On to Africa, Tuesday, April 19, and Wednesday, April 20

Big travel begins today!  We woke early at 6 AM to see Bill off to work and then enjoyed some coffee and Bill's Washington Post.  At 10 AM, we ordered a taxi to take us to Reston, Virgina, where we had planned to meet our friend, Pat Downes, for lunch.  The taxi deposited us at her house, and we were happy to be able to spend some time visiting with Pat's daughter, Kelly, who was down from Boston to spend spring break with her mother.  Kelly's children, Patrick, Jack, and Katie were also there, and it was a pleasure to meet them.  At noon, Pat, Rob, and I had lunch at the nearby Silver Diner, which was very good.  Then Pat graciously offered to drive us to Washington Dulles airport for our flight, which we were happy to accept.

We checked in early for our flight -- no surprise there.  Our Business Class tickets on South African Airway gained us access to the Lufthansa lounge, where we lingered for a little while.  The lounge had a lovely buffet of food, but we weren't hungry and passed on that.  It was a small lounge that had a little bit of a basement feeling about it, and it was also a little crowded.  We decided to leave early to spend a little time at the gate before boarding the plane.  When we boarded the plane, we were happy to see the "lie flat" seats.  It would be a long flight, a total of 17 hours;  10 hours to Accra, Ghana, to refuel, then on to Johannesburg.  Rob slept well on the flight, about 5 1/2 hours.  Roy slept also, who knows how much?

Our stopover in Accra lasted about one hour.  During this time, more passengers departed and new passengers boarded than I would have expected.  Continuing on to Johannesburg, our plane landed about 1/2 hour early.  Just at the gate, we were met by a nice young lady named Violet (not an Abercrombie & Kent employee, not sure who she worked for), who escorted us to baggage claim ad literally whisked us through immigration.  Somehow, she was able to bypass the line for international visitors (very long line) and took us to the very short line for entry for South African citizens.  Our praise for A&K for managing this short-cut.  This could never happen in the United States.  Entering the arrivals hall, we nearly missed the A&K representative who was waiting for us there.  It seemed that there was some confusion -- Violet was planning to take us directly to the driver herself, but no
worries, Rob spotted the A&K representative, and he took over from Violet to whom we said thank you and good bye.  We were given a quick briefing of which I can only remember his advice not to drink the water at the hotel, regardless of what anyone else advised.  He then took us to our driver, Timothy, who negotiated some pretty thick traffic in order to get us to the Saxon Hotel in the posh neighborhood of Sandton.

The most noticable thing you notice on the drive from the airport to the hotel is the fact that every building is behind a serious wall topped with extensive barbed wire, both commercial and residential.  In the residential areas in Sandton,  all of the homes (not that you can see them) are in walled and gated communities with guards at the entrance.  The Saxon Hotel has some pretty impressive security at its gate (pretty thick door at the gate, too)! 

The Saxon must be one of the nicest, if not the nicest, hotel in Johannesburg.  Our room, really more of a suite, is very large and very luxurious.  Instantly, we were regretting that we would only have one night in this place.  The Saxon also occupies an important place in South African history.  When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1994 (after 27 years), he lived on this property.  At that time, it was a private home, not a hotel, and belonged to wealthy businessman Douw Steyn, who had offered Mandela residence there.  Nelson Mandela used his time living here to edit his autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom.  Other famous people who have stayed at the Saxon Hotel (in its existence as a hotel) have been Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, and the Princes William and Harry.  Wow!

Unfortunately for us, there was little time to linger in the room as we were expected to meet our fellow A&K travelers no later than 7 PM for drinks and dinner.  Seven, including us, of the nine were present:  Tom and Shawna, a married couple from Utah, Becky and Jackie, lifelong friends from Denver and St. Augustine, respectively, and Andrea, also known as Mac, a librarian from Boston traveling on her own.  Everyone seemed very nice and very friendly.  Dinner was delicious, grilled Cape salmon.  Our dinner also included a professional photography presentation, where we were taught how to take good pictures on safari.  One picture-taking tip stood out to me:  the 90/10 rule.  It a part of your picture's composition is light and part is dark, at least 90% of the photo should be one or the other.  Otherwise, it will fail.

We returned to our room to enjoy some complimentary sparking wine and then go to bed.  We will need to be up early again tomorrow.