The Adventure Begins................

Flying high in blue

Below white waves pound onward

Toward Africa

May 13 at JFK I met up with sisters Paula and Jen who flew in from San Francisco - we enjoyed supper and an early night at a hotel. Awakened on a bright, sunny New York morning, we three then boarded a huge South African Airways jet, made ourselves comfortable in Business Class (heaven for long hauls) and headed to Johannesburg.  The expected refuelling stop in Senegal didn't happen - apparently now only required on flights originating from Washington, D.C. - so flight was a non-stop 14 hours.

Our fourth adventurer, sweet Babs, arrived from England and we met up within an hour of landing, around 8:00 AM, and headed over to our airport hotel.

Paula, Jen, Babs and Mary ~ ready for a grand safari adventure!

Rather than go into downtown Jo-burg, we had lunch and looked around the Emperor's Palace and Casino/hotel complex.  Similar to a mini Las Vegas, especially the interior complete with painted Venetian ceiling and David (you are just getting his cute rear here!).

Outside in the gardens is this beautiful statue sculpted in Arizona.

Needless to say, this was our last exposure to ordinary life for a while...............come back for my next post and see how we arrived at our first bush camp in quite unexpected style!