The Adventure Begins (Days 1 & 2)

Hi everyone,
well here it is, my first post from South Africa! We have finally arrived in Johannesburg safely after what feels an epic journey!
I left home at 11am on Tuesday morning, it's now 10pm Wednesday night and it feels amaing to have had a hot shower and now be propped up in a fabulous comfy bed!

I had a quick domestic flight down to London Gatwick where the whole group met up in the Emirates lounge - complimentary champagne and dinner helped the conversations along and we were all chatting away when we came to board our flight to Dubai. I've not flown with Emirates before but the flight was smooth, the food was good and the entertainment the best I've had on a plane. I was in the middle of 3 seats so didn't sleep much but what can you do? 7 hours later we landed in Dubai - I've never seen anything like it, it was more like a shopping mall than an airport, all designer brands, flashy displays and a great place to people watch! Thankfully we didn't have long to wait, only 3 hours before our onward flight to Johannesburg. An upgrade to business class makes all the difference - we were boarded first, given a glass of champagne, a mattress, a plush pillow and heavy blanket for the flat-bed seats and were ready for the off before the economy passengers walked through!

Once I had figured out how to work the seat I was sorted and after dinner I donned my eyemask and set about sending out some zeds.
A little bit of turbulance and a crack of thunder and we arrived into Johannesburg in the middle of a rain storm, the seasons are changing from spring to summer and the spring rains decided to come late and welcome us.

Our first night is in the suburb of Sandton, in the Balalaika Hotel which is a great 3* property with a beautiful lounge decorated in traditional dark wood with oranges and creams (bit like my lounge!). I'm sharing with Katrina from Glasgow, we seem to have the same sense of humour so hopefully we will get along just fine (as long as she has her ear plugs for when I snore!) Dinner was in the adjoining restaurant, a great chance for us all to sit down as a group and find out about each other and so far we seem to have a good group, no-one is shy and retiring that's for sure!

And there you have it, days 1 & 2 already over. It's an early start in the morning as we have a 5-6 hour drive up to the Kruger National Park so I'm off to the land of nod. Night night all xxx