We have been beset by wifi and technical hitches, not all of our own making! For some reason I have failed to upload more than one photo at a time, and John has already taken 246. Hopefully we will meet some WordPress expert on our travels, although I suspect we may also need an Apple expert as it may also be an iPad issue.
I’ve written several posts which have simply evaporated into thin air, which is disappointing but probably inevitable on a trip like this. Cape Town and Joburg airports promise free wifi but this lasts for about ten minutes and anything not saved is lost… Let’s hope tonight we’ll have better luck.
So I have to resort to a boring summary. We have just had four memorably happy days in Cape Town, followed by two nights with some very good friends who live quite near Johannesburg.
Tonight we will be staying at the Lilayi Lodge just outside Lusaka, having decided that an elephant orphanage in the bush was infinitely preferable to the Ridgeway Hotel, my original instinctive choice because it used to be the hotel in the Lusaka in my youth but apparently now is very ‘international’ and anonymous, and could be anywhere in the world.
Meanwhile, to look back briefly as we soar through the air from Joburg to Lusaka, Our South African time will be very different from our Zambia and finally Malawi stints. The whole South African emphasis was on seeing family and friends, the main person being my younger sister, Ruth, who as many of you know has been more or less paralysed since a severe stroke almost exactly three years ago.
Ruth and her husband, Tony, now live in a retirement village just outside Noordhoek. Tony had devoted himself totally to her care, helped by five carers, and it was absolutely wonderful to be able to spend some unhurried time with them every morning.
The rest of each day we spent having lunch and dinner and doing fun things with family and close friends, our friendship with them all stretches a long way back. The icing on the cake was staying in a truly lovely ‘beyond boutique’ (their words, not mine) B &B in Constantia, The Last Word, where we had been upgraded to a luxury suite, beautifully spacious, with its own swimming pool – which unfortunately was too cold to enjoy.
To top it all, the hotel laid on avvery splendid and helpful driver. We cannot recommend Fiona Huber enough and will happily pass on her contact details to anyone who might need a totally reliable and accommodating taxi driver – chauffeur might be a more appropriate .
