Back home in South Africa

 

We're home in South Africa. Although the weather is quite cold, we're enjoying the relief and respite from the incredible heat we've endured these past few months in Khartoum. Our flight from Khartoum took of exactly at 4h40. It was a short trip (1 1/2 hours) to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. While waiting in the airport boarding lounge in Addis, we were entertained by many World Cup Soccer fans (pictured above) on their way to watch the final between Holland and Spain on Sunday. The guys in orange shirts and the others in white tee shirts were Dutch supporters. The well-built man with dreadlocks, is an American from Detroit where he teaches soccer at schools (can you teach soccer?Anyway that's what he told me!) An absolute extrovert, he kept us enthralled by the tricks he performed with a soccer ball - balancing it on his nose, and dribbling it down under his chin, across his arm, onto his foot, kicking it into the air, never once dropping the ball. Amazing stuff! He and his brother (not pictured here) were also Dutch supporters. 

Sadly, although Grant and I followed the whole World Cup soccer tournament since it started on 10th June, we didn't watch the final between Spain and Holland. We don't have television (by choice) here in South Africa. By the time this post is online, the world champions will be known!

Flying over Tanzania on Saturday, Mount Kilimanjaro was clearly visible  to the left of the plane. (we were seated on the right)  Now, believe this or not: I had my Canon Powershot in my hand luggage in the overhead storage, Grant had my older Canon EOS 350 SLR with Zoom lens in his hand luggage yet we could get to one of the bags! The lockers are so jammed with luggage that it's not easy to find or remove yours in flight. I asked a lady sitting on the left of the plane to take some photos with my little Sony Cybershot (which is always in my handbag/purse) and although I have the above image, I could have had much better and closer ones. Nevertheless, while flying over this magnificent mountain, I thought of my dear blogger friend, Lynda who lives in the foothills of Kilimanjaro. When we fly back next month, I will have my Canon Powershot around my neck!

The Oliver Tambo airport in Johannesburg is aptly decorated for the World Cup  and very welcoming . I believe that visitors to this beautiful country of ours have felt at home and will either revisit it or promote South Africa to others

Our second grandson and fourth grandchild is five and a half months old. He is the friendliest little lad and was very good on the long trip from Johannesburg to Marquard on Saturday

These are four of my six cats here in South Africa. They are all terribly overweight and hardly noticed/cared that we were back. They were more interested in the next bowl of cat cookies!

I phoned Miriam in Khartoum on Saturday and she assured me that Shadow is very well and she has everthing under control. I managed an entire conversationin Arabic  with her and she understood every word. Whoo-hoo. My lessons are paying off!

Thanks to everyone who wished us a safe journey home. I'm not sure how much blogging I'll manage so please forgive me if I don't get to visiting yours. We're off to the city to collect our new motorbike on Tuesday. On Wednesday we're going to the Drakensberg to visit John and Debbie and meet our third grandson/fifth granchild for the first time.