Doug and I arrived without incident In Joburg yesterday morning. Our SAA flight was direct and smooth from JFK and we zipped through passport control and our bags zipped off the belt and we were on our way. Well, so we thought. Our Hyatt ordered limo wasn't there. However, there were airport folks on hand to smooth things over for us and one lovely guy called the hotel for us and found out our car was stuck in traffic and on its way. The airport really has it's act together and seems determined to turn around it's bad reputation. Doug wanted to tip the gentleman for being so helpful to us and he refused any compensation.
Our room at the Hyatt was ready upon our arrival and we freshened up and enjoyed a great breakfast. We used our Hyatt suite upgrade and the room is a quite large 2 room suite across from a large open Regency lounge. We decided to keep our first day low key. However, the Hyatt is attached to the Rosebank Mall with a lovely craft market, so I got all my shopping out of the way, picking up my usual jewelry along with baskets and a few other trinkets. We had a lovely Italian dinner before crashing.
Today, we were again treated to another sunny, but cool, day and headed off to De Wildte Cheetah Conservation Park about 1 hour north of Joberg. We got to add patting Baron the cheetah to patting tigers, koala bears, and kangaroos! We learned all about extinction issues with cheetah, vultures, badgers, wild dogs, wild cats...a thoroughly enjoyable two hours. Tomorrow, we are off for a morning horseback safari and then we will bottle feed baby lions and end the day walking with adolescent lions before joining the group at the IC Hotel in the evening. Can't wait to see everyone! What a great beginning.
