Well i have just got into bed for the first time in 40hours and it has just taken me half an hour to get into my blog from my top bunk where I am so hot I doubt I will ever get to sleep. Linda is happily ensconced under her mosquito net which we had great fun erecting and Stephanie is lying in my bottom bunk. There is the gentle sound of snoring from next door where the two Steves are sleeping after a long day. We had an uneventful flight on Thursday evening and everything went according to plan for which we were truly grateful. /the flight was not too bumpy and all our luggage arrived in Johannesburg - we knew it was all going too well!
I had a minor incident on the escalator (the sort where you take your luggage trolly and it just sticks on there - very clever! I somehow got stuck on the step and got my legs trapped under the metal bar of the trolley when I tried to get off resulting in Linda shouting 'press the red button, press the red button'. All quite comical probably to watch but quite painful but nothing damaged. just a couple of bruised shins and a gash.
We picked up the hire car successfully after quite a long time of admin stuff which always takes a long time! I did get a chocolate as it was valentines day, much to the disgust of the boys because chocolates were just for the ladies. We loaded our 7 suitcases in the back and were just setting off when Stephanie realised that her seat belt was broken and we could not strap her in safely. After much umming and ahing by the staff they decided to get us another car but they had none in - they were at the depot waiting to be clean - it would take 2 hours. I patiently explained that we had a 6 hour journey to do and we had just flown for 11 hours and 2 hours was unacceptable so they told me it would be an hour! An hour Africa time is as good as two hours anyway so we went and sourced some supplies for the journey . had a coffee and a few other treats like popcorn frappe (I didn't!!!!) and then went back and waited.......and waited........and waited. /eventually the new vehicle arrived and we set off - a good 2 hours behind schedule.
Fortunately the road was clear and I drove first out of the city round the ring road while Steve navigated and we made good time. We stopped after 2 hours and Steve H took over for another stint before finally Dobbo (as Steve D will now be called in order to differentiate) took over for the final stretch. It was 30 degrees all the way down and it was lovely to stop occasionally change drivers and stretch our legs. We got through the border easily and arrived at Beautiful Gate in time for dinner with the Geurinks and Furness's who are a family from America who are staying here at the moment.
This blog is only being posted tonight (Saturday) as my computer froze last night so after midnight I gave up and went to sleep in the heat of the night. I will continue in the next blog about today.
It's good to be back.....
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