It's amazing that some of the houses are made out of corrugated iron and anything they can find, yet a couple of miles further on you'll find a magnificent golf complex.
Seeing the townships brings you down to earth and it is hard to ignore the begging mothers carrying children at an intersection on the road.
But there are lots of good things happening in this country. They have just staged the IPL cricket, our tour is in full swing, the Confederation Cup is about to kick off and next year the FIFA World Cup is here.
There is boundless enthusiasm everywhere you go and that was very evident when I visited a township in Orange Farm, in Southern Johannesburg, to help open a rugby pitch.
There were 800 school children who made an amazing amount of noise and some were so excited they actually wet themselves.
I got totally caught up with their energy. At one point I had a young kid hanging off each arm, one on each leg and we were all singing and dancing.
This is a very beautiful place and the people have been so welcoming and, while we are here to win the Test series, it's a real privilege to be able to visit those school children and see the joy on their faces.
Gaining respect from South African rugby is hugely important and we got a bit of that with our win over the Golden Lions and we must keep it going against the Cheetahs here in Bloemfontein tomorrow.
When I visualised Wednesday's game, I did dream of scoring one try and to get two was amazing.
The cramp I suffered was as a result of the pitch being quite firm and it being my first game in around a month.
My pain disappeared when I jumped into the ice-bath in the dressing room that I assumed was a nice jacuzzi but was absolutely freezing! That didn't stop the physios dive bombing us and having great fun.
The rest of the squad clapped us into the changing room after the win and there really is a feeling now that this Lions squad has arrived.
