We have had a great and trouble free journey.Contrary to my rather low expectations Air France were excellent. Friendly, good food, comfortable seats and the boys and I were very honoured to be upgraded on the first leg of the trip which meant for the short trip to Paris we were even more comfortable. The long journey was on a new Airbus 380 and it was very comfortable although sleep was quite hard as ever on any plane. Josh happily watched 3 films and dozed, Fred managed to sleep quite a bit in a variety of positions, jane was in the row in front of us and managed to sleep on and off and Steve was a few rows behind and snored on and off to let me know he was alive.
We picked up our 8 seater car with no stress, stocked up on some food for the journey from the petrol station and started the long drive. The Johannesburg ring road is always a challenge and with the sat nav refusing to find our location I was glad we had brought our road map with us. Steve is an excellent navigator and I know the road quite well so before long we were on the N1 heading south through the velt. The most exciting thing we saw was an ostrich and a heron, there really is just miles of nothingness.
It was a beautiful sunny day in the high 20s and Steve and I shared the driving on a strict rota so neither of us got over tired. I had the ring road, some of the velt and then the small road which used to be full of potholes but actually is now patched up quite well and is no worse than some roads in South Bucks. Steve proficiently navigated a rather busy border crossing and a police spot check and then we arrived at Beautiful Gate at 10 past 6 to find a wonderful team of people were there to great us and had cooked us a braai (BBq) of boer wurst and chicken. It was gratefully received as we were all quite tired. It was lovely to see old friends and meet new ones and introduce them to our team who by now know each other well…after all we have just spent 26 hours in close company.
It was dark minutes after we arrived so the grand tour will happen tomorrow morning, everyone was only too glad to drop straight into bed after our American hosts and chefs had gone. We were do grateful to them for not only cooking for us but also clearing up before they left. It was wonderful to see my American brother and sister looking healthy and happy and also their gorgeous children Eli, Faith and Mercy who loved the selection of horrid Henry, Enid Blyton, Michael Morpurgo and other books I had acquired for them. Sadly because of the new laws about taking under 18s into South Africa I cannot treat the kids to a day out with us on Sunday in Templehof. Poor Fred has had to get his paperwork out so many times while officials have checked it, asked us questions and generally been very meticulous. I guess that is a good thing but as with all restrictions it has its downsides. If either Anita or Brian want to go to south africa with their children but not each other, they have to have previously got all the documentation and forms signed and stamped. It is a real pain for them.
Anyway I am falling asleep listening to the cicadas and frogs outside my window. It is a hot night and jane has been asleep in the other bunk bed for ages. Hopefully I will have wifi tomorrow so I can copy the into my blog and post it.
Hope all is well in England . Sala hantle….stay well. Jenny X
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