Ack

I’ve done it again. Left you hanging mid-trip. Also, I’ve just been on another trip to Bosnia and so am terribly behindhand now.

I left you hanging somewhere on the plane to Johannesburg, I think. But before I left did I mentioned we met a girl from the US state department and decided to go out all night and come crawling back to the hotel at 2am, despite the very early plane ride in the morning?

Cape Town’s night life is varied, and full of bounce. I won’t go into it here, because no doubt some would be scandalised.

Anyway, she was called L, and was great fun. Unfortunately she wisely kept her counsel and so didn’t reveal any state secrets, but alas – she told the producer that Johannesburg was very dangerous and that she was not allowed to leave her hotel without a driver.

This put my producer in a panic, and she expressly forbade me from leaving the hotel environs, because apparently being at the BBC put us at the same threat level as a US official.

True, coming from the airport to Sandton in the north of the city, one did sense a different vibe in Jo’berg. You could see townships quite easily, spilling out onto the road and for the average white person I expect it could be quite threatening. I suppose even for me it had the potential to be threatening, but I am a great believer in being sensible, looking confident and not judging people before they pull out a shank.

I did attempt to sneak out one time – just to pick up a voucher for my phone – and ended up walking about half a mile down the road. It was perfectly safe and since Sandton is almost exclusively white and rich, there were guards posted every hundred metres or so to protect their precious souls. Nobody batted an eyelid at me, but when I got back I got a rare telling off.

We ended up having half a day spare, and I had asked a friend if he could put me in touch with his family who lived there. His two uncles ended up taking us to the lion and rhino sanctuary, and it was fabulous.

It’s not quite a safari as the animals are kept within specific limits – for us the grasslands seemed fairly extensive (for the lions enclosure at least), but I expect for the pride of six lions it was quite paltry. We had quite given up on seeing anything after driving around for about half an hour and then turning back when suddenly in front of us, stood this gorgeous specimen, all tawny with golden mane glistening in the afternoon sun.

It stalked right past the car and one of the uncles turned the car back round very slowly and we drove alongside it for a few minutes. Utterly breathtaking. I can’t describe to you the feeling, and indeed, the fear of having so powerful a creature a mere two feet away from me. It disappeared into the long grasses to join the females of his harem – somewhere we had past barely seconds before, without ever noticing them lying there.

Anyway, I found out that my programme will broadcast in April which is a bit of a bummer, but as long as it gets done in the end. I’ve recorded all the script for the radio, and now just need to write the article and also finish the editing of the video piece. It’s quite a stressful process all in all, but I can’t wait until it’s done. This last year I’ve been feeling like I need to have something significant under my belt, so I’m glad I had the opportunity.