Okay, I know this is long, but hang in there with me. It will be my last real blog for a month, and it’s most of the updates to date.
Hello one and all from South Africa. We have just a couple days here before we
head to Mozambique,
which we are spending resting after our days of travel and racing.
Argentina
was fabulous – I loved it, I think I said that already. 🙂 We left for London
on May 3rd
, about noon, arriving to Heathrow airport about 7:15am London time on the 4th
(3:15am Argentina time.) After going through customs, freshening up
and changing clothes, everyone headed into London.
The place is crazy expensive, but absolutely beautiful. I loved it, of course, and will definitely
have to go back some day when I’m not experiencing it while sleeping
walking. And when I am rich. HA!! Their pound is worthUS $2, but when you see prices on things they
are the same as they are in the states.
A 9.99 burger is normal. Oh, but
wait, that’s in pounds, so is a $20 burger!!!
We had to eat lunch in town, so I bought the cheapest thing at the
restaurant we were at, a baked potato with mushrooms, for US $9. Good grief.
Stephanie, Mary, Sarah, Leah and myself hung out all day,
taking the ‘Tube’ train from Heathrow to Piccadilly Circus
and then walking around. We ended up at Buckingham Palace just in time to watch a good bit
of the Changing of the Guards ceremony.
We briefly toured a free art gallery, and saw some really awesome
paintings. We were so exhausted through,
that our time in town was shorter than others, and we headed back to the
airport to try to sleep a bit.
Our plane to Johannasburg, South Africa left 9:30pm (London
time), and we finally arrived about 9:00am S.A. Time, (8:00am London).
A long time at the airport getting through more lines and then an hour
drive before we got ‘home’ around 12:30pm.
Lunch and naps followed. Sleep
for the night, and race in the morning.
The race was fun, but seemed a bit more stressful than last
time. ZEO came in dead last this time,
because we kind of ran in circles! Oh,
well.
We started the Race in Pretoria,
the city in which we are living, running from one place to another for our next
clue and to gain a little bit of history.
We then took the 2 hour Metro train line to JoBurg to continue our Race
– through a Zoo, taking pictures of certain animals and finding answers to
questions; ate an awesome appetizer plate at an even more awesome ethnic
restaurant; then off to the Aparthied museum for more history; then back
downtown to the 50th floor of the Carlton Tower, overlooking the
city of JoBurg. There was so much to see
and do, and so little time, as we were racing.
Bummer. The museum could have
held my attention for a couple more hours than we had, and I would have loved
to have eaten for real at the restaurant Moyo, as well as had more time at the
Zoo. It was full day, though, and even at the end, ZEO
still had to run to the station to catch the last train home with everyone
else. It turned out to be about a 12
hour Race day, but fun still.
We will be resting the next couple of days, while we wait on
Visas from Mozambique,
but that’s good.We had originally
planned on leaving on the 8th
for the 2-3 day bus trip, but that has
thankfully changed, giving us a couple more days to recover from our jetlag and
lack of sleep. Due to the pace of the
culture around here, there is no guarantee when our visas will be available and
we will actually be able to leave for Mozambique.
Oh, and one more thing. Our route has been changed again, and after Mozambique and Swaziland debrief and training, both A and B squads will be heading to Botswana for 3 weeks!! I am excited for that. There are other route changes, but I don’t know them all – they are all after Africa!
Both squads will be heading to Mozambique, but to different places. Squad A will be more along the coast, and B
will be further inland and more northwards.
We don’t know much else besides that at this point. Internet may be totally nonexistent from what
they say, which is no surprise, so this may be my last blog for a month, other
than the following prayer blog. 🙂
