Well we finally arrived in South Africa after an interesting start to our journey at the Virgin check in desk in London yesterday. We arrived as early, 2.30pm, as we normally do and waited for Kim and Ioanna, who were coming on their first safari and were enroute from Yeovil. They arrived excitedly, just after 3pm, and we went to check in - I handed over our passports - the lady on the check in desk kept thumbing through John's then finally said he hasn't got two clear pages - we said they only need a small rectangle for the stamp. She called her boss, who called his boss who finally said John couldn't travel with Virgin as they would potentially get fine $5500. He said however that they would see if BA or South African Airways had a seat as the authorities weren't as strict with them. Nothing on South African but there was one economy seat on BA leaving at 7.10pm. John now looked quite relieved as he feared not traveling out until Monday and having to go into London to get a replacement passport when the office opened. Anything else was a bonus! I checked in his luggage with Virgin so he could go bag free and speed up his process as he also had to get to terminal 5. He took my phone so he could phone us with news as to whether BA had been concerned or not with his passport. We rejigged the hand luggage and tried to make sure he had enough English money and only a little South African ( in case he didn't make it!) and off he went waving goodbye with us all hoping he got to Johannesburg before us. The girls and I headed off through security for a relaxing meal, head massage for them and facial for me in the Virgin Lounge.
Just after 5pm John phoned to say he was airside at terminal 5 and didn't have any issues so he would see us in South Africa - phew!!! What a start to our holiday! The girls and I arrived into Johannesburg around 9am were quickly through immigration then waited for our bags - all collected we ventured through customs. Just before we exited we picked up a free virgin mobile sim which I then bought more time with at Woolworth's in the terminal building and we proceeded out to see John sitting at the Illy coffee shop having already met up with Becky our guide.
He had a final twist in his travel tale - as they landed the captain told them that he almost turned back due to a massive water leak in their new Airbus 380- but as it was a night flight decided to continue on - another phew!
Once I had a coffee to soothe my sore throat, and visited the ATM we headed off to the van and started our drive to Lydenburg only stopping for lunch at the best service station ever - great food and coffee options with rhino, buffalo, eland and other assorted antelope in the surrounding fields.
At a pub outside the reserve we changed vehicles and hopped on a Landrover for the very hilly ride to the camp. Joe, a German guide and Becky's partner drove us while we looked out for wildlife....warthogs, zebra and impala were spotted; Ionna got a great picture of a zebra rolling his lip back scenting the females urine. There were also lots of European bee eaters flying overhead. The skies were darkening and the last 15 minutes were a mad dash as the skies opened, and much needed rain fell - after a dry summer they fear a drought may be in the offing. As we arrived we decamped quickly and ran into the dry. After a brief familiarization we were taken to our family tent - 2 tents under one cover with a connecting verandah - lovely. Once settled in we made our way down for dinner before the girls had their first night sleeping in the African bush!
(Today's photo is of silvery leaf protea which is found in the high-veld on the reserve.)