Misty Hills

The 'hotel' we are staying at is extraordinary. The grounds are full of winding paths and flowing ponds and pools with birds. The plants are beautifully green and lush. The buildings are all stone walls with thatched roofs. It is very authentic here and so relaxing! We are staying in a little hut at the back of the property, complete with tin bat light fittings and a spear for the door handle. It is very clean and comfortable, and both of us feel very safe!! They have large cast iron animals throughout the grounds, and a hand carved giant chess board. All we have done is walk from our hut, to the breakfast Restaurant - the Summerhouse - to reception! We have a lot more exploring to do yet....it has just started getting sunny and warm so we are thinking of playing some tennis a bit later.



Tonight we are going to the Carnivore restaurant - where we have the chance to sample the game meat among other things...all very exciting so far, and we can't wait for our Safari to start tomorrow morning!

Safe in Joburg...

Our Avis guy collected a very nice new Toyota Corolla to take us to our accommodation. He knew the suburb & the hotel we were going to as soon as we mentioned it....so that was a very good start!! We jumped in the car and headed out of the airport for the freeway to Muldersdrift. He quickly turned off this route however, as there was an accident on the freeway and the peak hour traffic was reminiscent of Sydney...He asked if it was ok for us to take an alternate route...'OK' we said.......We jumped onto the back roads and alternate is definitely one way to describe it! The workers were leaving the city on foot, most of them running alongside the road hoping for a lift. If they had a car, it had a minimum of 10 people in it. The vans had legs and arms out the windows, the trucks and utes had people hanging on in the trays. (One guy was even hiding under a tarp smoking a cigarette.) It was sunset when we got in the car, and it got very dark very quickly. The drive went on forever! There were plenty of cars and not many road rules...our driver was a major offender: Driving on the side of the road, driving on the nature strip, cutting in front of other cars, running red lights, speeding, beeping beeping beeping. Considering we were driving alongside vans overloaded with South Africans, and we were two Australians comfortably sitting in a new car, we were quite nervous about him creating any road rage while we were in the car!! Expecting a half hour drive, an hour later we still hadn't reached the hotel. We started having doubts about his directional instinct, and when he said 'it's too far' out of the blue, we thought he was going to stop the car and make us get out on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere! We stopped at the top of an intersection, where it was very dark. He was waiting to turn the corner, and had to wait for oncoming traffic to pass when he locked the doors. (It may have something to do with the three folks pushing a broken down car towards us!). It wasn't far down the road where we pulled into Misty Hills (an hour and a half after getting in the car). They had security at the gates, and a long driveway to the reception area. We were welcomed by Klassy (and his golf cart) and checked in for our first night in South Africa.

QF63

The Trip started well. After an hour delay because someone forget to pump up the tires we finally departed Sydney at 11am. We didn't go via Perth like expected, but all the way South over Melbourne and skimming the Antarctic almost!! The novelty wore off quickly, we had a single guy take up the third seat in our row, and he wouldn't move (even though there were plenty of other rows he could have shared with just one person).......The seats felt really small (or my legs too long). Sleeping was a non-issue as we barely had enough room to stretch thanks to our lone friend.



13 hours later we glimpsed our first sight of the African continent. The ridges and valleys were amazing from the air - thanks to a few major fog patches we couldn't see the ground most of the time (photos to come.....) We landed safely at Joburg Intl at 16:30 Joburg time, but the plane door wouldn't open......eventually they let us onto the tarmac and we all herded onto buses to get to the terminal. After 'walking' through customs (not a second glance at us....) our driver was nowhere to be found.....we searched the terminal for half an hour and eventually bought a payphone card to call the company. They said the driver might have left already because of the plane delay, and to hang around and they would send him back.....we searched around again and eventually came across an avis guy holding a sign with Ms D Hoare - upside down......no wonder we couldn't find him. (They do have the same alphabet here right?!?).

The 'Plan' So Far.....Joburg!!

So, at this point we have a good start on our world tour....everything's planned and now all we have to do is arrive!

We land in Joburg on Thurs 26/4, where we'll be whisked away to our first home away from home, Misty Hills Country Hotel, see www.rali.co.za/idx_misty.htm. We have two nights planned here, before being picked up for our SAFARI!! to Kruger Park.

We get picked up on Sat morning, and travel to Blyde River Canyon before settling into a local tribal village for the night. The next morning we leave for a Cheetah and Endangered Species rehab centre - which will be great to get close to the animals. WE arrive in the massive Kruger Park on Sunday afternoon, and then have until Thursday to see as much of the 'wild' life as we can. Unfortunately the weekend we picked is one of the longest weekends of the year for S.Africa - both Fri 27 and Mon 30 are public holidays.......Nevertheless, I am sure we will have an unforgettable time. This is the most exciting part for me, out of the whole holiday - and I don't even have to wait for it!!! I can't wait to get there.

After our safari, we get dropped off at Courtyard Eastgate to recover for the nights! Then we have a full day to explore the Bruma Lake craft markets and Eastgate Shopping Centre before we fly out. I am very excited about getting some great little craft and sculpture pieces to bring home!! (I just have to make sure customs agree......)

Five days and counting!!!!

FLIGHTS

Click to enlarge

26 APR 07 - DEPART - SYDNEY/SYDNEY KINGSFORD 1000 NON-STOP
26 APR 07 - ARRIVE - JOHANNESBURG/JAN SMUTS 1610 14HRS 10MINS

04 MAY 07 - DEPART - JOHANNESBURG/JAN SMUTS 1920 NON-STOP
05 MAY 07 - ARRIVE - FRANKFURT/FRANKFURT INT 0530 10HRS 10MINS

27 MAY 07 - DEPART - FRANKFURT/FRANKFURT INT 1250 NON-STOP
27 MAY 07 - ARRIVE - LONDON/HEATHROW,,GB 1325 01HRS 35MINS

06 JUN 07 - DEPART - LONDON/HEATHROW 1140 NON-STOP
06 JUN 07 - ARRIVE - MUNICH/FRANZ JOSEF STRA 1325 01HRS 45MINS

05 OCT 07 - DEPART - FRANKFURT/FRANKFURT INT 1315 NON-STOP
05 OCT 07 - ARRIVE - VANCOUVER/VANCOUVER AIR 1420 10HRS 05MINS

16 OCT 07 - DEPART - VANCOUVER/VANCOUVER AIR 1930 NON-STOP
16 OCT 07 - ARRIVE - HONOLULU/HONOLULU INTL, 2230 06HRS 00MINS

25 OCT 07 - DEPART - HONOLULU/HONOLULU INTL 2350 NON-STOP
27 OCT 07 - ARRIVE - SYDNEY/SYDNEY KINGSFORD 0630 10HRS 40MINS

6 days to go

Flight out next thursday 1030am.
Dee finished work yesterday and I today.
All we have to do is fill our packs now.
Ivar