Day 2: Friday 29 June

Near St. Catherine's school in Rosebank there is a number of large modern American-style malls, clean, quiet, well controlled by security staff. That's where I headed to look for film for my camcorder, without success. In fact the last shopkeeper I tried told me that I'd be lucky to find this film anywhere in South Africa! Disconsolate, I visited a large craft market next to the mall for souvenirs, then wasted lots of time in a second-hand book store.

From the headlines of the local papers, the politicians are getting a grilling. Several ANC and government leaders are embroiled in a bribery scandal, having obtained heavily-discounted Mercedes cars from the beneficiary of a huge defence contract. Thabo Mbeki, currently in New York, is taking a lot of flak due to remaining at odds with the rest of the world on Aids. Then an article about tourism: due to high crime rate in the county, tourists were warned to be cautious when travelling--though that won't help if you're confronted with a gun.

In the afternoon I took a taxi ride to downtown Johannesburg. Built on the largest seam of gold ever discovered, this was once the richest city in Africa, a gleaming steel-and-glass citadel rising out of the brown ocean of the Veld, a testament to the economic power of the country. But the larger companies have pulled out of the city centre and their place has been taken over by masses of poor people, often squatting illegally. Some hotels have closed, and reputedly the Holiday Inn is a deserted fortress, its 800 empty rooms protected by reinforced steel shutters. The police have promised to move in and clean the place up, but ironically the Minister in charge of security has admitted to parliament that a policeman is three times more likely to commit a serious crime than an average member of the public. Following the advice I had received earlier on, I didn't get out of the taxi in downtown JBurg, but returned to St. Catherine's.

Romie arrived at the convent at 4.00 for the trip to Durban.

We decided to stop at Harrismith for the night, and after some driving around and checking what was available, settled on the Harrismith Inn, which was excellent. I had my first chance to sample some of the local beers. Castle is the most popular, but I ended up preferring Amstel (6.5 Rand per bottle). I read later that 98% of the South African beer market is held by South African Breweries - now the third largest beer company in the world.

The town is named after an early British settler, Harry Smith, who took part in wars in the 1830s and arrived in 1847 to try to persuade farmers to stay in the area. Ladysmith was named after his Spanish wife, Lady Juana Maria de los Delores de Leon Smith (what a name!).

The only problem that night was the long trek through the hotel corridor to our room--we felt like Voortrekkers. And the occasionaly passing train--it seemed to be running through the room next door!