Day 26-27 Hoedspruit to Johannesburg to London to SFO

Day 26-27 Hoedspruit to Johannesburg to London to SFO, Monday and Tuesday, Sept 22-23

QOTD:

Somebody tell me what's the word?

What’s the word: Johannesburg!

Weather:  Very nice, 60s and a slight breeze, lovely for a guided drive in the morning.

THB wakes up around 5am, perfect for being more alert before the 6am morning departure. Not so good: we’ll be in E-ville tomorrow afternoon and when we got to bed at 9pm or so it will feel exactly like 6am body clock time.

Another selfie with Germans in way back

The drive is very dull for the first 2.5 hours, apparently none of the drivers are finding anything anywhere. 

Rhino tracks

Then Liam spots one of the two types of chameleons in the park and gets up on the step ladder to pull it out of the tree. Cute (the chameleon, not Liam), and it takes a great photo.

Matching outfits?

Then a call comes in and we buckle in (except we don’t have seat belts) and Liam pushes the truck up to 25mph (normal speed is 5-10mph) and when we get where we are supposed to be it is a black rhino mom and three month baby, the first one born in this part of the park in something like 200 years. So, even on the last day, there are thrills to be had on what seemed a very quiet finish to the trip.

DB got this shot of nuzzling between mom and baby

More pics from the morning:

The winch

It is $375/night for two at STSC, includes all meals and snacks and two three hour plus guided drives per day (two guys per drive for as few as six people). An amazing value and terrific spot. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The Germans rented this car for around $15/day!!

We’re shuttled to the park gate and D&M are there waiting for us, another 20 minutes to the airport and this time no problem getting the correct boarding passes printed. This leaves plenty of time for DB to shop with our extra rand. Flight to Jo’burg pretty much on schedule.

On way to Jo'burg

In Jo'burg airport

Lousy dinner spot

We’ve lots of time to kill so we have an early meal at Ocean Watch, which came recommended by T&T. No draft beer (it’s on the menu), can’t get sushi (the one sushi chef is really backed up), can’t get fish and chips with the better fish (kingsklip), can’t get this, can’t get that, so we all have grilled kingsklip with chips or veggies and two bottled beers in the wrong size (they don’t have 330ml or 550ml, they have 440ml which is not on the menu) and then you can’t get the check. THB is only slightly worried that Ocean Watch doesn’t understand that all their diners have flights to catch.

Not a problem, there’s still plenty of time for DB & M to shop while THB and D chill out. The last of the rand is parted with, and now we’re in the BA lounge awaiting our flight to London (“attention, attention: the wifi is now working again, the wifi is now working again”).

Now in BA Heathrow lounge, somehow we ended up at a different one this time or are so jetlagged we can’t remember much. What THB can remember: we had to go back through security even though we are on two BA flights in the same terminal. And, secure it is: they took a half hour to decide that our small liquids were okay to take on to the next flight. Well, that only took 3 minutes, first they had to decide if small knitting needles were ok, and on and on and on for practically every person flying, almost every bag got routed into special search area.

Book Review1: All Our Names, Dinaw Mengestu (novel): Morose, two intertwined stores as told by what THB would call mild depressants. THB loved a prior book by Mengestu, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, read that one instead of this one. Neutral (at best)

Book Review2: Redeployment, Phil Klay (short stories): For you astute THB followers, you’ve already realized THB pretty much never reads a full book of short stories. THB thinks he somehow missed that this was a collection when reading the review. Good thing; this is an excellent book, stories that ring true (like THB would know) of the individuals caught in the impact of for the most part in combat in Iraq and a bit of Afghanistan. Recommended

THB gets lucky: He’s loaded his Kindle with just enough reading to get to the last book with a little under 5 hours of flight and BART time left...phew!

No BART, we're early enough we decide to cab home, $85

Bottom line: Because we shared expenses (as appropriate) with M&D, THB kept track of most of the cost of the trip. Overall, from when THB and DB hit Cape Town to 25 days later leaving from Johannesburg (so everything but the SFO to/from flights), the average per day cost was something in the $425-450 range for the two of us. That included the internal flights (to Chobe and Hoedspruit), tours (wine country, Vic Falls helicopter, private boat in Chobe, etc.), two different car rentals (shared by two couples), park entrance fees, and on and on….

All because D had local contacts, researched like crazy, and we avoided the big ticket American type tour costs, opting for intimate and cozy over big and flashy, maybe 3 or 4 star hotels over 5 stars. In effect, we traveled more like upscale S. Africans than wealthy Americans, this turned into a very affordable trip with all the thrills we could handle.

Awesome, dude!!!