Back in the UK

Oh man, where do I begin? Our posts from here on out just won't compare with our posts from Africa. We really miss it. Let's see, we flew from South Africa to Dubai to London. I do believe it was 16 hours of flight time. We returned the Warthog Express rental and hung in the Johannesburg airport for hours. By the way, they (the rental company) stamped our paperwork with NO NEW DAMAGE. Yea for Dax's auto repair work on the rental. 

Dax scowling at the nasty carrot cake in O.R. Tambo International Airport. 

Our flight to Dubai had a couple of medical emergencies. We witnessed one passenger lying in the aisle with a crew member using the defibrillator and oxygen (successfully, I might add). A lady passed out a few hours later. Another passenger helped the crew carry her to a part of the plane with more room for further assistance. We love Emirates Airlines--what a professional staff and so attentive. Our plane did not have to divert or make an unscheduled landings. 

All passengers were cared for and we arrived safely in Dubai. 

These 2 pictures are from the web, but we wanted to show the professional dress of the crew. There are also 15-20 languages represented among the crew. Amazing stuff. 

Whatever this place teaches, we should use it as a model for other service industries.

Unfortunately, our departing flight in Dubai had a gate change. We exited our first flight, zipped through security, walked to the end of one terminal (that's a hike), then caught a "train" to another terminal and walked to the VERY end. It actually was good to get some exercise between our two 8 hour flights. We were, however, disappointed that we didn't have time to use the restroom or grab some food before boarding our 2nd flight. Rats. We survived for 26 hours on candy bars from our backpacks and water from the plane (our new travel diet). We love the Airbus A380s. What a wonderful ride. Plenty of room (as far as planes go anyway), and great entertainment. We had electrical outlets to recharge all of our electronics and a great individual touch screen right in front of us. We selected movies, tv programs, news updates and games to suit our fancy. I was pretty happy to catch up on all the movies I've missed at the theaters.  Nice! (Complete with our candy bars).

We, with ALL of our luggage, arrived in London on time. Yes! Before catching the Hotel Hoppa to our hotel, we hung at a coffee shop and enjoyed some REAL sandwiches, juice and decent coffee. A shower, clean pajamas, and Herbies Pizza (delivered) was the perfect prep

 for a wonderful night's sleep in London. 

On Friday, we rented a car to drive up to Chorley. You know how you have your heart (and mind) set on the car you have reserved, right? Well, we were so looking forward to having an automatic VW  Passat Wagon. We thought, "Fantastic, we will have more room, no stick shift, less road noise, and more comfortable seats." Well, they upgraded 

us to a Jaguar 3.0 Litre V6 275 Turbocharged Diesel XF Sportbrake. 

At first we were disgusted that they didn't have what we original reserved available for us; however, at this point (2 days later), we are quite pleased with our new James Bond vehicle. We have had a bit of a learning curve, but we have decided the car may drive itself and we will let go of the control issues we originally had. Can't figure out how to open the vents for the AC? No problem, just push the button to start the car and they appear and open automatically. Can't figure out how to work the windshield wipers? Don't worry, they also manage to function independently to take care of all your visual needs. What? There is a 2 hour and 50 minutes delay due to traffic on our current route? No worries, the Jag will handle it all just fine. So, while navigating up to Chorley, I began to read the car manual. We learned something new on each page. We apparently also have a heated steering wheel. 

 Isaiah and a curious little boy patiently waiting for our rental.

The Jag (no longer Warthog Express, but awaiting a new title), took us to our new "home" on some beautiful, narrow, curvy roads (all paved and no South African potholes). 

We are set on 200 acres of beauty. 

Our current "home" near Chorley, UK.

On our current property.

Isaiah and 2 new friends feeding the ducks and other birds.

More of the beautiful grounds.

Lovely plants and flowers.

My new favorite. Does anyone happen to know what it is?

After exploring the property, we walked down a road just a bit

 and stumbled upon an antique sale/flea market like building. 

We had a grand time visiting with the sellers. 

Isaiah is now the proud owner of a British Royal Navy Beret. If we weren't so far from home, we would bring back an antique armoire, a bamboo fly rod, multiple framed mirrors, small tables, instruments, etc. Rats to the luggage limitations. 

Isaiah not only gained a beret, but also a new friend. This is Nile. At 9 years of age, he is the middle child of seven in his family. They had a great time playing with plastic action figures and army guys. Nile even gave Isaiah some of his toys for keeps. 

Instantly compatible.

We asked Nile's mother if he could come swimming with us at our hotel. She accepted our offer. She said she could drop him off at 1 p.m. Well, he didn't arrive until 1:30, but they were so grateful we waited. As we were walking to the pool, Nile said, "Isaiah, have you ever met anyone who could move their joints?" While holding his hand out and popping his thumb in and out of joint, Isaiah said, "Like this?" Nile stuck out his hand and did the same thing. Instant friendship! They later discovered the following similarities: 1) Not particularly fond of school 2) Don't like vegetables 3) Enjoy video games 4) Love legos 5) Love chocolate

Nile and Isaiah

 

The boys being silly for the camera.

Since we could not bring our staff from Africa with us to England, we've had to do our own laundry. Pitiful, aren't we? We found a local laundrette about 3 miles away. The gentleman on the left so kindly helped us figure out how things worked. This is the entire laundry mat. It's no bigger than you see here. See that door on the back right? If you need change, you ring the doorbell and wait for the owner to answer. When that door opens, the smell that pours out is quite overwhelming. It was worse than any smell we've experienced in China or Africa. The gentleman who helped us explained that the owner has all kinds of animals living in there with him. Everything from chickens to pigs. It is an option to drop off your laundry there to be done for you. I can't imagine having that same man doing our laundry. Yuck! 

The boys in the laundrette. Yes, Isaiah is being a goof ball. :)

Dax's customer took us to dinner tonight. We had

Goosnargh chicken on dauphinoise potatoes with 

mushroom, onion, herb and white wine 

sauce, and fresh vegetables (which I actually ate). Absolutely delicious. 

We met the owner and his wife, his son (and wife), and his daughter (and boyfriend). 

The owner is a former professional race car driver and his big hobby now is classic cars. 

Dax went to his house yesterday and got to see 7 or so of his cars. Neat stuff. 

 Tomorrow, Dax will have to get up early for work (poor thing), while Isaiah and I sleep in (blessed things). I imagine Isaiah will take me to the pool again for my four hours of exercise since I have yet to stop eating this summer. 

South African Braai and Goodbyes

This evening we went to visit Dax's customer and family in Delmas. They invited us to their braai. All I can say, is that American's "got nothin'" compared to this for a cookout/bbq. This beats any family reunion picnic or cookout, neighborhood bbq, or other gathering. We had such a delightful time with Gert Davis and his family. Bedro (Gert's wife), Gert (his son) and Sjuna (daughter-in-law), Bernadette (Gert's daughter) and Dewald (son-in-law), Codan (Bernadette and Dewald's 4 year old son), and Ben ("Jacobi") and Bettie (Gert's parents) shared their home with us all evening. We didn't get back "home" until nearly 11 p.m. Isaiah had a grand time playing pool, ping pong, and messing around with one of their dogs, Sharky, a 3 month old Scottish Terrier. 

Back Row (L-R): Sjuna, Bedro, Bernadette, Gert, Codan

Front Row (L-R): Gert, Dewald

At our braai, we had: Steak, pork, mutton, boerewors, bacon, a pasta salad that had unusual spices, a different potato salad, slap pap (smooth maize meal porridge) with some kind of sauce, grilled mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, cheese, pineapple, candies, cookies, chocolates, raisins, bread, our favorite malva pudding with custard and milk tart. We even had hot chocolate, tea and coffee with our dessert. DELICIOUS!

Gert has such delightful parents. I really enjoyed visiting with them extensively. Gert is a known South African artist and gave us one of his paintings that he just finished. It is actually still drying out on the deck. Ben ("Jacobi") is a self-taught painter. 

Check out some of his work online:

http://www.ferreiraart.com/artists.php?artist=56

Gert's Parents, Ben and Bettie

Well, we are currently gearing up for our long travel back to London. Our first flight doesn't leave until 10:20 p.m. We fly from here to Dubai, then quickly find our favorite Airbus A380 to London. We have about 16 hours of flight time ahead of us. We'll catch the Hotel Hoppa to our hotel and hopefully get a great night's sleep in London. Then, on Friday, we rent a bigger car (no longer a manual Warthog Express) and drive up to Chorley. So, if we are too tired, we won't update the blog in London, we'll just wait until Friday when we get into Chorley. 

Hoping for a fantastic 24 hours of travel with no snags! 

Oh, and here are Isaiah's final goodbyes to his new posse. We love our rotts.

Isaiah and Bush

Isaiah and Jabby

Isaiah and George--that dog is always looking for trouble.

Isaiah and Jokky

Isaiah and our Rotts. 

Pictured L-R: Isaiah, Bush, Jokky, George, Jabby

We will update the blog when we can! Probably in Chorley.

Hubcaps and Other Observations

Yesterday (Sunday), we took a dry run drive over to Delmas to make sure Dax could find where his customer is located. We've noticed that all hubcaps are attached to the wheel with ties. Even our "Warthog Express" has this feature. If you don't have the caps tied on, then you will be buying them back the next day from someone selling them in the middle of the road. We also have determined that the theft of hubcaps is not the sole purpose of having them tied onto your wheels. The potholes would cause them to fly off if they weren't attached. I haven't taken the time to take a photo of our hubcaps yet, but here is an example from the web. It doesn't matter if you have an old junker or a brand new rental, you will find at least 2 ties on each hubcap. 

This picture only has one tie (bottom/middle).

An actual road sign has an exclamation point with the word potholes under it. Even on the paved roads, it is nearly impossible to go the speed limit and successfully dodge the potholes. Hey, at least they warn you of their presence. Slaggate means pothole in Afrikaans.

South Africa has some amazing road signs. The "Dung Beetles Have Right of Way" and 

"Hi-Jacking Hot Spot" signs are just two prime examples. 

Other interesting road signs:

"Pedestrian Crossing Next 2 Km"--posted along the highway. We are not sure how in the world someone could cross the N4 highway, and besides, there is nothing on either side of the road. Though, we continue to see lots of people doing it. 

"Warning--Cow and Pedestrian Crossing--No Fences!"--posted on highways. 

They just can't keep the cows and people fenced in, we suppose. 

Also, yesterday, after our visit to Delmas, we went to the movies and saw After Earth. We were the only people in the theatre. Isaiah had a bottled water and a crunch bar. It was super cheap--less than half of what it is in the USA. We also noticed they don't have any napkins. 

 Oh,  and trash cans are hard to find, too.

Isaiah enjoyed playing "big chess"while waiting for the movie to begin. 

As you can see, he had everyone rooting for him. 

Isaiah slept until 10 a.m. this morning. It's REALLY hard to get out of bed here because these concrete floors and just toooo cold. Dax left for work at 8 a.m. I got up shortly after he left to take a hot shower. Well, to my surprise (I'm not sure why stuff in this country still surprises me), I was not only without hot water, but any water at all. Not even a drop came out of that spicket. So, I got dressed again, and went back under the covers to stay warm. I waited until Isaiah got up and then tried again. Tadaah! Water! Even hot water! TIA. 

Dax came home with a big slab of meat wrapped in some brown paper from his customer today. We had no idea what it was. One of the "big guys" around here (maybe the owner), Roger, sure knew what it was and carried on about it for 30 minutes. He said we had at least R300 worth of biltong. It's a delicacy here. We are thinking we need to keep it in the front seat of the Warthog Express to pay off the crooked cops. Anyway, Roger had me track down a sharp knife and plate from the kitchen staff and he sliced some up and helped himself. It must be the equivalent of an expensive wine or some delicious chocolate in the states. 

I tried it and thought, 

"Ewww, this is a delicacy?" 

He told us to protect it or it will get stolen. 

Well, we are waiting for him to leave so we can give it to "Momi" and the other staff to enjoy. 

Our biltong is actually made from beef which is the best, in comparison to game (according to Expert Roger). Biltong is South African dried meat. The word comes from Dutch with BIL meaning buttock and TONG meaning strip. 

As far as I'm concerned it must taste like strips of butt. Yuck! 

Whatever you do, don't compare it to beef jerky--it is apparently far better than that. 

We all enjoyed another walk with our 4 rotts this evening. Along the way, we had to use our pool sticks while another man used an iron rod to break up our 4 rotts and his 4 sheep dogs. You know those rotts would kick their you know whats if we let them. Then, we admired the boxers next door yipping like crazy as the rotts swaggered back.

Those boxers have a big bark when they are protected by a fence. 

 Isaiah likes to watch these rivals do their thing.

From front right to left/very back: Jokky, Jabby, George, and Bush.

 (Winding down after their rival encounters). 

Dax and Isaiah trying to beat the computer in a chess game this evening.

Here is something that we forgot to post about earlier. Can you guess what this is? 

Yes indeed, it is a termite mound. 

Termites divide labor among gender lines, produce overlapping generations 

and take care of young collectively. 

They live in these giant mounds here. 

Scientists have discovered that the size and distribution of termite mounds in South Africa 

can be used to predict ecological shifts from climate change.

Okay, it's time for us to get ready for bed. We don't have any plans until tomorrow evening. Dax's customer invited us to his house for an authentic South African braai. 

We have to meet him at his office/shop at 5:00 p.m. and follow him to his house. Don't know if we'll have time to post tomorrow night or not--depends on how late it is when we get back. 

I might wait until the next day. 

A Successful Day on the Warthog Express

We left Phalaborwa this morning at 8:00 a.m. Before leaving, the owners (Dave and Sam), got their daughter (Becky) up to say goodbye to Isaiah. They had such a delightful time playing together all day yesterday. She was still in her PJs--so sweet. 

Some of you know that Isaiah names our rental vehicles. Last year, he named our Jeep in Canada--CLARK. As in Lewis and Clark, since they are explorers. This year he named our little Nissan Livina, THE WARTHOG EXPRESS. Now that is one nifty name. It's so ugly, just like the warthogs here in South Africa, 

and it's little like a warthog (in comparison to an elephant).

We took a scenic route back in order to see the Blyde River Canyon located in Mpumalanga. Our pictures aren't of the best quality due to the haze and the fact that it's winter here. I'll post our pictures, but also include a picture from the internet so you can see what it looks like at a different time of year. 

One of the best views of the area is of the Three Rondavels. These are huge, round rocks that look like the houses or huts of the indigenous people, known as rondavels. 

Here is one from the internet.

Of course he fell asleep about 2 hours from Benoni.

Tomorrow will be a rest day here in Benoni--will probably hang out with the rotts and the staff. Then, on Monday, Dax has to work. Isaiah and I will hang here. Looking forward to some relaxing time here. 

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention! We had 10 hours on the road today with NO police incidents. That is a new record! :)

The Night Drive (last night) and Today's Rest Day

Last night, we were able to go on a night safari with a driver/gun boy. God bless those gun boys and their .458 caliber rifles. Isaiah got to hold one of the lights 

during our safari to help spot wildlife. 

I'm pretty sure the temperature dropped from 22 degrees C to 8 degrees C within one kilometer. That's like the lower 70's to the 40's. Brrr...we had our coats and some blankets that were provided. Still yet, being in an open air vehicle, it was cold. 

A few highlights: We enjoyed watching the scrub hares zig zag in the road at 70 km/hr. And boy can they jump! We also saw some klipspringer, spotted hyaenas, Chacma baboons, elephants, zebras, Cape buffalo, and a caracal. The greatest highlight of the evening was watching a leopard. We spotted it up in a tree across a dry river bed. We watched him sit in the tree, come down the tree head first, and swagger down the way, then turn and come on over to our side--that would be when we drove off. We were between two elephants for a short bit, too, until one started to look as if he was going to charge.

 It was a beautiful night with the most magnificent sky. On the way back, we had Isaiah lie down across our laps under a blanket to keep us warmer. He was a great little heater. 

Our gun boy (and Isaiah).  Check out those .458 cartridges. He has had to shoot 
lots of wildlife for safety reasons. The rifle road right by his side. Easy access!

Our safari boy with his fishin' lure hat. 

The zebra before it got dark on last night's safari.

The Chacma Baboons. This area was loaded with them. 
You can only see 3 clearly in this photo. 
There were babies riding on the backs of others. They are known as "junk riders"-- :)

The OLD Cape Buffalo. Note the deterioration of his horns. They are grumpy, moody beasts. They are NOT known for their trustworthiness. 

The back side of one of the hyenas.

Today we rested and hung out together. Isaiah also played with Rebecca, the owner's daughter. She is in the 2nd grade and just delightful. It was neat to watch them run around the secure grounds, actually get IN the pool (BRRR), have water gun fights, talk about their accents, etc. They also played with Rebecca's dog, Chelsey. 
Rats, I did not get a picture of Chelsey, the bull terrier. 

We were finally able to find some touch up paint today for the rental. Auto body shops here are called  panel beaters. Google is not much help when you have never heard of a panel beater. LOL. We also waited in line for over an hour at a bank to get some more money exchanged. While waiting, a small boy enjoyed Isaiah's company. 

Tomorrow, we plan to drive back down to Johannesburg/Benoni and hit Blyde River Canyon on the way. Should be a beautiful trip. We hope to get an early start and get to Benoni before dark. Yeah right, we all know how that goes. :)

My Next Career: SAPS

Yes, I do believe that my next career move will be with the SAPS (South African Police Service). I'm thinking I could make quite a difference within this organization. And, if I totally fail at it, I'm sure I could make a better living. Nothing like a crooked organization. I realize that all organizations have their "bad employees"--but we were 3 for 3 yesterday. Our plan was to drive to the Numbi Gate of Kruger National Park and then explore H1-1 to Skukuza. Then, we wanted to take H1-2 over to Tshokwane and on up Satara, before turning on Satara Road to take us out of Kruger National Park via the Orpen Gate. 

Well, doesn't that sound like a beautiful plan for the day? We had ample time for the route with lots of time to stop for photos and watch wildlife, or so we thought. On the way down R40, we were stopped by police just outside of Hoedspruitt. We were told we need to go back to Hoedspruitt to pay R750. Apparently they had stop lights that were out of service (that we did not see) and the rule it to stop no matter what. My question is, if it happened to be totally dark outside and there was no way to see the broken light, then what? There was no blinking light, no stop sign, nobody directing traffic. We, at the time, were watching 2 boys cross the street in front of us. One chose to cross and the other chose to wait, then we drove forward. So, we did actually stop. We noticed others being pulled over at the same spot. I wonder if they purposely turn off traffic signals to make some extra cash. Who knows? Anyway, he told us we could go back to pay the ticket in Hoedspruitt and get a receipt or we could pay him and not get a receipt. See how that works? They just pocket the money. Quite a living I could make doing that. Anyway, we paid him and kept going in order to keep our current schedule. 

About 1,000 pot holes in the road later, we arrived at Numbi Gate. We entered without incident. We planned ahead and had all the paperwork filled out in advance. This time they checked our passports. Two days ago at the Phalaborwa Gate they said they didn't need our passports. Nothing like consistency. 

We had a picnic lunch with the waterbucks and then kept to our route. Here are some of Dax's magnificent pictures. I'm telling you, it was fantastic. 

I wish I could recreate the experience for you.

Chacma Baboons. Lots of them. Just hanging out by the road. Big ones and little ones. So cute. 

Impalas. Gosh, she is beautiful.

Isn't he handsome? Oh my goodness!

We saw herds of giraffes.

Herds and herds of Blue Wildebeests.

Nile Crocodile. YIKES! We also saw sooo many hippos today.

 Isaiah has quite the eye for finding hippo heads from afar.

Oh my gosh. There is really nothing quite like watching a lion.

So, looks like a perfect day, right? (Other than the unjustified informal ticket). We made it to Satara and guess what! Yep, the road was closed. NOW, we can't get out of the park before the Orpen Gate closes at 5:30 p.m. We had to take an unmarked gravel road. Note, it is pitch black dark at this point. We drove and drove and finally found our way to the Orpen Gate. A man wrote down our information on a log and let us through. Then, we arrived at the 2nd (final gate). I tell you what, it sure felt like the "final gate" so to speak. There was a man in a park uniform, a man dressed nicely, and then 2 men (very serious men) dressed in military like clothing. The park guy approached our car. He said, "You're late." We agreed with him. We explained we had been trying to get out of the park; however, the road was closed. He went back and talked to the other 3 men in native tongue. The whole process took like 30 minutes I'm thinking. It won't sound that long in this narrative, but there was so much "down" time with no interaction. They searched our car, but we never got out of it. A while later the park guy said, "You're late. We have to call the safety patrol now. It is out of our hands." We just sat there. We aren't sure what he was expecting us to do or say, so we did nothing, and said, "Okay." You could tell he didn't want to call them. He got on the phone and walked away and talked to the other 3 men a bit (again, not in English). He very seriously walked back to us and said, "You are late, what should we do to punish you? What is your punishment?" Okay, at that point, what would YOU say? You can imagine all kinds of stuff popped into my head. We again explained why we were late. Also, at that moment, Dax slid me his cash so I could separate it appropriately and stash it in my different bags. We figured we were going to have to "slip him some fragrant grease" (pay them/bribe them) to get out. We didn't want them to see our wad of cash. I would gladly give them all of Dax's money if they let us go safely, without incident. Well, a while later, he approached us again and asked what should be our punishment. I said, "Do we need to pay a fine somewhere or do we pay you the fine?" He shook his head and said, "Oh, no." Well geesh--what in the heck did they have in mind then? More time ticked away, the guys talked some more and the one man approached us again. He asked where we were staying and all that stuff. He told us how to exit and get to Phalaborwa and opened the gate. Then, Isaiah thanked God, as we did as well. 

By this time, we were really hungry and had to use the restroom. We stopped about 1/2 way back to grab a snack. We made it to Phalaborwa with no further problems. It was about 9 p.m. and we decided to try to find something of substance to eat for a late supper. We were approaching an intersection where we were going to turn left. We had slowed and nearly stopped when we noticed a car in front of us backing up. Oh my gosh! They hit us. His back left bumper hit our right front edge of the rental. We even honked to warn him and he kept on coming. The passenger was drunk and hanging out the front door sharing some of his most colorful language with us (the international f-bomb). The driver got out of the car and came to Dax's window. I told Isaiah to not make eye contact and just keep looking ahead. Dax rolled down his window and said, "I'm going to the police station." He rolled up his window and we drove to the SAPS Station. The whole way I repeated the vehicle ID number so I wouldn't forget it. Dax went in and Isaiah and I stayed in the car with the doors locked. We noticed the car that hit us was driving around the SAPS Station a few times. The policeman came out with a form and a pen. In the dark, by the light of Isaiah's Nintendo 3DS XL, the man took down all the information he needed from us. This took an entire two hours. After all that, he gives us a small slip of paper with a handwritten number on it (police report number to give to rental company) and a hand stamp. Isaiah said that they really need to get computers for all this mess. 

So, guess what we have been doing today. We managed to find most of stuff we needed in order to "fix" the car. Dax has been working on it all afternoon and has successfully fixed it. In about an hour, we leave for our "night drive" at Kruger. Isaiah is thrilled that we will not be driving ourselves. They are picking us up, treating us to a snack, then we are going on another "safari"--this time with escorts/gun boys/etc. We already signed the paperwork to say they are not liable for injury due to wildlife, including themselves. HA! I'm good with that. 

We have managed so far. 

Oh, I forgot to mention. We also saw a leopard in the road when we were navigating our way out of the park. YEA for us! We managed to see the "big 5" on our own with tons of other wildlife. I'll have to list those later.