The state of the Internet in South Africa

In South Africa Internet is a privilege, not a right. Here you pay lots of money for a telephone call or ADSL line and then you are still not guaranteed a decent connection. After the power failures got a bit better, the Internet got worse. I still use a normal dialup to get access to the Internet and have been unable to get access the net for the last 4 days, since I got disconnected. Since we still have to pay for EVERY call we make, I can't afford retrying to connect all night. Then we still have to pay for the Internet Account as well.

Then there is the ADSL limits that has been imposed by Telkom ( currently the only telecommunications provider in the country). They limit the speed at which you can download, the total amount that you can download and you don't have a static IP address. They limit you to a total of 3 gig PER MONTH. If you want to download more, you have to buy another account or get a larger one. I hope that the second National Provider ( the official competition for Telkom, that we have been waiting for about 5 years) will do something about decent prices and Internet access.

On a different note, there is a "Fly-in" in Carnavon in the Northern Cape every year. Light aircraft, Microlights and Gyro-copters get together for the weekend. There is some showing-off of skills and aircraft. Lots of partying, braaing and of course drinks. We are going through again this year and I will be posting some pics when we get back.

This weekend we took a breathtaking trip around Chapmans Peak. I have added some pictures that I took there. Over the last couple of years the road was closed because of all the rock falls. Special metal nets were installed to catch the rocks. Now it has been made a toll road and reopened.