Swaziland-Arrival-September 3rd, 2008

We arrived late last night-around 10pm.  We arrived at the Cape Town airport two hours early which ended up being about two hours earlier than we needed to. We got through the ticket line and security in 10 minutes time. Of course, we now knew this did not involve undressing. Cape Town airport is very small.  It will soon be renovated for the World Cup in 2010, but right now it is only one square room with a gate every 5 feet with a glass wall. You take a shuttle to your plane. Fred and I actually saw a taxi pull up outside the gate and someone got in. It looked so funny. Flight was uneventful with no one getting first class. Lunch was served on this one and one half hour flight-with silverware!

We met with Rev. Cindy Vorhees at the Joburg airport and we were all picked up by Rev. David Gooday. We settled in for our four hour drive. It got dark about 90 minutes in. The roads were two lane but pretty good. We were going about 75 miles per hour.  It's so dark you can hardly see anything. About three hours into the drive, my cell phone rings.  I'm so excited! I'm in the middle of nowhere and it's dark and who could be calling me? I answer the phone and this is what I hear,"Warning! The factory warranty on your vehicle is about to expire."

Seriously. I am in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Africa and I get a telemarketer call.  I don't get reception this good five minutes from my house! I can't believe how much I have just paid for this call. And I think I woke Cindy up.

Rev David tells us about his farm in Swaziland. He has five dogs and now has seven more puppies. He also has security lights, a security alarm and a night watchman. I asked if safety was an issue.  He said, "Better safe than sorry."  Now to me, "better safe than sorry" seems about one night watchman and three dogs ago, but I don't say anything.

We finally arrive at the border between South Africa and Swaziland.

We have to get out of our car and walk into the building-one hallway, two windows. We show our passports and leave.  The guys take a bathroom break and give us the keys to the car.  Cindy accidently sets off the car alarm so at least Swaziland knows we're coming.  We drive 50 yards over the border and now get out in Swaziland. Much bigger building.  We show our passports again.

We had a 30 minute drive to Brakenhill Lodge.  We turn off and start up a gravel road.  Then we see rocks across the road and a detour sign.  We take the detour and go around a curve...to a dead end. We go back to the first detour and make our way around the rocks until we come to another set of rocks across the road and another detour sign. Now we don't know what to do. We get ahold of Frances at the Lodge who tells us that the first detour sign was correct-it's just that when we come to the dead end, we leave that road and take a dirt road up the hill the rest of the way.

Of course.  It seems so obvious now! Gravel road, dead end, dirt road.

Our room is nice-right by the pool.  It's not as fancy as An Africa Villa but it is fine.

We are treated to some tea and cheesecake so all is well.

We are here!