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I had already stayed in Swaziland for five weeks when my brother came to visit me. We met at the airport in Johannesburg and travelled to Pretoria, where we would spend the night at Kia-Ora Backpacker hostel, getting ready for our second trip to the Kruger National Park.

Southern Africa 2000 - Part 1: Pretoria

Jan Arild Teland
2006-05-08 23:40:14

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Background

In October 2000 I travelled down to Swaziland to live there for some time. The main reason was a desire to experience something different from the Norwegian way of life. My father's aunt, Borgny, runs an orphanage in Nhlangano, Swaziland and I wanted to help her a little, while at the same time finding out what daily life was like down in Africa. Since I hadn't taken up a permanent job in Norway yet, this seemed like a perfect opportunity.

After five exciting weeks with non-stop action (with 19 children something always happens), I really felt that I had learned a lot. I had gotten to know many nice people, and seen how things worked (or didn't work) in Swaziland.

On November 10, we had planned for my brother, Jan Arild, to come down and visit me. We would travel around in South Africa and Swaziland for some time and then fly back home to Norway together. We decided to meet at Johannesburg airport, where he would come from Norway while I would arrive from Swaziland.

It was sad to leave my friends in Swaziland, but it was also exciting to get the chance to travel around in Southern Africa again. In fact, we had been here on holiday in 1999, but that had been in the winter, and everything was very different now in the summer.

During my stay in Swaziland, Aunt Borgny's phone line had not been very reliable. Often the phone was out of order for days before someone came to fix it. Under these conditions it was difficult to make holiday plans on the phone, and we decided to take things as they came.

However, a few things had been decided in advance. For instance, Jan Arild had arranged a business meeting near Cape Town on November 17, and we also had to return to Swaziland to get all of my stuff before going back to Norway. Before the start of our trip, Jan Arild had also used the Internet to book a safari to the Kruger park.

This is what happened during ...