Full Tilt Boogie (NOW WITH PHOTOS)

Firstly, what the? Rolling power blackouts in South Africa:


http://www.stuff.co.nz/4456823a12.html


I better still be able to use my heated towel warmer. Anyway..


The manic rush to get the place clean for house sitters, pack, say goodbye to people, sign off and post wills (ie 'save the brain'), leave budgies an Everest of seed, argue about pest control (mice not me), and buy the forgotten last minute things etc etc etc


Had to check Qantas' website to see how many gels I can fit in what size clear plastic bag. I may need to leave my elephant gun at home though, according to the website. Oh well, lots of things you can always get when you are over there.


Its Saturday and the one day in long stretch of sunshine that it rains is the one I need to get the lawns done on. Mowing in rain with an electric mower is a rush...I did wear rubber shoes...well rubbery looking loafers. Clean, clean, pack, pack,


Interlude....

Sob Sunday 30 March 1030 Sydney time. no sleep, Francoise the walking dead, at least the house is tidy. Nice flight into sunny Sydney sitting next to a nice Canadian clone of my mother.

Manfred!

Syney's all good, just hanging around the airport. There was a cool 747 done up in Aboriginal art, Doug was panting to fly in it and we took a photo of it. Alas it was not meant to be and Doug was inconsolable, though still happy he's going on a jumbo jet. I'm just hoping the movies are good.
Francoise!

UPDATE-The Longest Day

So the flight was delayed waiting for connecting flights so we sat in it for AGES. An Afrikanns granny next to us now to replace the Canadian woman. Finally got going and despite dying of tiredness we got entranced by the cool little TV screens and customisable movies on them. I watched Beowolf while Francoise watched Atonement (she thought it sucked). Despite nice Australian and Tasmanian coastline and a brilliant view, the seats were cramped and the flight was dragging until we looked out the window and saw we were flying over Antarctica...no Im not lying. I know! Apparently its a regular route to go all the way down, zip along that icey continent then up to J'Berg. The passengers including us loved flying over the lunar landscape of ice floes.You'll have to look at the first one sideways cos we can't figure out how to rotate it yet.

Finally after an eternity we were flying over Africa and man it all looks vast. Huge clouds, green and rust brown stretching away. No sense of town planning, very higgledy pigglydy from the air. We landed, stressed waiting for our bags and went through laughingly scant airport security. We were 2 hours late, dead tired and through a sea of signs fluttering we saw our ride. A brisk 140km ride along the highway past squatter camps where no cop will enter, to the reserve. Its a cool set up and we have a nice room when we can keep the hundreds of pets out of them. Deafening crickets and geckos! Great backyard vista views of the reserve. Chilled atmosphere and a bonfire at night was a nice welcome to it all

Shaka Manfred