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Hugeaux aka Hugo R. Miller is an artist/photographer living in the USA

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8:45pm
Park Station, Johannesburg, South Africa,
I shall depart in about one hour for Durban, South Africa. I had a good two nap before I caught the Rea Vaya back to Park Station. It was night when I was walking through Johannesburg and the city was bright with lights, clubs, taverns, smells and music. Derby Street in Bertram, where is was staying, has a reputation for being very festive at night. What ever you wanted, Derby street provided. As I was walking down Derby Street to the Rea Vaya, I could not help bu notice all the pool halls in the area. It seems at night everyone comes out. I wanted to write this entry because, by the look if the line forming in the station, I know that the bus shall be crowded and I am not sure about the structure of the bus, but there are people, families and children with big bags. I do not see any animals…joking!! I am not sure if this is direct route to Durban or do we have stops along the way. I shall arrive in Durban at 6:00am. I did inquire about going to Swaziland, but I was told that there is a bus there, but not a bus back the same day. The country of Swaziland is closer to Johannesburg than Durban, which is in south-east South Africa. To explain, Swaziland is a country inside of South Africa, the other country inside of South Africa is Lesotho. Durban is in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province of South Africa, Zulu country, so I am a bit anxious to see the difference. It is located on the Indian Ocean, so it shall be very African tropical. Lastly, the rain that is leaving Johannesburg is headed to east Africa, which is in Durban’s path. It appears that it shall be another wet and rainy day in Durban, South Africa. Good Night and May God Bless.
PS. I am looking to totally exhaust myself. I shall arrive back in Johannesburg, tomorrow at 6:00pm.

DAY #4
Saturday
March 17, 2012 In The Middle of No Where in South Africa

In the middle of no where in South Africa. This is very interesting and adventurous.
11:00:am On The New Bus headed for Durban, South Africa.
Okay, here is the story. The bus for Durban, South Africa, last night was full so they had to get another bus. This is 2 hours later. They spotted the old broken down bus in the corner of the terminal and instead of making us 4 hours late, they decided to bang around with it and get it started. The people were getting very irritable. We loaded the bus, without checking our tickets, and set off around 12:00am, mid-night. It was slow starting, but we did not matter, because we just wanted to get to Durban. We took the bus to the gas station to get gas, another 30 minutes more. Well as the driver was driving, he kept noticing that a red light kept coming on. It came on several times and each time we had to find a near gas station and put water into something to turn the light off. Well around 3:00am in the morning, a gentleman came from the back and said that there was smoke on the bus. We had to evacuate. We got off, everyone very sleepy. The driver did some knocking around the engine, and we were back on the bus. We drove about 5 miles then the bus stopped at 3:30am. The people were so tired that we slept for one and one half hours. Then, it happened. A woman came from the back to the front where the driver was and started an argument in her tribal Zulu or Xhosa language. This woke the whole bus. The driver tried to talk to her, but he was losing ground. She was then joined by a Zulu gentleman and they verbally attacked the driver. Some east Indian gentlemen joined in and was heckling the driver in English and their Hindu language. It started to get funny because each time the driver answered her, the Zulu gentleman came with another. He tried very hard to stand his ground and I thought it would get physical, however he made the mistake of telling them that a new bus shall be here shortly. Well, we wanted about 15 minutes, then everyone started in on the driver. I even started in. After the people were with him the sun was coming up. People were cold, hot tempered and hungry. After all the jolsting had ended I began to wonder about hyenas. Because I know they are predators and we are stuck 107 K away from Johannesburg, in the bush. The people on the bus was so irritable that they started cracking jokes in their tribal languages and laughing uncontrollably. This was due to the long night and fatigue. I got out the bus to see the sun rise and began photographing. To my awareness, we were in domestic cattle and started looking around. I took out my binoculars . I became the official spotter to try and spot the new bus in the distance. No bus and the driver was constantly telephoning the station to see where the new bus whereabouts. Each time, it was 10 minutes. Well, 10 minutes took 7.5 hours later. We started laying and napping in the tall African grass while cars and trucks waved and blew their horns. What were for some 16 hours of waiting, driving and waiting again, made me patient. I have no idea of how much time I shall spend in Durban, because as I wrote this entry, I suppose to be on the returning bus back to Johannesburg. We shall see.