Thursday, September 22, 2016

Southern Africa - Day 1 - Wednesday/Thursday, September 21/22

What a lovely way to start a trip: Breakfast at Briar Patch, ride to the airport from my brother, good flying weather. Sallie Hicks is a perfect travel companion. We both are too wimpy to fly in Economy (I'm too claustrophobic, and can't sit still more than 90 minutes). I feel very fortunate that I was able to do it this time. Of course that means starting off with a mimosa.


I used the 15-1/2 hours from Atlanta well, clearing out 2/3 of the 2,600 photos on my phone, watching a movie I've been dying to see - Iris, eating and eating some more, took a nice nap, and drank two liters of Pellegrino.



Karen, the flight's purser, whispered to me that she turned 75 last month.  I had to use one of my Delta "compliment an employee" forms to say nice things about her. One of the meals was a soooo-tender piece of lamb accompanied by roast vegetables and pureed cauliflower. I only made my way thru a third, but it was Good.

After about 13 hours of flight I inched the shade up and saw land. I think I felt like Columbus. 15-1/2 hours is a long time. And the land was amazing. I knew nothing about Namibia except how to spell it before this trip. Last week I learned of its great dessert and appeal to adventurers. The views were awesome (enlarge them!):



Well, I have some better photos and others from the day, but I'm experiencing computer misery. Verrrrry slow internet connection, it doesn't like to upload pictures in order, very time-consuming. I guess I better quit here and hope for a better tomorrow. It's 11:51 in Jo'burg and Sallie and I are up at 7. We came a day early, saving more than $1k, and we have a driver to take us to 3 sites tomorrow that I'm eager to see after listening to Nelson Mandela's autobiography.

I haven't done a simple blog in two years, and my skills are definitely rusty.

Hope this blog post works for you!