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 actually made an announcement about this on the plane) and the first time that we have been to the Middle East. Well, we survived that but now we have to survive another 8 hour flight to Johannesburg. We're now on a Boeing 777. Nice but nothing compared to the A380. Same movies, same "mattress" on my seat, luckily not the same crying baby! After take off they serve lunch. Again with the time I don't know what meal I should be eating, seemed like it should be dinner to me. Oh well, it's food and I'm not really hungry anyway. This airline just seems to feed you a lot. The food is actually really good but how much can you eat? So I just ask for more water. Then I decide to try and sleep since I've only had about 4 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours. This seat isn't as comfortable even though it's also a lay flat seat but I do manage to sleep for about 3 hours. We met another guy on this plane who is from Zimbabwe but now lives in Johannesburg. Boy can he talk. He's very interesting and very involved in politics and business development in South Africa. He was just in New York with his daughter who is going to Columbia University. He shared pictures of his family and lots of stories. This flight seemed to last as long as the last one, I guess because we are already so tired. It seemed it would never end. When it finally did, we were once again met by a "representative" when we got off the plane. She whisked us through passport control ahead of everyone else and then we even bypassed customs. Our bags were already out when we showed up and other bags weren't even coming down the chute. We aren't sure how this all happened but again we were just thankful for it and too tired to question anything. She brought us to the curb where a car was waiting for us to bring us to our hotel. It is now about 10:00pm in Johannesburg time. We check in quickly and get to our room, take a shower and go to bed. Yay, we made it!!!!

9/3 - I feel human again! The last ???? hours were crazy difficult and I'm glad it's over. We had a good night of sleep and are back on track. This hotel is amazing. It is ranked as the #1 hotel in Johannesburg and I can see why. It is a beautiful property, the room is great and the people are wonderful. There was a bottle of champagne waiting for us in our room when we arrived last night but we were way too tired to enjoy it. We have a living room, dining room and of course a spectacular bathroom! There is a patio off the dining area with table and chairs where we can sit and enjoy the outdoors too. We had a great breakfast, took a walk around the property and through the gardens, and sat and enjoyed the koi ponds. We went to the spa and also took a nap. It's just a relaxing day before we head out to the wilds of Africa.