South Africa Week 1

Well, it's still dark, and i have to get up to catch my flight, the shuttle is booked for 5am as my flight is due to leave at 7.15am to Jo'burg. There are a lot of African / South African people on the flight, regulars i think. But we have a good flight getting in 25 mins early. As there were not many non Africans on the flight i was 5th in the queue for immigration, and my bag was in the first 10, so i was out waiting for Steph before my flight was due to land at 10.30!

It was great to see Steph looking so well. We went to do a bit of shopping as i needed some new sandals, having left my shoes in Uganda for the kids at st moses orphanage. it was the red dust that had covered my trainers and shoes, and thought that they could be more used there. It was so nice to be doing 'normal' things, and the shops to be normal, and not to be stared at because you were white. Steph said that it was strange compared to the UK, but i commented that compared to Uganda, it was almost like home - apart from the weather of course! To be normal it was off to the supermarket for the weekly shop and a takeaway pizza. Great!

This first week, was about learning to relax, having spent most of the time in Uganda working, but there was still some procedures to write, 2 lots in fact, so on Tuesday after catching some rays in the morning, it was time to get 1 lot done, as well as report back to the Act 4 Africa office in the UK on the work that had been done, and some areas that i hadn't managed to get done. Talking of more things normal, it was off to the cinema in the evening, after a great italian meal, to see Will Smith in his latest film "Seven Pounds".

Having had a day of work, Wednesday was a day to see the sights, but as i said it was a week for relaxing so, after lunch Steph and I headed to Krugersdorp Game Reserve for a drive around, to see what we could see. Steph said that the previous times she had seen Rhino, so i was looking forward to that.
On entering the Reserve there is a Hippo pond (a large pond) where there were supposedly hippo but Steph had never seen them. This was her chance as two sets of eyes popped up, so we stopped for a while, but that was all we got to see. Up and down they went a few times. so we drove on.
It was a cooler afternoon, so we hoped to see several animals, but the grass was long, so not sure of our chances. Driving around we saw
Wildebeest, Zebras, guinea fowl, Buck, Impala, Springboks, and a couple of female ostrich..they walked right in front of the car, but i was only driving slowly so it didn't matter. on taking photos, i discovered that i had taken my SD card out of the camera, and the internal memory only held 8 pictures, so they had to be good to keep! But no Rhinos...
We then went to the Lion Enclosure, and before we entered there was the Lion and his 2 Lioness' lying by the fence enjoying the sun. Which meant that our drive through this area was quicker, as we had already seen them. Then we went for a quick walk around the Aviary, where we saw Crested Crane, and various other birds including Mallard ducks - they get everywhere.

Thursday, Steph had to work for a couple of hours, so i relaxed at home, we then did some shopping, and i cooked dinner, this was a change, the first time in over a month, it was great to do it.

Friday dawned, and i was off for a surprise, it meant leaving at 7am and taking my costume. Jean picked us up and off we went. It was a girls day trip to an African Spa. A real time to relax, chat and be pampered.
Breakfast was first, followed by Feet and lower leg massage. Sat enjoying the Impala, Wildebeest and Ostrich (a female alone). And then the rain came, and wind and hail - big, the size of small stones. After a drink it was off for Head and Shoulder Massage, drink time again and then a Facial. Each treatment was about 45mins- 1 hour.
Then it was time for lunch and a drink (non alcoholic of course - well that's what i chose). Then it was a full body exfoliation using sugar and citrus, a drink - this time i went for the white wine and then a dip in the hot tub. Snack and Drink time followed by hand and lower arm massage, again the wind and rain came, and the winds were strong. Then a full body massage using hot stones. A farewell drink and chocolate, and then home time. It was about 5pm. I was so relaxed it was unbelievable.
Saturday was another day for chilling out, a bit of reading, catching up on emails, a lazy day - just what you need to recharge the batteries. Dinner was at a great Chinese in Pretoria, but the spring rolls were huge, i had ordered two thinking they were small snack like the UK, this meant that i struggled to finish my main course.

Sunday was church, following which we drove upto Pretoria to see the Union Buildings, which were high on the hill and overlooked the whole city. Then back home to work...i wanted to get the procedures finished and steph had some work to do as the auditors were in on Monday.

The other great thing about being with Steph and Brian, was the choice of tv and films. There was a few trips down memory lane watching Airwolf, and several other classic shows they had recorded.....
It's great to know that you are at home at a friends, when you can just help out when needed and no issue about making drinks, meals or doing the washing. Great friends are hard to find. Thanks Steph and Brian.