent shouting fest.




Woke with a feeling of positivity that today would be the day when things started to happen, a few hours later stranded on a broken bus in the middle lane of a very busy Jo’berg highway, I felt I may have gotten it wrong.

The day did start well enough, I made it safely from the hotel to the bus station, belly full of weird fake coffee (not good) and coconut biscuit flavoured yoghurt (very good indeed) On the subject of breakfast, I followed what the other guests (Who were mostly prostitutes) were doing with a strange toasting contraption that made bread very warm but not hard in any way. Africa has a weird way of fooling you into a false sense of security regarding its ability to conjure food that look like what you are used to but tastes quite different, not always unpleasant, but always surprising making even the simplest of meals a roulette of emotions.

Made a dash to the bus station with the memory of the gunshots ringing in my ears, all went fairly well until the bus suddenly stopped in the middle of the highway. Everyone seemed in good spirits however and another bus was with us within the hour, a seemingly miraculous time in African public transport terms.

Am now sitting writing this at the bar of the ‘Old Vic travellers inn’ – not a place to break with tradition, it is another mixed bag of very good and very bad. The price is low and it is a very handsome place, but the staff are a bit shitty and you have to pay extra for everything, I’m sure the receptionist was considering charging me for the knife and fork I asked to use. I have been swimming in my pants and am now eating a pizza with banana on it – two firsts I think? Hope tomorrow brings more of the same, Wouter (voter) is picking me up tomorrow to start my photo project, fingers crossed.