Still in Johannesburg day 2

 April 16th

Had a bit of a session last night, getting to know our fellow travellers, quite a few drinks were consumed. Didn't stop us falling asleep as soon as heads hit the pillows, although I did have a bit of a wobble first when I noticed this had been left on the table!

Arrgh...Cockroach and fly spray!

 

 If something had crawled over me during the night, I certainly wouldn't have felt it cos I slept like a log. 

Today we were off to do the Lesidi village experience. Took an hour to get there, and one of the most noticable things about travelling along the road was that at every traffic light, drivers were being accosted by the natives trying to sell their wares.

 

 

I expect we will be running the cauntlet when we take the motorhome! 

 On arrival, we were greeted by the villagers with a traditional 'welcome' song.

 Before the tour started, stalls had been set up for visitors to spend their money on beautifully authentic, handmade African crafts, beadwork, and souvenirs, but apart from a peaked sun cap for myself, nothing really took our fancy. A lovely Lisoto girl with a great name of Porscha was our guide and walked us through authentic, replicated tribal homesteads, where the residents shared their history, customs, folklore, and daily life. Five distinct homesteads were represented: the Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi, Basotho and Ndebele tribes. 

I'm not sure Ian would make a good warrior!

The lady in black is unmarried and available, but the prospective husband must pay a fee of 10 cows and two horses for her hand. The one next to her is married, and her headwear is sewn into her hair, where she is never to take it off. If she does, it means she must divorce her husband. 

The making of their tribal homestead

Traditional face painting

Ladies pipe for African tobaggo (Marijuana)

 

Traditional costume for the men when they spend time up in the mountains

Grinding the corn

After the tour, a traditional dance show was put on, very energetic, lively and tribal, and they even pulled a couple out of the audience to partake. Phew, glad it wasn't us, and we chose to sit high up! Anyway, all in all, the day was amazing even though a bit pricey at £135 each!

 

Tonight is the welcome dinner, so looking forward to that, especially as we are starting to remember our fellow travellers' names. Then an early night because tomorrow we pick up the motorhome and breakfast has to be early, ready for pick up at 8 am! 

From now on, and with limited Wi-Fi, blogging will be when I can, but I will do my best to keep the pictures to a minimum, it's the uploading of them that takes quite a bit unless I edit every one first, and that could eat into my time for the evening socialising. 

And wildlife today

Nyala

One very big fly!!

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Day 1 South Africa

 April 15th

I know it costs a bit extra, but going into an airport lounge is the best way, in my opinion, to wait for the flight. Drinks and food are all complimentary, and best of all, away from the hustle and bustle of the airport concourse. It was here that we met two of our fellow travellers, George and Jill. 

The motorhome safari was organised by Savannah Tours as part of the Motorhome and Caravan Club holidays. 12 vans in all, which meant trying to remember the names of the 24 people joining us, not easy for us geriatrics with memory loss! At least we now know two of them! Then we got a message through the new WhatsApp Group to say a further 6 people were at the Evergreen bar near gate 26, so we all upped and went to meet them too. Yes, names were given, but can I remember them????? No doubt by the end of 5 weeks, I hopefully will!

Our seats were economy delight, which gave us extra leg room, great for the inevitable toilet break. Surprisingly, no one joined us in the end seat, so we had them all to ourselves. In fact, looking around the plane, there appeared to be more empty seats than full! One downside of these particular seats was that the USB ports didn't work, and with only 15% charge left on the phone, I was not best pleased. But with all these empty seats, I could plug my phone into one on the other side of the aisle, within viewing distance of said phone, so the problem was resolved.  

12 hours later, we touched down at O.R. Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg. Here we were met by our tour guides, Kobus and Deidre. Another 8 of our travellers were greeted, more names to try and remember, and a shuttle bus was arranged to take us all to the hotel. Unfortunately, our rooms were unavailable until after 2pm, which was a bit of a downside when all I wanted to do was freshen up before setting off for the first of two excursions booked in Johannesburg, Nelson Mandela Museum 

 In hindsight, we shouldn't have signed up for the excursion. Boy, were we both tired. 26 hours without sleep was catching up fast. But it was good, a real eye-opener, and we did get to see some of the sights in Jo'burg.

 

Nelson Manela's study and sitting room

Great use of disused Cooling Towers, now a bungee jumping platform

Goats roamed everywhere

Jo'burg skyline

And we stopped just past a shanti town to watch these amazing Zulu dancers

 Back to the hotel for the official meet and greet. Finally, all our fellow travellers had joined us. They look to be a great bunch, sense of humour same as ours, so I expect we will be having a hilarious 5 weeks.

Tomorrow off to do the Lesedi Tour, more of that later.

And first of the wildlife photos

Hadeda Ibis

Countdown has begun

April 10th 

Finally... There are only 4 sleeps until we jet off for our safari adventure. The excitement mounts; in fact, our bags have been packed for two weeks, mainly because we had to deposit them with our sons in Milton Keynes last weekend. It's all because Toffee is staying at the moment, we brought her back, so now our son is coming to fetch the dog and us this Sunday, and with Toffee in the boot, not much room left for the luggage. 

Toffee with our daughter's dog River

 Just to mention, my hair in the middle photo made me look like Worzel Gummidge, rectified rapidly by seeing the hairdresser.

We decided on soft-sided bags, easily folded for storage once we get the motorhome. As I filled mine, I did wonder if I was packing too much, but even though shorts and t-shirts would be worn during the day, the nights are cool, long trousers and jumpers are necessary, and those pesky mosquitoes are out in force; they adore me but leave Ian alone. He maintains that standing next to me is all the repellent he needs!

 

Our itinerary for the 5-week tour starts in Johannesburg, with a couple of excursions over two days, one to see Nelson Mandela's house and museum, before we are taken to our motorhome. Then the adventure begins. Kruger National Park first, several days seeing the sites and wildlife before heading to Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, stopping at many sights on the way. Rest assured, once I get a decent internet signal, will post many a photo of our adventures.

 

 

 

The search has begun

March 6th 

It's been 2 days since our return to the Mill, the final push having happened on Wednesday morning. With only three more locks to do, and having set off after breakfast, it was lovely to finally ascend Langley Bridge lock and to be greeted so enthusiastically by good friends Jim and Jenn. Several of the other moorers came out to welcome us back. Anyone would think we've been away for months.😂Anyway the kettle went on and coffees all round, it therefore took a good hour before I could move FS back to her mooring.

  On Thursday we took a trip to Bamford in the Peak District to view a retirement park home site. We have been considering coming off the water for some time, and although we are not quite ready, it doesn't hurt to start looking.

The High Peaks is a stunning part of the country and the mobile home shown to us overlooked the River Derwent. Fishing rights also went with the property, my interest was immediately aroused! Also loads of walks in the area and Ladybower Reservoir was about a mile away so at first looked like the ideal place.

 

As lovely as it was there were a couple of downsides to its location. The first and definitely a dealbreaker in my eyes was that the Sheffield to Manchester railway line ran right alongside the park. In fact from the balcony it was almost in touching distance!

 

And secondly, being a small new park, no social activities other than taking a bus to Bamford, to where a bowling green, tennis courts and pubs were situated. Therefore, the search will continue, and we will now look in an area somewhere between Christine and Kev in Ashby and Colin and Iwona in Milton Keynes.