Based on our experience with various airlines, there is probably not much difference who you fly with as long as it is NOT Lufthansa. We strongly discourage you from flying Lufthansa because they are totally incompetent and have a hostile attitude towards their paying customers. If you for medical reasons think that there is a chance that you will require assistance from an air hostess during the flight, you should not even think about flying Lufthansa because they are likely to completely ignore any request for help, no matter how serious the situation is.

However, Air France was very good and provided all passengers with their own TV screen, giving us the opportunity to choose between various movies and video games.

The cost of a return trip Oslo - Johannesburg with Lufthansa was approximately 7000 NOK, but there is not much difference in price between the airlines. Sometimes airlines have special offers making it even cheaper. We bought our tickets at Kilroy Travels in Oslo. It is probably a good idea to book your flight ticket well in advance so that you can select more freely when you want to travel without having to consider the possibility of planes being full and tickets unavailable.

The flight time is about 10 hours from Frankfurt to Johannesburg (and probably similar from other European cities). It is a long time to sit tightly inside a plane but it is definitely worth it! The time zone in South Africa was the same as in Norway and Western Europe, at least in the winter, so you will at least not be bothered by jet lag if you're travelling from Europe.

Planes to Southern Africa don't seem to leave very often during the day, so if you have to change to a corresponding flight somewhere during your travel to Africa, it might be a good idea to allow at least a few hours for this, just in case your first flight is late. Then you should be pretty safe against ending up in the same situation as us, who were more than 24 hours delayed because of Lufthansa's incompetence.

No vaccines are necessary to be allowed inside any of the countries we visited, but for your own sake you should consult a doctor about vaccines to protect yourself. I had three injections (Hepatitis A, Polio and Diphtheria/Tetanus), which cost approximately 550 NOK in total.

Your doctor will give you prescription for malaria tablets, usually two types (Paludrine and Chloroquine). Supplies for two months travel cost about 150 NOK. You need to start taking the tablets one week in advance of entering a malarial area and keep taking them up to four weeks after leaving. However, they do not offer 100% protection, so you should take some measures to avoid being bitten by mosquitos (see below).

The Paludrine malaria tables must be taken daily after a meal. We chose to take them at lunch time which turned out to be a big mistake. This meant we had to drag the tablets around everywhere and since lunch was not always at the same time or in the same place, we failed to develop a routine of taking the tablets. As a consequence we often forgot taking the tablets, only suddenly remembering it much later.

Some people experience side effects due to the malaria tablets. I had no such problems, but May Tina was slightly sick a few times, which could have been due to the tablets. Taking the tablets right after a meal seemed to reduce the side effects. If you get really sick from the tablets it might be a good idea to take them with a meal late in the evening, as in that case the side effects will appear when you're sleeping so you won't notice. However, none of us has a any medical expertise so we don't know for sure. (If you get so sick that you can't even sleep, the above suggestion is probably not a good idea.)

When May Tina was going to stay for several months in Southern Africa, she was prescribed Lariam. These tablets have a pretty bad reputation for producing side effects. On doing an Internet search for "Lariam side effects", you will find that there is a large group of people who are very sceptical towards Lariam. On the positive side, we should mention that May Tina took Lariam without having any problems whatsoever. She therefore strongly prefers Lariam to Paludrine and Chloroquine.

Mosquitoes were a much smaller problem than expected. In July 1999 (which is the winter), we hardly saw any mosquitos at all in the malarial areas of South Africa and Swaziland. On our second trip in the summer time we saw some mosquitoes, but not really enough to represent much of a problem. We didn't bring out own mosquito net on any of the trips (and neither did anyone else we met), which seemed to be a good decision. In Mozambique the climate was much warmer and there we saw several mosquitos, even though we went there in the winter.

We used a mosquito repellant called Autan which smelled quite nicely. However, we don't know if it was any good because, as mentioned, there weren't that many mosquitos around! On the negative side it appeared to be induce some kind of allergic reaction because both of us got several spots after using it. On our next trip we will therefore use some other mosquito repellant.

Norwegians don't need a visa to visit South Africa, Swaziland or Lesotho. However, a visa is required for entering Mozambique. We obtained our visa from the Mozambique embassy in Mbabane and this process took about 4 hours. If you have the time to wait for a few days, the visa is slightly cheaper. (But if I remember correctly the difference was only from 30R for the cheap and slow option to 85R for the most expensive and fastest.)

When planning our trip we found it convenient to have several traveller's guide books. Our main reference was Lonely Planet's "Africa - the South". This book covers all South African countries, but there are several other versions dealing with smaller areas in more detail. The Lonely Planet books are very good on practical information, but deals only briefly with history and culture of the various countries, and there are hardly any (colour) pictures in their books.

On our second trip we also used the Rough Guide to "South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland". It was more detailed and specific than the Lonely Planet mentioned above, mainly because it covered a smaller area. Rough Guide is slightly similar to Lonely Planet. It is probably not quite as extensive on practical details, but it is better on culture and history.

We also read "Southern Africa" from Thornton Cox. It has more information about the various sights than Lonely Planet, but is lacking in specific practical information like prices for accommodation, transport etc. A fascinating read was Marco Turco's "Visitor's Guide to Swaziland" which goes very deeply into a description of travelling in Swaziland. However, this book should only be considered as a supplement to, say Lonely Planet or Rough Guide, since it has no information on prices etc. There is a book on Lesotho in the same series, but we have not read it ourselves.

There are lots of other travel guides available which we haven't seen, so shop around. After getting back home, it might be worth getting hold of the "Insight Guide to South Africa". This one has loads of beautiful colour pictures and is good on culture and history. However, it is pretty useless for practical help during the holiday.

We only have experience with the travel insurance from Gjensidige Forsikring, but unfortunately our experiences are almost strictly negative. To mention the positive things first, it is quite cheap and it sounds good in theory.

On the negative side, it seems quite useless in practise if an accident occurs. The most serious example of their misconduct was experienced during our holiday in Thailand in the summer of 2000. On this trip I suffered from dysentery and had to go into hospital. It is then common procedure for an insurance company to acknowledge that they will pay for the treatment of their policy holders, but Gjensidige unfortunately ignored the fax which they received from the Thai hospital, requesting them to do so. This resulted in me being refused to leave the hospital until I eventually paid for the treatment myself. Fortunately, I had sufficient funds to do so, but what if this had happened in the US, where hospital costs are much higher than in Thailand? Gjensidige's irresponsible behaviour might then have had much more severe consequences.

Although Gjensidige eventually refunded my costs some months later, they have so far ignored my request for an apology, or at least an explanation of why they behaved in this manner. You can read the full story in Part 4 of our travel diary from South East Asia 2000.

You can also read the Epilogue to our South African Adventure in 1999 and learn more about our experiences with Gjensidige Forsikring.

South African Rands are the currency in South Africa. Rands have exactly the same value as Swaziland's Emilangeni and Lesotho's Maloti and are accepted in both these countries (except perhaps for coins). This means you need not bother exchanging your rands into the local currency if you visit Swaziland or Lesotho. The currency in Mozambique is called Meticais. There were lots of people on the Mozambique border exchanging money, but we don't know if this is a good alternative.

We arrived in South Africa without any local currency and only with a few traveller's cheques in US dollars. There are ATM machines all over the country so withdrawing money is no problem. Even at some camp sites inside the Kruger there were ATM facilities. Most machines seemed to accept a number of different cards, at least Mastercard, VISA and Cirrus. In one town without ATM we were able to withdraw money from our VISA card at the local bank. This process took about ten minutes and we had to show our passports.

In Swaziland there also seemed to be ATM machines in the major towns we visited, so no problems should arise there either. In Mbabane there seemed to be two machines side by side, one for Emilangeni and one for Rands. We don't know how the situation is in Lesotho, but would guess that it's probably not equally simple to find an ATM, and the same surely applies to Mozambique as well.

However, it costs a small fortune to use regular Norwegian credit/debit cards to withdraw money abroad, usually at least 35-40 NOK per withdrawal. To avoid paying this fee, we recommend getting a VISA card from Skandiabanken as withdrawals can then be made free of charge. As an added bonus you also get by far the best interest rate on the money in your account. If you make ten withdrawals during the holiday, this should save you around 350-400 NOK. No, there is no downside to this offer. It really is as good as it sounds!

Local transport inside the cities themselves did not seem to be very good. In Cape Town there were a few normal buses running to the main destinations like the city center, the Waterfront and Sea Point. Most of the other areas seemed to be covered by socalled Minibus taxis. These have a reputation for being extremely crowded and not always obsessed with obeying the traffic regulations and speed limits. The one we tried was neither crowded nor driving recklessly, though. There were loads of them everywhere, so getting around is certainly possible. There are also regular taxis, but they are not "all over the place" and may sometimes be quite hard to find. Compared to other things in South Africa they were not particularly cheap. Some rides of about 3-4 kilometer in Pretoria cost us in the region of 30-40 Rands.

However, transport between cities looked to be excellent. Domestic flight tickets were quite cheap. They can easily be purchased over the Internet at home. Our tickets from Johannesburg to Hoedspruit cost 672R in 1999 when bought two hours in advance at the airport, which was the same price that was quoted on the Internet. We don't know if this was a special case, though. Other destinations seemed to cost about the same. In November 2000 we bought flight tickets from Johannesburg to Cape Town six days in advance, which cost us R708.

Translux and Greyhound and Intercape seemed to be running at least one bus a day between the major cities, stopping at almost every city in between. We were very satisfied with South African Greyhound, which turned out to be much better than the American Greyhound. Intercape was about the same standard. All buses were clean and service was excellent.

Another alternative, which we didn't try, is the Baz Bus. This is well suited to backpackers as it comes by several hostels in each town and drops off/picks up passengers. That way you don't need to worry about getting from the bus terminal to your hostel. However, it is slightly slower than Greyhound and Translux for travelling long distances, and is slightly more expensive. It is very convenient if you only travel a short distance each time, though.

There is also an extensive network of trains through South Africa, but we have no experience at all with them. However, you can view the train schedules at Spoornet's official website, and there is some more information on this unofficial South African Railways page.

Minibus taxis also cover long distances at low prices. We tried this several times in Swaziland and it worked very well. A typical fare is R15 for the two hour journey between Nhlangano and Mbabane. These vehicles only leave once they are full, but usually it is not necessary to wait very long. Again they have a reputation for being overcrowded and driving recklessly, but all of the ones we took were okay.

Although we have no personal experience, South Africa must be ideal for renting a car and driving around by yourself. Having said that, we should mention that getting killed in a traffic accident is probably the largest danger in Southern Africa. (It's strange how people never worry about getting killed in traffic anywhere, but worry about things which are far less likely). The speed limit is generally 120 km/h, but most people are doing 130-140 km/h. Outside Cape Town there was a roadsign saying the following:
Drivers not speeding: Last week 21% , Previous record 40%

The main roads are, however, excellent, so this shouldn't really be a problem, except that some drivers seem to think it is a good idea to overtake other cars when going round a curve or up a hill. In Zululand and Swaziland there is also the additional problem of cattle in the middle of the road at regular intervals. In all the mentioned countries they drive on the left side.

Keeping in touch with people back home is very easy in South Africa. Public phones were seen in many places, although it was quite expensive to dial Europe. The international dialing code was 09.

Postcards may take at least two weeks to arrive home, and even more if they are sent from Swaziland.

The absolutely best way of keeping in touch is via e-mail. Internet cafes seemed to be a really big thing in South Africa, which must have one of the the highest densities of such cafes in the world. Walking a few hundred meters down the Main street in Sea Point, Cape Town, we spotted at least seven Internet cafes! Every little town seemed to have one as well. A typical rate was 20R for half an hour, and cheaper if you stayed longer.

Setting up a Hotmail account (or some other free e-mail account, there are loads of them) before leaving home might be a good idea. There are also several services which enable you to access your regular e-mail account through a web interface.

Southern Africa (with a few exceptions) uses electricity with 220V AC, which is the same as in Norway and most of Western Europe. Unfortunately, the plugs are not the same so you will need an adapter to connect your electrical equipment.

This adapter probably needs to be bought in Southern Africa because their system is very unique. We brought along a "star-adapter" which were supposed to work all over the world, but it didn't work down there! However, such adapters can be bought virtually anywhere, from the airport to normal supermarkets, and they are very cheap.

People from countries with a different voltage (like the US) will, of course need a voltage adapter as well.

Given the good transport facilities it is relatively easy to travel around in South Africa on your own. Another possibility is to rent a car. We have no experience with this, so we don't know what costs are involved, but we expect that it is probably not very expensive. Petrol was very cheap at about 2.05R for a liter.

The advantage of travelling on your own is that you are very likely to meet many interesting people, and get a good feeling of what is "the real Africa". A disadvantage is that there is a bit of bother with arranging transport and finding a place to stay every night.

If you only have a very limited time and still want to see as much as possible, going on an organised tour could be a very good idea. In 1999 we went with Drifters Adventure Tours, and were very pleased with them. However, there are a number of companies doing similar tours. The advantage of these tours is that you leave the practical things to someone else and just sit back and enjoy. The tours will be designed so that you see as much as possible during the available time. Going on such a tour is more expensive than arranging everything on your own, but not that bad. We paid 1165$ each for the 18 days tour of South Africa, and this included just about everything with a very few exceptions.

A disadvantage of such tours is that you are unlikely to meet many average South Africans. You will basically spend all the time with the same bunch of people, and might not really experience "the real Africa" as it is seen the average person. You sort of isolate yourself from the Africa seen by the people living there permanently.

A combination of the two types is of course also possible. What is best for you depends on how much time you have available and your personality.

If you decide to go backpacking and arrange everything by yourself, you will need to arrange accommodation. Our impression was that it was very easy to find a place to stay, even on a very short notice. There seemed to be lots of backpacker hostels in South Africa and there also were a few in Swaziland. We don't know anything for sure about the situation in Lesotho or Mozambique, but we suspect that it is not equally good.

When we arrived at the airport in Johannesburg, there were several people advertising for various hostels. We didn't try any of these since we had already booked accommodation at Drifters, but we're sure they would have been OK. Most backpacker hostels seem to provide free transport to and from the bus terminal, or where it is you arrive at. However, if you decide to go with the Baz Bus they will take you right to your hostel, so you don't have to worry about that at all.

The hostels can normally provide you with all kinds of information about what to see and what to do. At St. John's and Kia-Ora there seemed to hundreds of brochures with all kinds of information lying around. They can also book you tickets on the Baz bus.

Southern Africa is very large area, so the climate varies a bit depending on where you are. We only have experience with the winter climate. In the Eastern parts of South Africa, the weather was extremely stable with clear sky and very pleasant temperatures during the day. You will definitely be wearing shorts in the daytime. However, after the sun set around 1730, it quite quickly became rather cold, and you either had to sit very close to the fire, or put on quite a bit of clothes. It does get cold at night, even though you're in Africa. Temperatures probably just above zero can be expected.

Near the coast, it was hotter than inland during the night, but we still could not wear shorts in the evening. In the mountains and the Karoo it was even colder, and we experienced temperatures below zero during the night. The day temperature was still pleasant, though.

In the Western Cape the climate was very unstable and we experienced quite a bit of rain. Day time temperatures were not particular high, but one could perhaps have worn shorts on the better days. At night it was not as cold as in the east, though.

In Mozambique we only visited the Maputo region, but our impression was that the climate was much more hot and humid. We were able to wear shorts during the evening as well, but since we only spent one night there we don't know if this is always the case, or if we just happened to visit on a warm night.

When we visited in the summer time in November 2000 the climate was very pleasant during daytime, although it did get very hot in the lowveld (Kruger) and in the Kalahari. Even in the night temperature was quite pleasant, although it dropped several degrees. There was a bit of rain, but mostly in the evenings, so this never represented a problem.

Before leaving we heard a lot of stories about the horrendous crime rate in South Africa. On hearing all these warnings we were starting to get the impression that you were more or less guaranteed of getting mugged as soon as you stepped outside. However, except for some problems in Mozambique, we didn't experience any problems with crime during our holiday.

Although the crime rate really is pretty bad, not all of the crime is directed at tourists or complete strangers. In fact, from our experience we would say that you are very likely to get through your holiday without anything bad happening. Our advice is to just take normal precautions (like not wearing a fancy camera when you're out walking at night etc.), and not worry about crime at all . Worrying about getting mugged does not make you less likely to get mugged, it just makes your holiday less enjoyable.

We don't have much experience with Mozambique, but food seemed to be much more expensive than in the other countries, although still slightly cheaper than in Norway.

In Mozambique the situation is very different. Expect to be surrounded by streetpeople everywhere you go, and these people never give up!

Although it varies from place to place, the countries were less primitive than expected. Before leaving we were slightly worried about whether all the food would be safe to eat, but this turned out to be no problem at all. Actually, it seemed you could even drink the tap water in most places. In the cities of Southern Africa it seemed possible to buy anything you can buy in Europe. The selection of goods in a normal supermarket in South Africa and Swaziland is actually far better than in Norway!

If you are wearing contact lenses and are going to spend most of your time in the bush, it might be a good idea to bring daily lenses with you from home. We have no experience with buying lenses in Southern Africa, but suspect that they are probably easy to obtain in the cities. You might also consider bringing some glasses, just in case.

It is a good idea to bring along a small backpack that you can use to carry stuff for your daily excursions.

We have found it convenient to make a photocopy of the relevant city maps in Lonely Planet and only carry the copies with us when we are walking around in cities. This saves us from carrying the whole book around all the time.

We were advised against carrying expensive cameras in several areas because it could increase our chances of getting mugged. We said earlier that we thought the danger was probably really that big, but if you want to take photos in such an area (and you're not with a group) it might be a good idea to buy an instant camera just for this purpose. Such a camera is very small and you can carry it in your pocket without attracting any attention. However, the quality of the pictures won't be that good, but at least it is better than nothing.

We personally think it is a very good idea to bring a diary and as often as possible write down what you have been doing. In a countries like South Africa, there will be so many new experiences coming at you all the time, that you will have problems remembering everything later. We were amazed at how often we struggled to remember exactly what we had been doing yesterday! When you get home you should put your travel diary on the Internet so that other people can read about your holiday as well, and learn from your experiences.