Thursday May 14

Thursday May 14

Arrived safely at ZuluNyala game Lodge after an exciting first flight on the Airbus 380 from Paris to Johannesburg that locals call Joburg… The flight was very smooth, and the aircraft has the least flight noise in the cabin than other planes…

We were lucky that the flight was not full and Antoinette could stretch out over four seats in the middle of a row.

The Joburg airport is very modern, and all decked out with advertising posters from the World Cup sponsors… The color of the South African team is everywhere, and many people are wearing their yellow jersey. The team is called the “Bafana Bafana”.

We transferred to a South African Express flight to Richards Bay on the east coast of South Africa about one hour north east of Durban… The flight was one hour and a half long. A driver and a van were waiting for us to bring us to the lodge, about two hours from the airport. We were with four other Americans, a couple from Wilton, Connecticut, and two sisters from Portland… The couple was celebrating their 10-year wedding anniversary. One of the two sisters received the trip as a retirement gift from teaching.

The road conditions were very good, surprisingly in good conditions when compared to other African countries I visited previously. We arrived at about 6:00 p.m. at the Lodge, checked in, and went to dinner for 7:00 p.m. A good shower was welcome after a whole night on the plane (we left at midnight from Paris and the flight was 10 hours…) Joburg and Paris are on the same time zone so the jet lag was minimal.

We were told to meet up for breakfast and to assemble with other people who arrived on the same DAY at 8:30 a.m. the next day to meet our ranger guide named Chris…