The rand hit 7.2 fleetingly this morning and has dropped down again now. It has been hitting some very quick spikes and then dropping again very quickly.

Last week it went as high as 7.30 momentarily then dropped way down to 6.8 it is very voliatile.

Everything must be in order for us to hit these highs. At 8.00 am in the morning Dallas time it is 4.00 pm down in South Africa. The South Africa offices close at 5.00 pm. So all this has be to be done between 8.00 am and 9.00 am in the morning DALLAS time. If we do not get it run at that time the next day and the rate could be quite different.

We also need your decisions on insurance decided before we pay these balances.

If your card is declined for a foreign charge you will lose the opportunity for the rate. By the time we reach you to do that the time will have passed. So if you are one of those asking us to pay this when it hits 7.2 please contact your card company and let them know a foreign charge from "Southern Touring" will be coming through in the near future.

As I understand it the rate is applied at the time it is charged - however it can take a week to 10 days even to show up on your credit cards. Some get it within a day it has still not shown up on my card and we charged on 1/23/08.

So if you want to do this it has to be all set up ahead of time. We cant get it all pulled together at the last minute. So get in touch with us if you want us to get your payoff ready. You can say 7.2 or higher or 7.3 or higher whatever it is you want, either partial payoff or full payoff.

You can also just wait until the normal payment date in June - totally your decision.

GAME can also be thinking about this but you do have three months longer to play with than those on ROAR

Also I have told those that paid off already but will post here also. Ker & Downey did send an email telling us that although the safari fare is set in price the flights are only "estimated" and pricing cannot be confirmed until the flights are actually purchased. This was noted on your invoices.

They cannot purchase the flights until everyone is paid in full as there are stiff penalities that come into play once purchased. The charter flights have been rising in cost since they quoted us with normal increases coupled with the fuel costs. I asked for an estimate of price increase. It all depends on the flights your itinerary includes but she said around $200 per person is probably what we are looking at now.

I leave on Wednesday for ICE, if you know you want to pay on a Rand Spike please get in touch with me so I can get all this set up for Debbie to handle while I am gone.

Ngaire