Family trip Part Four…..Back to South Africa……..Botswana Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia

From Zimbabwe Ruins to Johannesburg
We left Great Zimbabwe with a loose plan, a fridge full of supplies, and dust already coating everything inside the camper, ready to tackle the Hiway detour to the South African border.
The highway south from Masvingo is more ‘choose your own adventure’ than actual road. Potholes, herds of cattle, roadside fires, trucks and busses in a hurry to get to their destinations.
Crossing into South Africa at Beitbridge was not the circus I expected. We arrived early and engage the guy offering to ‘speed things up’ who wanted to get paid way more than we wanted to pay him, so followed us out the gate. Once across the border, the roads improved to a smooth ribbon. The signpost saying ‘don’t stop crime area’ was a bit off putting, but the roads…..what a pleasure to be back in SA.
First stop? Tshipise. If you’ve been on the road for a while you and your home start to need a good spring clean,……. the hot springs at Tshipise are absolutely perfect for this. We pulled into the well secured resort, found a shady spot under the mopane trees, and soaked in those warm, slightly sulphury waters until we stopped feeling beaten up by the potholes. Bonus points: they’ve got a restaurant, game drives and walks. Also African woman who will crochet you plastic mats.

From Tshipise there, we rolled into Pietersburg (Polokwane if you’re going by the modern map), mostly to see my old home and high school where I was enrolled for year 11. It's not exactly a tourist magnet, but it’s got what you need—groceries, fuel, spares, and a decent cappuccino. We parked at the Nature reserve a huge caravan park. Spent some time travelling through the reserve having a look at the animals.

The route from Polokwane to Tzaneen took us through more open country—beautiful scenery with rolling hills and little farming towns. We found a quiet bush camp outside Tzaneen but found the road too narrow so spent the night in the car park and melted into the dark silence for the night. The next night we found a new campsite on a little farm.

From Tzaneen, it was a long, hot drive into Gauteng. First stop was the local caravan park in Johannesburg which had no security fence or guards so we turned around and headed to a camp site at Benoni, a friend of a friends house. We took a trip into Joburg to visit the apartheid museum which was right beside the Gold Reef Casino. There are no campsites in Joburg city so I thought that this lovely and secure car park would do for a couple of nights. The next day we did the Hop on hop off bus to Soweto for another proper dose of history and culture, joined a walking tour of Vilakazi Street, Mandela’s house, Hector Pieterson’s memorial and beer at the local shabeen.
After another night in the Casino car park we caught the hop on hop off bus again for a trip around Joburg. We didn’t have time to get off the bus but we could see that there is a lot of money in this city, as well as poverty. Enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. The parking attendant at the Casino were very kind letting us stay a couple of nights..
While we were still camped in Benoni, it poured with rain which was a good thing because we discovered all the campers leaks, some really bad. We couldn’t store the camper outdoors so luckily found a place with a high roof that stores RVS. The owner also offers us a ride to the airport.