08.01.2017 Arrival in Johannesburg

After a 27-hour journey, we arrived in Johannesburg yesterday afternoon, completely exhausted.

We had read and heard a lot about the city beforehand, the crime rate here is incredibly high. Allegedly, there are certain neighborhoods that even the police avoid and tourists should definitely stay away from. So we quickly agreed to reduce our planned time from 5 to 6 days to two.

We probably would have skipped Johannesburg altogether if it wasn't the starting point for our two-week tour of southern Africa.

Nevertheless, we didn't want to waste our time here completely and hide in our accommodation (the area here is really extensive and secured by barriers and guards. 

In addition, the accommodation itself is secured with fences and gates) so today, we ventured to Sandton by taxi, a pretty safe neighborhood for the predominantly white wealthy population. But we didn't get very far, it seemed almost impossible to get around Johannesburg without our own car. It is also very difficult to assess the dangers correctly. According to our accommodation, we shouldn't have even used a taxi, on the other hand, there are also many tourists who seem to move around Johannesburg relatively freely.

I would have liked to get to know the city a little better because many aspects seem quite interesting. For example, the big differences between rich and poor, the economic upswing that is slowly becoming noticeable in certain neighborhoods, and some creative artist districts. Unfortunately, all of this is not possible without a car, unless of course, you are willing to spend thousands of rand on taxis.

One rand is equivalent to about 7 cents. There are 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 rand notes and 1, 2, and 5 rand coins. In addition, South Africans divide their rand into cents, so in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent coins. However, 1 and 2 cent coins are not produced, although prices are sometimes labeled this way. The amount is simply rounded up or down. So it's not easy to keep track of everything here. For example, today we set off with about 800 rand and were nervous the whole time because it felt like so much money, but it was barely 60 Swiss francs and the taxi ride from our accommodation to Sandton cost 300 rand, which is about CHF 21. In return, we bought fruits, snacks, and a six-pack of water at a supermarket for only CHF 4.50, really incredibly cheap!

To be honest, we are now glad to be able to leave this city tomorrow, hopefully, we will be able to move around a bit more freely then. But no later than two weeks from now, when we can pick up our rental car in Cape Town, that should no longer be a problem.