Johannesburg

 I signed up for this trip to Africa for spring break.  It was going to be a camping trip, which I have never really done before.  I think I spent more money buying supplies for this trip then I did on the whole trip itself.  I went to a few outfitter stores I found in Dubai Mall and bought everything I would need. I spied this interesting product in one store:

What the hell is "pocket ass"?

Arrived in Johannesburg yesterday evening.  I got a room at the Sandton Holiday Inn and decided to enjoy a nice upgrade to include a king sized room and free drinks down in the executive lounge.  I went sown and met up with two Qatar Airline pilots.  One was from Mexico and the other was from the Seychelles.  We were also joined by a Qatar Airways air hostess from the Ukraine named Oksana.  Had dinner at a place called the Bull's Run.  Steaks were very good.

Took a walk today up to Nelson Mandela Square where there are three or four malls combined into one.

King-sized room. I could have a had a huge dance party in my room!

Nelson Mandela stature in Nelson Mandela Square.

Still a bit shy with each other! photo courtesy of Mary Frances

Tonight, we had out pre-departure meeting.  We were told by our group leader, Innocent, that he had some "breaking news."  We were all kind if  nervous, wondering if our entire trip was going to be cancelled or something.  It turns out that there had been a lot of rain in the area and the roads were washed out where we needed to cross at the border.  This wasn't a big problem, except  now we would have to travel about 100km or so out of our was to use a different border crossing.  Innocent even brought out a map to show us the new route.  We all looked at it and nodded our heads in understanding, although I'm not sure if any of us actually had a clue or not as to what the previous route was anyway.

Departure time: 4:30am!  Yikes!