Once on the road, we also began our other semi-daily ritual of Kathy wringing her hands as Bob passes slow moving trucks on the crazy two lane highways of South Africa. There is a single lane in each direction with passing by pulling into the lane of opposing traffic. This is further complicated by random people walking the highway and frequent groups of hitchhikers milling about. It is like playing that arcade driving game Pole Position except your kids are in the backseat. The road that we were on (the N 2) has frequent signs that read "high accident zone next 5km". The "conversation" always goes the same. Kathy: "look, it is a high accident zone." Bob: "I saw that, better speed-up so we can through as quickly as possible."
After a quick stop in a small roadside village to grab snacks and more sunscreen, we arrived at the airstrip approximately 2 hours before flight time. A perfect opportunity to get some skool work done in a small outdoor waiting area. (See how I spelled that? We won't be replacing Mr. K. or Ms. V. anytime soon).
Just as the academic portion of our day ended, Dieter proved that he had in fact set his alarm and "Face Timed" us at 6am EST. Roman and Mabret had a blast chatting with Dieter and his brother Derek. A much welcomed hello from home. Coach Bob also misses those guys a ton. So good to see them. Just after the visit from Dieter and Derek, we checked the blog to find two comments from Brett. Brett, thanks for the comment. Keep them coming. Mabret and Roman miss you. Keep smiling and we will see you soon. Please leave a comment letting us know how Dieter, Brett and Jack made out today in 3 on 3 action.
Below from left to right are Dieter, Roman, Mabret, Brett and Derek.
After hanging up, we boarded a very small plane for the 10 minute ride through the mountains as the roads to the lodge are largely impassable.
Roman riding shotgun.
Mabret watching and studying as he often comments that he would like to fly a plane one day
The view from above.
Roman headed for the 4 x 4 after landing.
Although we arrived late in the day, we had an opportunity to meet our "new friends" Duma, Mukwa and Thaba. These three beautiful creatures will carry us in their backs tomorrow morning for a day trip through parts of the Greater Addo Elephant National Park where we hope to see many animals including zebras, giraffes, monkeys, eland and many others.
We are off to a good start already with several monkey sightings and a large group of waterbuck.
We hope to return tomorrow with amazing photos of many animals and lots of interesting facts for those of you who tune in for the educational aspect of this blog. As Roman says, Peace Out.
