Six relaxation days here in South Africa's capital city, Pretoria. After even a short time in Malawi, we were ready for an infrastructure fix. Street lights, robots (a great coloquial name for traffic lights), and shopping malls. We even spotted one or two tyres with tread. Sue has been a bit poorly. Irritable bowels. Phill has been on the pharmacy run and now all is well again after 3 days. We say well. We assume we are. Whilst in Malawi, we were informed of a disease called Bilharzia. Heard of it? No neither had we. This is a parasite living in the fresh water Lake Malawi. The water becomes polluted with human waste, passes through snails which hang on to reeds and the next thing you know they have been absorbed into your skin. Six weeks later your urine turns red and the worms growing inside you have reached maturity. No need to be alarmed, we have been reassured by a number of hardened travellers. You can buy half a dozen tablets and whaft them all down at once four weeks after swimming with the little buggars. We have the tablets. Consumption diaried for 1st Jan. We would just like to bring you up to date with the state of affairs here in SA. Muggings, violent crime and car jackings are the order of the day. All homes have 7ft high walls with electric fences on top and large yapping dogs. This peace of mind is somewhat undermined however. There are frequent powercuts. Robbers wait for the street lights to go out and hurl over some poisoned meat for the hounds to chew on. Car jackings at traffic lights are a real problem here too. Just this city alone had 865 cars and 40 trucks hi-jacked in the past year. Imagine. We are hiring a car tomorrow. Off to Sun City. Assuming we don't stop at any red lights, we will drop our group A at Jo'burg airport Friday and head for Mozambique. Chicken snitzel, chips and a beer for a quid and half awaits at the local watering hole. PaS