South Africa – A World in One Country
Day Two – 23 Sept 2013 – Day of the Malarone Revenge
Weather – cloudy, mid-teens.
Johannesburg to Pretoria to Mpumalanga
The wake up call was for 6 am with luggage out for 7. I went down to breakfast and got an omelet freshly made. I had taken my second Doxycycline capsule (an anti-biotic taken for malaria protection) that morning and noticed it made me a little queasy but after eating, it was fine.
At 7:30 I went out to see the bus pull up to the front door. It was a mini van type of tour bus pulling a trailer.
I didn’t think much of it but the same woman who complained the night before stood next to me and said that this was not acceptable, that they were told it would be a six seater luxury coach with full sided windows.
My first thought was, there’s seventeen people on the tour. A six seater would not work.
My second thought was that her travel agent lied to her.
As everyone came out, she approached them and told them that this wasn’t acceptable. When Canaan showed up, she pigeon holed him and told him what her travel agent said. He told her this was it for the day but he would talk to the head office.
We got aboard to find the four single seats on one side and that fit the four singles nicely. It was a 19 seater so only two seats in the back were not occupied. The problem was that there were no windows for the back row.
And some of the seat belts don’t work.
Okay, now it’s a problem for everyone. Most are concerned about the safety aspect as more than two seats have malfunctioning seat belts and at least two seats are also broken. This seems to be the kind of bus that is used for transfers or day trips. For two weeks, it won’t work so Canaan agrees and sends an email to the Thompson’s head office in Germany. He later said they wanted to know the name of the traveler who was complaining and someone shouted out “all of us.”
Okay. Who am I to rock the boat?
I think we’d all be happy with a regular coach mini-bus – you know, the kind that has regular sized seats and the single seats on the side.
We shall see.
So, off we go to Pretoria. Canaan introduces our driver as Wilson. It’s about a 45 minute drive and while Johannesburg is the financial capital of South Africa, Pretoria is the administrative capital. It was founded in 1855 as a farm. English and Afrikaan are spoken there but Afrikaan is slowly disappearing apparently. Canaan takes us to the Union Building that is located on a hill that was traded for a pony in 1856.
It gives us a great view of the city and has a nice garden on the hill in front of it.Tourists used to be able to tour the building but that was stopped at 9/11.
We depart from Pretoria and head east. En route, we pass a diamond mine where Canaan said that they used to offer a tour but no longer. He said when they did, they used to have to declare any diamonds that you are wearing on you before you entered (or you might end up paying for it twice) and that if you see anything glittering on the ground, you were not allowed to pick it up. Canaan said the trick was to chew gum as you go in and if you saw something glittering, spit your gum out on it and step on the gum.
We pass into the province of Mpumalanga which means “where the sun rises.” There’s a lot of coal mining in the area using both underground and surface mining. Canaan said that the underground mining first goes in and clears an area in the shape of a grid leaving pillars behind to support the mountain above. This way, they can claim 70% of the coal there. When they’re done, they collapse the mine by destroying the pillars. There are 65 mines in South Africa making it the fifth largest producer in the world.
Canaan tells us a story of how Winston Churchill was going through the region in 1899 as a war correspondent during the Second Boer War and his train was attacked and that he was taken prisoner but escaped. He was helped to Mozambique by a local farmer who kept him in a mine shaft for six days. That mine shaft is now a monument.
We stop for coffee at a truck stop and soon after leaving, we had to stop as one woman threw up in her jacket pocket. She got out and dumped it then emptied the rest of her tummy and got aboard. Those of us with our own pharmacies offered her some Gravol which she took and it helped a lot. We stopped for lunch at a nice restaurant called the Mayfly and they have a table set out for us outside under an awning. I had a chicken burger that was a fresh breast that had been marinated and a delicious sauce.
We got back on our bus where Wilson was using a milk crate as a step. The only problem was that once everyone got back on board, the bus had lowered a bit and it got stuck under the bus. That took a bit of wrangling to free. LOL
As we drive east, Canaan points out a sign that is a huge red circle and the words High Accident Area on it. He said he once had a Japanese group that used to get excited every time they saw the sign and he finally asked why. They thought it was the Japanese flag.
Shortly after leaving the restaurant, we have to pull over for another woman who also got sick. Turns out she had a bout of diarrhea and with no toilet on the bus, she had no choice but to get off on the side of the road. After the third stop, it was obvious she was really sick. Turns out it was the malaria drug Malarone that they were taking. The information sheet with the drug said that 1 in 10 will experience vomiting and diarrhea. As one other woman said she had taken the drug before she left home had the same experience (from both ends), it seems the rate on the bus is more like 1 in 5. And since not all of us are taking Malarone, it’s like 1 in 4 or 1 in 3.
I highly highly recommend that if you are going to take Malarone for malaria prevention, get enough to take a trial dose BEFORE you leave home. Give yourself two or three days or more. Those that haven’t had a problem with Malarone are doing fine – no nausea or anything. But if it doesn’t agree with you, it will tell you very very quickly. If you find it doesn`t agree with you before you leave home, you also have time to try another drug like the Doxycycline that I`m taking. It`s an anti-biotic that you take every day like Malarone, but unlike Malarone, you have to take Doxycyline for four weeks after you get home. I don’t recommend Larium – the once a week malaria prevention. That has been linked to a lot of problematic side-effects. (The Canadian military used to give it to soldiers in Somalia and the day it was given out was known as psycho-Tuesday because of the side-effects).
Our last stop with the sick woman is almost an hour and she spends part of the time on the ground on a blanket shaking. And yes, that other woman complained that she was delaying us.
We later tell the sick woman not to worry about it – we didn’t miss out on anything and what happened to her could happen to any one of us. All it changed is that we arrived at the hotel about an hour later than expected. No sightseeing/activities were affected.
The hotel is in the middle of nowhere and is called Misty Mountain. We have cabins which are really spacious. Problem is that my plug adapter doesn’t fit in the plug. They are twin round prongs but the opening is in the shape of a triangle, not square like my adapter. I have to get an adapter from the front desk, so I only have the one plug. Luckily, I brought my extension cube and could plug in two chargers at once. Wifi is free and slow but I can check emails no problem. It’s too slow to upload photos.
Dinner is included. I have the spaghetti and the malva pudding with custard for desert. It was absolutely delicious.
If I wasn’t so tired, I would have paid for a second one.
While we are eating, Canaan comes up to us and says that he has good news and bad news. We ask for the bad news first. He tells us that Wilson will be leaving us. The good news is because he can’t drive the new 48 seat coach that we have been upgraded to. We will see it on Thursday when we leave Kruger. As a group we decide to give Wilson a full tip since it was our request that got the bus changed so in the end, we collected 100 rand each – roughly $170 total and Wilson was floored.
On my way back to the room, I look up and see an amazing sky. Dark enough to see the Milky Way, but I can only identify one constellation. The sky is so different!
Go to Day Three
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