Depart Victoria Falls in the late morning to arrive in early afternoon in Johannesburg for a night transit. Patrick, the boss of the guesthouse we had booked by Internet picks us up for transfer. We then learn that:
1. The transfer fee is contrary to the claims the front page of its website (50% of the night and more)
2. The hotel is much farther from the airport than we thought (30 40 minutes drive)
3. That there is no wireless internet access and the connection is not free (we wanted to spend the afternoon and evening to update our blog - and call my little sisters for their birthdays)
4. That electricity will be cut in the neighborhood for much of the evening
grin and heart, we console ourselves in a restaurant close to the guesthouse with a large pizza along with a good bottle of wine. The electricity being cut from 18 to 21:30, we eat very romantically candlelit. The server obviously a beginner, we take the wine bottle, the cap and massacre Uncorking awkwardly. It serves two glass bottom to let us taste the wine is sour and vinegary ... great time of distress for the server who has clearly never considered the possibility to taste the wine that had a link with any risk of replacement bottle. It fetches the boss who tells us, after having tasted the wine is quite normal, but agrees to change the bottle for another brand.
We discuss with him the power cuts, he says that without maintenance, two power plants in four are at a standstill, the production capacity is therefore too low relative to demand. These "cuts in consumption" are rotating throughout the country and the principle is likely to last several years, the time to rehabilitate the production tool ... The cuts are made in increments of 3-4 hours rotating 4 days on 5, so as to evenly distribute the nuisance. During these periods, there is no street lighting or traffic lights, well done for periods of rush in the morning and evening!
And South Africa is the country most developed on the corner, unable to import electricity.
We fall, what will happen there this winter when heating needs increase (temperatures flirt with the 0 ° C to Johannesburg in the winter and they had snow last winter for the first time 26 years).
Looks like the country begins to fall apart, confirming what we said a South African at the dinner the night before in Victoria Falls. It was in Zimbabwe to negotiate the import of coal in South Africa (for power plants?).
We drink the second bottle, the wine still has a slight taste maderized, we wonder if this is not us who have a problem ...
Back in the night to light the cars and stars, we try a few times before finding the entrance to the guesthouse. This transit will not forget.
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