Good morning,
Let me first thank my followers-Sean, Gudrun and Paula. Nice to see the faces! And for all who are leaving comments. It makes me feel a little less far away. Oomps, sounds like Halloween was a hit! I hate those invisible curbs, but if I remember correctly, we seemed to hit one of those every year. Sorry I missed this one. Hi to Mom and Dan too.
You You, I am glad to hear I dream of Jeannie was a one of a kind out there! Yes, I was concerned of the doctor thing this morning, which is why I am writing now. I had some very bad cramps this morning, chills and you know what goes along with that. I was supposed to be on a game drive right now, but we stayed back. I wanted Dave close, so he didn't go either. But I am happy to report I am feeling better now.
Gudrun, thank you for your babysitting. It makes me feel much more comfortable with you having my back!! I was going to try to call you and have you update for me, but with the storm, we had no phone either. Thanks!
We were viewing what we believe was our 1st male elephant through our binocs from our deck this morning. I don't believe we will see any cats here, but more of an opportunity at our Kruger lodges. I am pretty apprehensive around the elephants-they have a baby and seem to be more on the aggressive side. We had to back up a few times as one of them were getting a little too close for comfort. But we have gotten killer photos of most everything we see so I cannot wait to share them with you. We switched lodges yesterday and our view here is spectacular!!! I can't wait for it to clear up and warm up so it will really be perfect! I am hoping to get a new plug that will support our camera card if we go to the market today. I am excited to share photos!
I will check in later!
Love, Julie
PS Sorry about #2 but we love you!
Monday, November 3, 2008
November 3
We're still here! We had a marathon storm. You couldn't even count to 4 before another lightening strike would hit, and it lasted like 13 hours!!!! It was absolutely amazing! Needless to say the internet was down as well as the phone lines.
I don't even know where to start we have seen so much in the last 48 hours. we have now moved to the game lodge. The views here are awesome. Please send parkas. It must have been 105 degrees and 100% humidity yesterday and the day before and on tonights game drive it was probably in the upper 40s and misting.
But we had our best drive yet. We saw the 3 elephants-they are 2 females and the baby. The baby was nursing and soooo cute. We got pictures. I am hoping to get some to you on Thursday. We saw about 20 baboons, the momma rhino and her baby also nursing. We have now encountered 2 green mamba snakes, one slithered right past us on our pathway at the lodge, a labamba snake, also poisonous, and our friends saw a brown bufala? snake right at the entry of our new lodge this afternoon. The lodge was very concerned with this one and made sure to remove it. The birds, insects and the lizards are extremely colorful. I will have to catch you up to speed bits at a time as we are so far behind.
We went to visit a rural village today. Went into a children's classroom, and they sang to us. I think they were about 4-5 years old. The town is extremely poverty striken and the aids rate is at 34%. They are just so undereducated. One guy would sleep around, knew he had aids, but would tell them he was ok because he took a shower. We toured a homestead where an 82 year old grandma was raising her 6 grandchildren. The father was killed in a car crash from Jo-Burg, and when the mother found out, she died of a heart attack. I can see why Angelina adopts children like these. They have the biggest smiles and they warm your heart.
Our manager at the lodge was at the casino by Richard's bay the night before last, and 10 robbers with machine guns entered. He said he ducked and ran out. The robbers left with nothing and 6 of them were shot to death in the parking lot and 4 were caught by a roadblock.
We have met some great people that we share our game drive with every day, most from the Seattle area, one couple from Ohio and one from Boston.
The computer is beeping and don't know what it means so I will send this now and catch up later!
Love to all!
Julie
I don't even know where to start we have seen so much in the last 48 hours. we have now moved to the game lodge. The views here are awesome. Please send parkas. It must have been 105 degrees and 100% humidity yesterday and the day before and on tonights game drive it was probably in the upper 40s and misting.
But we had our best drive yet. We saw the 3 elephants-they are 2 females and the baby. The baby was nursing and soooo cute. We got pictures. I am hoping to get some to you on Thursday. We saw about 20 baboons, the momma rhino and her baby also nursing. We have now encountered 2 green mamba snakes, one slithered right past us on our pathway at the lodge, a labamba snake, also poisonous, and our friends saw a brown bufala? snake right at the entry of our new lodge this afternoon. The lodge was very concerned with this one and made sure to remove it. The birds, insects and the lizards are extremely colorful. I will have to catch you up to speed bits at a time as we are so far behind.
We went to visit a rural village today. Went into a children's classroom, and they sang to us. I think they were about 4-5 years old. The town is extremely poverty striken and the aids rate is at 34%. They are just so undereducated. One guy would sleep around, knew he had aids, but would tell them he was ok because he took a shower. We toured a homestead where an 82 year old grandma was raising her 6 grandchildren. The father was killed in a car crash from Jo-Burg, and when the mother found out, she died of a heart attack. I can see why Angelina adopts children like these. They have the biggest smiles and they warm your heart.
Our manager at the lodge was at the casino by Richard's bay the night before last, and 10 robbers with machine guns entered. He said he ducked and ran out. The robbers left with nothing and 6 of them were shot to death in the parking lot and 4 were caught by a roadblock.
We have met some great people that we share our game drive with every day, most from the Seattle area, one couple from Ohio and one from Boston.
The computer is beeping and don't know what it means so I will send this now and catch up later!
Love to all!
Julie
Saturday, November 1, 2008
November 1st part deux
WOOOO HOOOOOO Luggage just arrived!!!! We can now start relaxing and enjoying! I actually bought a pack of smokes from someone who worked here, for zar20, which I am guessing was a mark-up. It was only 2.00 us and I would've paid 20. us at the time. David also found the glasses he never lost too! They were in the room the whole time.
We went on our first safari and it was fabulous! We saw white rhino, cape buffalo, giraffe, several types of buck type animals, monkeys and lots of cool birds. I have lots of pictures, but cannot get them up.
The night was interesting staying in a "tent". Although it is nicely done inside, the monkeys scratching on the canvas, lizards running back and forth inside, and the bat footsteps crawling in
between the canvases in the morning were a little unnerving. I will freak if a bat starts flying on the inside, or if I run into spiders. Through most of this Dad slept. I myself, barely. At least I got to watch the lizards, they kept me company.
Ok off to lunch, then another game drive. This time with clean clothes(for David, I had a spare pair) WOOO HOOOOO
Gudrun you are the BESTEST!!! Thank you much for following along and trying to help!! Also, you are correct. We had a whole tour bus of Germans this morning, and I made the mistake of saying, you know, Guten Morgen. Yep, didn't understand a thing!
Love you all,
Julie
We went on our first safari and it was fabulous! We saw white rhino, cape buffalo, giraffe, several types of buck type animals, monkeys and lots of cool birds. I have lots of pictures, but cannot get them up.
The night was interesting staying in a "tent". Although it is nicely done inside, the monkeys scratching on the canvas, lizards running back and forth inside, and the bat footsteps crawling in
between the canvases in the morning were a little unnerving. I will freak if a bat starts flying on the inside, or if I run into spiders. Through most of this Dad slept. I myself, barely. At least I got to watch the lizards, they kept me company.
Ok off to lunch, then another game drive. This time with clean clothes(for David, I had a spare pair) WOOO HOOOOO
Gudrun you are the BESTEST!!! Thank you much for following along and trying to help!! Also, you are correct. We had a whole tour bus of Germans this morning, and I made the mistake of saying, you know, Guten Morgen. Yep, didn't understand a thing!
Love you all,
Julie
Friday, October 31, 2008
November 1st
REWARD for anyone who can get us our luggage! Especially my smokes! Although it may sound funny I am just shy of crying. It is not like there are lots of stores in the area. We have called the Johannesburg South African Airways and all they said was they don't have it. Is it in Dubai or what? Ok, so it was supposed to be in Richards Bay airport. Our baggage numbers are SA244822 and SA244823. GUDRUN HELP!! lol
Other than that, last night David was "seeing wierd" which means onset of a migraine. So he went to bed at 4:30pm. I wandered around, keeping an eye on the last 5 smokes in my pack, and finally gave in to boredom and went to bed at 8:00.
We were just informed that sometimes people never receive their baggage and it happens all the time. I never realized how much I loved my suitcase. It was a thing of beauty.
OK, I am signing off for now. Hopefully I will have a better report next time. You You I am trying to stay positive, but it is not looking good.
Julie
Other than that, last night David was "seeing wierd" which means onset of a migraine. So he went to bed at 4:30pm. I wandered around, keeping an eye on the last 5 smokes in my pack, and finally gave in to boredom and went to bed at 8:00.
We were just informed that sometimes people never receive their baggage and it happens all the time. I never realized how much I loved my suitcase. It was a thing of beauty.
OK, I am signing off for now. Hopefully I will have a better report next time. You You I am trying to stay positive, but it is not looking good.
Julie
October 31
Happy Halloween!!!
Although it doesn't look like we will be able to add pictures, I can at least update you for now.
Our flights were long but not too extremely bad. Our connecting flight on KLM was actually decent. We were upgraded to business class on a 747! and had some room.
We caught a KILLER thunderstorm that stretched probably 500 miles and it was non stop lightening. I have heard they are like that, and the guy we ate breakfast next to this morning at the airport confirmed that. He was from Chicago, but lives here now and says they scare the crap out of him.
We got in on time last night, and was picked up by a guy (who was holding my name up) at the airport who drove about a '73 toyota, personal car. It wouldn't start when it was time to go. We weren't sure at that point if we were going to our hotel or some scary alley. He didn't speak english either. We were happy to find we did in fact go to the hotel. Also kind of scary. But we did sleep a little and left for the airport early.
Our plane to Richards Bay was a prop. Kind of scary landing but that isn't the scariest part.
Our luggage made it all the way from Seattle to Jo-Burg, but didn' make it here. It was supposed
to be on the 3:00 flight, but didn't make that one either. The people at the Lodge here say that it sometimes takes 3-4 days!!!! Holy Crap!!! That would really suck. So we just sit and wait.
We chose to kick back instead of going on our first game drive this afternoon. We're a little tired. But we have seen some animals, lizards, and some awesome birds. The weather is totally overcast, but comfortable. Our room is a tent, canvas and all but sturdy and seems to be bug proof for the most part. So it will be interesting if we do get one of those thunderstorms. Davids saw on the news they were calling for it.
We have some Seattle-ites around us...all won auctions. The rest seem to be German.
The guy who drove us from Richards Bay is a Zulu. Very interesting to speak to. I will give you more input on him later, but stories like if he were to get married he would have to give the father of the bride 11 cows. They cost R5000 ea which is a whole bunch of money for these people.
Ok we are going to the bar now to drown our luggage sorrows. Maybe if we drink enough we won't worry about whether or not we have clothes.
Love to all, more tomorrow.
I will see if I can figure out the picture thing.
Julie
Although it doesn't look like we will be able to add pictures, I can at least update you for now.
Our flights were long but not too extremely bad. Our connecting flight on KLM was actually decent. We were upgraded to business class on a 747! and had some room.
We caught a KILLER thunderstorm that stretched probably 500 miles and it was non stop lightening. I have heard they are like that, and the guy we ate breakfast next to this morning at the airport confirmed that. He was from Chicago, but lives here now and says they scare the crap out of him.
We got in on time last night, and was picked up by a guy (who was holding my name up) at the airport who drove about a '73 toyota, personal car. It wouldn't start when it was time to go. We weren't sure at that point if we were going to our hotel or some scary alley. He didn't speak english either. We were happy to find we did in fact go to the hotel. Also kind of scary. But we did sleep a little and left for the airport early.
Our plane to Richards Bay was a prop. Kind of scary landing but that isn't the scariest part.
Our luggage made it all the way from Seattle to Jo-Burg, but didn' make it here. It was supposed
to be on the 3:00 flight, but didn't make that one either. The people at the Lodge here say that it sometimes takes 3-4 days!!!! Holy Crap!!! That would really suck. So we just sit and wait.
We chose to kick back instead of going on our first game drive this afternoon. We're a little tired. But we have seen some animals, lizards, and some awesome birds. The weather is totally overcast, but comfortable. Our room is a tent, canvas and all but sturdy and seems to be bug proof for the most part. So it will be interesting if we do get one of those thunderstorms. Davids saw on the news they were calling for it.
We have some Seattle-ites around us...all won auctions. The rest seem to be German.
The guy who drove us from Richards Bay is a Zulu. Very interesting to speak to. I will give you more input on him later, but stories like if he were to get married he would have to give the father of the bride 11 cows. They cost R5000 ea which is a whole bunch of money for these people.
Ok we are going to the bar now to drown our luggage sorrows. Maybe if we drink enough we won't worry about whether or not we have clothes.
Love to all, more tomorrow.
I will see if I can figure out the picture thing.
Julie
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
October 29, 2008
This is Shannon with an update to the just begun adventure of Dad & Julie (aka: David & Julie). Well they've officially left for the airport but to there dismay have already run into drama. On they're way to the airport, the airporter almost left David stranded at one of the multiple pick-up points because he (literally with a long sigh and abrupt slam into park) felt David's bathroom run was unacceptable, even though "usually" there is a lengthy wait for on coming passengers. Okay David 's back, now to the airport. They got there and Airfrance is delayed 1 & 1/2 hrs which would mean they wouldn't make there connecting fights in Paris on time. SOOO......now they're flying Northwest Airlines to Amsterdam with a 2 hr layover for a quick "ROYAL CHEESEBURGER" (Pulp Fiction to all that can't remember.) and maybe a little "SPECIAL" dessert. As of this point they do not have, and can not get they're boarding passes from Amsterdam to Johannesburg until landing in Amsterdam so all I can say is good luck to them and we'll see.............
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
October 28
One more day..yay! As usual, we got up yesterday morning and found that Air France had canceled us again(that would make 5 times!). While David wrote down what I had just entered to make sure I didn't enter incorrectly, which I didn't, I went to my other computer, pulled it up and all was confirmed. Hmmm, do you think they are just messing with me now or what! I guess this is what to expect when you use frequent flier miles and only pay $99.50 a ticket. But since we will be traveling within 24 hours, I will be printing out our boarding passes real soon so they can't re-neg on me.
I am including some photos of my family, so I can have my shiny familiar faces just a click away while in an unfamiliar world.
If anyone runs into something that looks like this:
Could you please give him a hug and kiss for me?This is mostly for me, I will be missing him while I am gone.
12:00pm Ok, I just tried to print our boarding passes, and conveniently, Air France ticketing through the website is down. Hmmm. I think I have a flagged reference number. We'll get to the airport and find we won't be getting on! Arrrrrggghhhh
3:30pmOK SO THIS IS IT. I am officially holding 2 confirmations saying we are checked in. Although they aren't boarding passes, it's the next best thing. I wish my back understood that-it's prrrretty tight at the moment.
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