Our travel day.

Its 5.27. I am feeling only slightly human as though I have left half of me back in bed. Harry is doing the cross word and I am quietly sipping a cup tea. We have eaten breakfast. A cold sausage left over from last night's dinner and a scone that cost $4.50 in domestic and $4.40 in international.  The malaria tablet was the best.

The airport isn't busy - just quiet chatter from a number of people who look how I feel.  What did we do before we had smart phones?  Harry did the crossword and I started the blog.

We passed through security no probs. Forgot to take my liquids carefully stored in a plastic bag out but that didn't seem to matter. Had a quick chat to Rob (our friend and security man) and then landed at the cafe.

I am waking up. Must be the third cup of tea.  Been messaging the family. They are awake in Vancouver but wishing they were asleep in Sydney. Friends are commenting on Mike's new philanthropic adventure - so if any of you reading this blog are teachers then this link is worth looking at. He needs feedback.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/B87DRJ2

And in my sleepy stupor I have managed to work out how to paste to the blog from a word document. Not important you think. Wrong. I now can blog without wifi.  Heaps more ramblings without writing on paper first.

Transfer through Sydney went without a hitch and our second leg was reasonably comfortable  as we were by a window in a row of 2. Looking out the window after the clouds had disappeared I was convinced that I saw ice floating far below and imagined a little penguin happily resting on a iceberg.  A fellow traveler tried to pour cold water on my delight by suggesting they were white crests due to choppy seas. Yeah right!! I thought as I waved to ma and pa penguin. Thankfully fellow travel walked back to his seat clutching a stash of timtams from the pile left for hungry travellers.

Talking of food. We have eaten far too much. 4 meals with 2 more to go and an ice cream and pastry as well. I resisted the tim tams at the back of the plane though I noticed many didn't. The food served by Qantas was very good.  My breakfast included mushrooms which I fed to Harry slowly as my vegetarian meal always comes first. When his meal arrived it had a hash brown which he didn't share with me.  I love hashbrowns!!! 

14,000 kilometres and we are in Johannesburg. We were welcomed by a red setting sun and friendly customs officers. No bag checks at the border or arrival card!

Our hotel the Safari Club is 10 minutes drive from the airport is lovely - a retreat. Little cabins with thatched roofs and tiled floors.  The most noticeable thing is that we are all housed behind two electric gates and high fences. People are friendly and we feel welcomed from the everyone: customs officers, driver, hotel owner, driver, reception and the cooks.  An awesome start to our holiday.

These two very tired travelers are heading off to bed but we have already learnt two lessons. The first is to remember to pack the hand sanitiser in our carry on luggage. And the 2nd - well we decided not to turn our phones off flight mode so we don't incur the $7 a day roaming charge. So trying to work out the time in New Zealand to set the alarm the next morning in South Africa was mind blowing  after 25 hours travel and little sleep. 9 hours later it dawned on us just switch off the automatic time on our phone and reset it manually.