I’m cheating on this post. We didn’t actually go on the bus tour our first day in Joburg. There, I said it. (Whew! I feel better!) Instead- we arrived in town around four in the morning and crashed in our hostel until mid afternoon. It was gloomy. Thunder. Lightning. A rainy day perfect for sleeping after jumping countries. We managed a quick trip to the mall nearby to get lunch and a sim card, and then went back to bed.
A couple days later, our friends (made in the very first month of this trip trekking in Northern Vietnam), Tony and Raquel, suggested we do the Joburg Red Bus (also known as the Joburg Hop on – Hop off bus tour) while we were in town. A blogger friend of theirs wrote all about her adventure (here) and told us to check it out to see if it was something we would like to do. As we didn’t have our own car, we figured a bus to a lot of places we’d otherwise have to pay (a super overpriced taxi) to get there was probably a good idea.
Instead of showing you one minute of rain, I thought I’d take this day (this post) to show you a little of what we saw from the bus, and the fun pictures I got from the roof of the bus driving around Joburg!
We hopped on downtown right at the start and wound our way through the lively inner city. One that I would have LOVED to explore by foot with a camera in hand on my own, but safety doesn’t exactly permit one to walk around downtown Joburg by herself with a couple thousand dollars worth of camera gear in hand. I was really excited to shoot the city from the bus and maybe get some different perspectives and angles than I would have on foot.
he architecture is stunning. Despite the decay that is evident in many buildings, it becomes a beautiful juxtaposition. I could have ridden the bus around in circles just in the downtown area people watching. We drove out to the Apartheid Museum (more on that later) and around some other sites on the outskirts of town and made our way back into the city. Some old mining mills were still standing off the sides of the expressway.
When we got back downtown, my finger started twitching and I wanted desperately to get off the bus and walk around to take pictures. I spent two years shooting for Seoul Suburban walking around on my own (or with Charlie) photographing daily city life in Seoul. It was frustrating to not feel like I could do that. Except, I just had to make the decision TO do it. I told Andrew we were getting off the bus.
“Are you going to put your camera away?” He asked.
“No. I want to take pictures.” I was indignant. He sighed, knowing this was probably a battle he wasn’t going to win. I pulled my confidence pants up and we walked around until the next bus came.
We had to sprint to catch the next bus, which entertained quite a few people making their way into the park we were running through, but we made it and hopped on the next bus. Which is probably good, because Andrew later said he was a little bit nervous walking around that area of town.
