Headed Home Today

Friday, Oct 22, 2010  South Africa

Storm Brewing...

Today, we are headed home... and a good day for that with a storm coming!  We have had a great time, but I am ready to go home and see my family.  We've been away for almost 3 weeks.  We awoke to a very cloudy, windy morning.  We have been so fortunate with our weather and have been able to do everything we wanted to do.  We had the much wanted overcast on the days we wanted to do the Safaris and we had sunshine on the days we wanted to go whaling, shark feeding, fishing and such.

Some areas are in desperate need of rain and the rainy season is just starting.  Things will green up fast  and will make it more difficult for sighting the animals.  The obvious watering-holes won't be so popular either, as they will begin to find other water sources more hidden.

I did some research and knew this was a good time for safari adventures and I knew that we were catching the tail end of the whale watching season... so lucky for us, our timing was good and we got to do and see everything we came for.

Obviously, South Africa is very large and we only touched on the Eastern and the Southern areas, so one could spend much more time touring.  I guess that just gives us reason to travel back again some day.  We made some new friends along the way and maybe one day we will see them again.

On our way down the windy road at the Wilderness Dunes, I stopped to take a few more pics...  It seemed that everyday something new was blooming!  They took such good care of everything and kept the roads swept and cleared of fallen blooms... amazing the time they spent on making the grounds so pretty.  Off to return our rental car and to the airport!

We ended up traveling a total of 23 hours on the actual airplane with a total of 30 hours in the airport/airplane just to get home... and we had been up all day before leaving.  The seats on the return flight were not as comfortable as when we flew out.  I'm not kidding, my tailbone hurt so bad!  I had a donut pillow which helped, but the seats were in desperate need of more padding.  Neither one of us slept much on the way home.  One of these days we'll pay the extra bucks and fly first-class... well maybe, I just think about with the money it would take to do that, that could be another plane ticket paid to somewhere else! ... and I have a list of places to go!

One other thing, it is a small world... we were in the George Airport waiting for our flight to Johannesburg, when I walked past Christine from the Mossel Bay Rotary Club.  She was headed to Joburg as well and then on to London.  I couldn't believe I actually remembered her name right off the top of my head.  Was nice to have another good-bye with her.

And with our gladness, "1 Time Airline" was on time, and we didn't have to change gates -- not even once nor did we have to ride a shuttle bus!  Thank goodness!  We had plenty of time for check-in at Delta for our final flight to Tulsa.

I will say though, that South Africa is not as strict with airline procedures.  We didn't have to take off our shoes, jacket, jewelry, or such to get through any security.  We didn't even go through customs upon arriving in their Country.  We got our luggage and proceeded to the rental car counter.  We did have security check points at George getting to JoBurg, then again at JoBurg as we headed to the U.S.  But what was interesting was that while we were at the gate ready to board the plane they came and did another security check at the gate.  Full pat down for every passenger and a manual search through all carry-on luggage.  I found out they do that for every flight heading to the U.S.  So sad that is needed, but I will simply say-- "Thank you"!

Was sure nice to see Ashley when she picked us up at the airport 10 a.m. on Oct 23, 2010.  And sleeping in our own bed that night was a nice bonus!