The next part of my journey begins - off to South Africa!

Yesterday morning I landed in Johannesburg after a night flight from Berlin via Zurich. The good thing about a night flight is that you can sleep for almost the entire flight time. South Africa also has the same time as Germany, so I could start the day 'well-rested' in the morning. After landing, I picked up my reserved rental car and drove about 350km to my first accommodation in Graskop. The first kilometers were very chaotic. I was used to driving an automatic car from Canada and America. However, in South Africa, driving is on the left side, and the steering wheel and gearshift are also on the left side. What a change. Fortunately, the way out of the parking garage led directly to a highway. After initial difficulties and confusion between the turn signal and the windshield wiper, I slowly got used to it. After about 50 kilometers, I drove relatively flawlessly and even dared to use the fast lane. The landscape was very barren and not a highlight. Only huge bushfires in the countryside impressed me. It is currently winter in South Africa, so the vegetation is rather brown and gray. When I arrived in Graskop, I quickly organized some food at the local Spar and went to bed relatively early. Unfortunately, my accommodation had no heating, so it was a very cold night. Equipped with multiple layers of clothing and a hat, I finally fell asleep. I was glad when I could leave the accommodation in the morning and warm up a bit during the car ride. On today's schedule was the huge Blyde River Canyon, a 26km long gorge where you can look down from a height of about 800m. I made several stops and walked a bit to the viewpoints, waterfalls, and attractions. I really liked this scenic section. Although it was extremely windy and cold today, the landscape and the view could still warm me from within. I spent almost the whole day at the canyon and then arrived at my next accommodation in the afternoon. It is already pitch black here around 6:00 pm, which means that you can only check into many accommodations until a certain time. Due to the not-so-good security situation in the country, the gate is usually closed after 6:00 pm, so that no one can enter the facility afterwards. Therefore, I try to see everything in the morning and early afternoon so that I don't get under time pressure later on. The roads here are okay, but very often only single-lane, so you can't really make quick progress. Tomorrow I will continue to the Kruger National Park, where I will spend the next five nights in state campsites. As far as I have read, the standard there is quite modest, and for cost reasons, I have decided against the very expensive lodges. Probably I won't have WLAN for the next few days, so you will have to be a little patient until the next post goes online. I hope to see as many animals as possible, and as soon as I have time and WLAN, I will share my sightings with you. Until then :)