On the way to Kruger National Park with Gastaldo's!

OUR BIG ADVENTURE BEGINS!  

We took off on Rwanda Air to head to Johannsburg, South Africa

on Sunday morning.. arrived mid afternoon and 

finally we found Bob and Elvira Gastaldo

at the car rental place! 

We met Bob and Elvira 22 years ago in Germany where both 

Bruce and Bob were Humboldt winners.... 

We didn't live in the same city but met at an event the Humboldt folks 

arranged in Bavaria.   Our children... their 3 boys and our 3 kids and 

us all hit it off immediately.  We have been together a couple times

 in Pittsburgh and in Maine over the years.. but we are never together enough. 

At Christmas time we discovered that Bob would be returning to do field

work in South Africa and Elivra was joining him..( He is a geologist and then some....)

So, when we had our chance encounter in Atlanta... meeting in the 

airport as we were all on our way back to Africa we decided 

we would go on a Safari together..  

AND THE NEXT SEVERAL BLOGS WILL BE ABOUT OUR EXPERIENCES IN

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK 

SOUTH AFRICA!

YES, we have coats on ... It is "winter" in South Africa.

We made our to our B&B where we would stay the night
before we drove 5 1/2 hours to the park.
What a great surprise we had at the Impangle! 
Walter greeted us with hot coffee and tea and Swiss chocoloates! WOW!
 Walter is a Swiss National and chose to settled down here in South Africa.

No doubt this might have been one of the reasons.
This was the view from his front porch!

A bird sanctuary was right across the street
in this beautiful community!

Looks like winter, right?  Well, the nights are quite cold..
but the flora and fauna don't seem to notice!

The pool and BBQ... which we didn't use. 

Wouldn't it be great to have this built  
       right outside your house?

Simply beautiful! 

And then there was the backyard...

Close up of the sunset and birds.
Yes, it was this gorgeous.

 After a wonderful breakfast with Walter and great converstation
from the night before, we left the 5 Ridgebacks and Walter
and headed to the park.  We will return to stay with him on our way home. 

Driving on the "wrong" side of the road was quite
unbalancing to me.   I'd look in the front to see Bruce looking
at something down on the floor or in the console and I'd want
to yell... 'Get your eyes on the road'.
BUT no worries.. Bob had the wheel on the right side of the car...
and we were driving on the left side of the road.

And now... a few shots along the way

on our Left-sided Road Trip!                                      

From corn fields and nuclear plants...

to  cactus!

Unusual sightings....from Greyhound busses

to orange groves...

 Truck beds of oranges...

.

to rocky cliffs...

 and beautfiul mountains.

If you're old enough ---you will remember this...  
Gas attendants who not only
pump your gas, but also clean your windows.  

 Stopped for a break at "STEERS".
 LOVE THEIR MOTTO.

BUT THEN ( 5 HOURS LATER)  we started getting close to the park...  

not yet inside the park but at the river crossing we stopped just to see

if there were any animals.

This Big Guy was sunning 1/2 of himself and
others were totally taking in the sunshine.

Crocodiles are Huge in Africa!
I don't know if that means they are old--or if they just eat well. 

Still driving on the "wrong"side of the road. 

First sighting was this giraffe.. too far away to see well..
but then wait.. What is that up ahead???

It's the Welcome Committee as we are on our way to Lukimbi Lodge!
At first I thought it was a statue.. but then he moved.

 Ok.. now what do we do??  Should we wait for him to pass?
Should we just keep driving and hope he doesn't pretend our
car is a pancake to flip???

 Whew.. looks like he is going to walk across..

Uh, NO... he's coming towards us..  
We are still just sitting parked in the car.

  Then he started playing peek-a-boo!    Peek....aaaaa....

 Boo!

Then he just took off into the brush and we carried on to the Lodge..
A few rather exciting moments...

So... as we are approaching the lodge we are
getting more and more excited about
what we might experience in this place.

As of now.. we have been pretty pleased about the
sights along the way..

The next blog will introduce you to Lukimbi Lodge!
( and the animals are to come)

See you then..

love,
margie