Finally the day had arrived. We headed to Auckland and flew out with Air NZ on one of their new planes with dimming windows and individual movie modes. Surprised to be offered food as our itinery said we got none but our tickets said we had 'The Works' we didn't argue :) The flight was a bit over 7 hours. At Perth we disembarked and met Kent's sister Sandy and her son Tace who live there and went to dinner with them at a local pub. We also got to unpack some things we are carrying to take to Corrin on our return journey so we don't have to lug it aroung Afrika.
The next flight was on an older South African Airways plane, pleasant enough, food wasn't the best but we weren't hungry by now anyway. An 11 hour flight spent sleeping mostly it felt like. We were picked up at OR Tambo by Moses from the Outlook Lodge and met 2 other couples who are in our tour group. We didn't know the details of how we were to get to the first stop so it was nice to be met. So different leaving the arrangements up to someone else when you are used to doing it all yourselves.
Our local arrival time was just before 5 am. We freshened up and tried to make plans to visit some points of interest but found the charge too high even to share between the 6 of us. In the end we got the Lodge to drop us into the city to go on the Hop On Hop Off bus. One couple was so put off by the city that they went back home with the driver but the other two enjoyed a very interesting day with us. The city is huge and a bit weird. Full of rough empty spaces and broken buildings, new buildings and beauty. It is a paradox, full of people, a third world city mixed with a first world one. Absolutely full of people, streets full of sellers on the sidewalks. The overall feeling is one of roughness though. It is a city built for mining gold, it pipes it's water from over 300kms away, the old mining town feel is only just giving way to a more modern city.
We had lunch at a city foodery and it was one of the best pizzas we've had and Kent tried the beer and I had a Mojito which gave me a bit of a buzz for a while. Kent was looking for a take home pack of it for me lol. At the end we caught the train back out to the nearest suburb to the Lodge and a worker at the station rang Temba, our man there, to come and get us. Things happen at a 'when it hwppens' pace, so we waited about an hour or so to be picked up but felt better about him not having to go all the way into the city to get us. The distances here are so big.
We are constantly being warned not to go beyond where we are, the Lodge, the bus, the train staton etc etc. That in itself makes you feel unsafe.
We have just had our trip briefing, we travel north into Botswana then across to Victoria Falls and down through Zimbabwe to see 3 parks and lots of game and some villages and towns. It is a 25 day tour and we are really looking forward to it.
Have been told we won't have internet on our trip so probably no more posts until much later. Even now I am up at 3am trying to get this uploaded because the wifi here is SO bad.
Go to masihambeafrika.co.nz to see more details of our trip, look under Safaris - Wild Life and Game Parks.
