January 2008

Saturday, January 5, 2008 – in Joburg
Hello friends/family,
Back from our Transfrontier Park adventure. Many stories to tell (including seeing a 10+foot black mamba crossing the track while we were driving...only the deadliest snake in Africa. Paul wanted to get out and take a picture...NOT!) but unfortunately not enough time now to do so. Headed to the airport in an hour or so. I'll write when I return to the states.
Cheers,
Kristy

Saturday, January 5, 2008 – delayed
Update - after 4 hours in the airport, the bottom line is that the flight I was supposed to be on was over booked by about 20-30 people so I was not able to fly out tonight (the silver lining in the cloud is I get to spend one more night with Paul!). It seems that they always overbook expecting a certain % of people to not show up and that was not the case tonight! (lots of anxious university students going to miss the first day of class!).

I've been rebooked onto the same flight for tomorrow evening. Supposedly I have will be "forced loaded" onto the flight (sounds painful!) meaning I cannot be bumped again. So I should arrive from South African flight #207 departing 6:15 PM Sunday night and arriving 6 AM Monday morning. I should then connect to United Flight 7201 arriving in Greenville at 9:44 AM - not sure if anyone out there reading is available to pick me up?? (I'll check tomorrow AM if anyone is available for airport pick up just let me know via email and I'll confirm via email). If not, I'll just take a cab.

Despite the frustration of non-communicative airline staff, all is well here.

Yes, I know, I know... I have "less than good luck" when flying...I'm trying not to take it personally.
Hopefully I'll write to you from Greenville tomorrow.
Kristy

Sunday, January 6, 2008 – Kgalagadi Klips
Friends/Family,
As I'm waiting in Joburg for my flight this evening (or at least we hope I will be departing this evening), I wanted to send you some photos from the Transfrontier trip (also called the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park....remember 'g's are pronounced like you are coughing up a luggy). The first of a dead eland. Unfortunately because they have been experiencing a drought in the area we were in (less than a quarter of an inch of rain since June!) we saw probably 20 or so dead elands along the way. Paul wanted me to stand near one so that you could see how big they really are (up to 2000 pounds!).

The next one is a sleepy ground squirrel and his friends from our camp ground in Nossob. The site was loaded with ground squirrels and these little guys are pretty slow risers in the morning (worse than me). Each camp site we went to seemed to have an abundance of something (flies at one, millipedes at another, moths then worms....my favorite abundance was the ground squirrels - meets my acceptable range of 2 to 4 legs!).

Next you'll find a photo of the "killer cape cobra"...this one (probably around 12 feet long) was making his way over the top of a sociable weaver nest in order to get into the nests and eat the eggs or chicks (thus my title "killer"). There were 3 such beasts raiding this tree of nests the morning we were leaving the park. You'll be glad to know that the snake book we consulted at the ranger's station said this snake was responsible for the most deaths by snake bite in Southern Africa (the book said the same about the black mamba...I don't know which is actually the deadliest but I advise staying away from both of them!!).

Finally, we saw 3 prides of lions on our visit (and heard them roaring at night...exciting!). The final photo is of a pride of 10 or so lions snoozing under a tree in the heat of the day (most days were up around 110 degrees). At the conclusion of this roll his paws promptly landed on his neighbors head. She didn't seem to mind too much.

OK, that's all for now. Hope you enjoy them. Once we left the airport last night we had a nice dinner in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton and then spent the day today enjoying our gift of one more day together for this visit.
Hopefully I'll be writing from the states tomorrow when I arrive back home.
Cheers,
Kristy

Monday, January 7, 2008 – home safely
Just wanted to let you know that I have made it home safely (26 hours later and only a minor delay in leaving DC to GSP). Now it's time to get caught up quickly and back into the classroom tomorrow. Hope you've enjoyed sharing in my adventure. Can't wait to see all of you soon.
Kristy