monday oct 8 (johannesburg)
patsenojexpedition
patrick and susan jones
Mon 8 Oct 2007 15:48
hours to get to san fran airport, 2 hours before board plane, 11 hours to
frankfurt, 7 hours layover, 10 hours flight to johannesberg, 1.5 hours
getting luggage (immigration was a snap, but bags took an hour to pop out)
and another hour to get to the mount grace hotel in the suburb of
johannesburg called rosebank. we are completely exhausted, but have 24
hours here to recharge.
johannesburg is much greener and less dense than i had thought. the "bad"
parts are in the city itself near soweto (south) and the hotel, where we
are now, is about an hour north. still lots of private houses (some very
nice from the dutch and english days), but many (most) with high fences
with razor wire at the top.
hazy today, but temperature is actually quite nice---not hot, and has been
raining the past week per the person who drove us to the hotel.
susanis using the spa this afternoon, and then we leave tomorrow morning
for a commercial flight from johannesburg to maun, botswana, then take a
little charter plane for 40 minutes to stanley's
airstrip (yes, i think it is named for the guy that was with livingstone,
who was famous for doing something cosmic around victoria falls as i
recall), then on to our first camp, which is chief's camp on chief's
island in the okavango delta area (northern botswana).
more tomorrow