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
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| Nelson Manela's study and sitting room |
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| Great use of disused Cooling Towers, now a bungee jumping platform |
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| Goats roamed everywhere |
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| 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
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| Hadeda Ibis |
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