Home sweet home
I wish we could have stayed in Africa for another month but it is good to be home. Can't wait to sleep in my comfy bed! A few more notes that weren't a part of my daily notes: We have taken 20 flights since we left Phoenix The longest flight was 16 hours, the shortest 5 minutes We were on the large...
This place is on steroids
9/24- a representative met us at the airport and whisked us through passport control and customs. What a time saver. We reserved one of the Emirates limos to take us to our hotel. They offer that service for free if you fly in business or first class. We got to the hotel at 6:30 am and were prepared...
No trip is complete without wine
9/21- we left the hotel in Cape Town at 9:00 and headed for wine country, or the winelands as they call it here. We had to drive through Cape Town first and saw a lot of their shanty towns. One section was so large it houses 1.2 million people. It's really sad to see the conditions they live in. The...
On to the big city
9/18- we made it to Cape Town. The 20 minute flight from our lodge at Malewane to the airport at Nelspruit ended up taking an hour. There was some bad weather that we had to go around which wasn't too fun in the tiny plane we were in. It didn't make us feel any better that our pilots, once again, ap...
I don't ever want to leave
9/15- today is our last day at Mateya. We decide to do a short morning game drive. Nothing too exciting happens, just a bunch of elephants, Impala, zebra, and the other usuals. We drive in some really pretty areas though that we haven't been in yet. We go back to the lodge for breakfast around 9:00...
Kenneth...the craziest guide EVER!
9/12- we didn't have to leave the hotel until 10:40 this morning so we had a nice leisurely morning. We had about an hour and a half flight to Johannesburg and then we transferred to a nearby hangar for a private chartered flight to Madikwe. The plane was very nice. We've flown on quite a few small...
Mosi-oa-Tunya (Smoke That Thunders)
9/11- I finally had a pretty good night of sleep last night. We're in an enclosed room so there are no sounds of the animals to wake me up. I was happy to sleep better but kind of missed the animals. We had breakfast and at 8:00 set off for Victoria Falls. The falls on the Zambia side are only about...
Buh bye Botswana, hello Zambia
9/10- we decided not to go on the game drive this morning since we are leaving around 11:00 am. We thought it would be nice to sleep in past 5:30 and just take it easy before leaving for Victoria Falls. It turns out that it's not really possible to sleep in past 5:30 anyway because the animals are u...
Unbelievable...no other words can describe this
9/7- we had breakfast with MD and then just relaxed until our flight left at 11:00. A storm was in the area with thunder and a lot wind. It got quite cold. The baboons, about a dozen of them, came to our room, on our patio and our roof. There were several small babies riding on the mothers backs. On...
Time to safari!
9/4- it was a cold morning. A storm came through last night with rain, lightening and thunder and really dropped the temperature. We were quite cold by the time our flight left for Botswana. When we arrived in Maun, Botswana we had the longest wait we have ever experienced to go through passport con...
Finally....Africa
9/2 - I'm not sure about this date because at this point we've been traveling for 19 or so hours and with the time difference I have no idea what the date is. Close enough. First off, Larry just reminded me that to get to this point it is the first time we have flown over Russia and Iran ( they actu...
It's a LONG, LONG way to Africa
We have breakfast at the Emirates lounge while we wait for our flight. We are flying on an A380 which turns out to be an amazing aircraft. We board and quickly get situated while they serve us champagne and give us our amenity kit with all sorts of goodies. We check out the entertainment system with...
We're on our way....
We start our journey with a short flight to Dallas and an overnight at the Hyatt Grand located at the airport. Normally this wouldn't be anything to write about but the hotel experience deserves mentioning. This hotel is actually at one of the airport terminals, you don't have to leave the airport....