AFRICA

We were in gone for a total of16 days, from May 11 thru the 27th. It took one full day to get there and a day and a half to get home, leaving us 2 full weeks on the ground in Africa. We flew out of Dulles in Washington, DC. Our Daughter, Lisa, met us in DC and went with us on our trip. Her husband, Brian, volunteered to keep their 4 children ages 12 to 2, so that she could go with us. It is a blessing to have a good son-in-law.

It was a straight flight with only one stop in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, to refuel and take on some new passengers, but since we didn't get out of the airplane, I don't count it as a country I have been to. In my world, I have to actually get out of the airplane and out of the airport before I count it as a country I have visited.

Dakar was about half way. Like I said it was a VERY long trip getting there and back. We landed in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the evening and were met by George Hammett. Then we set off on a 4 hour car trip up to the city where he and his family live called Tzeneen. Not sure of the spelling of this town. For the next week George and Kristin treated us like kings and were our tour guides, and hosts. We were able to go with George to one of his Studies and to meet several of the people he is working with in his city. It was great.

These folks also took time out of their lives to take us to Krueger Park, which is a very large game reserve, about the size of the state of New Jersey. We took two jeep safaris, one morning and one evening, and one driving tour in our own vehicle. We saw every animal there was, with the exception of the cheetah and rhino. What we did see were scores of elephants, zebras, giraffe, monkeys, one full-mane male lion about 15 feet from our open sided vehicle :O That was a teeny bit hairy! He did not seem surprised to see us and stopped in the middle of the road to look at us. We were all speechless to see him and nobody moved or breathed until he mosied on off the road and into the bush. This was the first safari and it was in the early evening.

More later, hopefully tomorrow. My grandson is trying to eat bugs. Gotta go!!