Just to let you know, all of the GAME and SAMBA posts have been moved to Escorted 2008 Cruises and Tours.

Karen, is this an honor - or are we being put into "solitary confinement"?

LOL Ted but of course it's an honor!

Doc just arrived, YEA

Carolyn and Don


:woh:

Docs are in and we are dancing in our new Kitchen!!!!!

FV

Tom and I looked at each other this morning and said "Boy, SAMBA and GAME can't come soon enough"

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v600/marciematassa/readyforSAMBA.gif?t=1224876752[/img]

Too funny.....I love the look on their faces.

Well I decided what to do about luggage.

Thought about trying to store a case in London Heathrow but the hassle of the different terminals decided against it. Cannot imagine lugging a cruise suitcase on the trains in Europe.

I checked a few luggage services and then decided on the Luggage Club. They want me to offer their services to my clients via my web, and will give all BK clients a 5% discount off the regular price and a $50 gift certificate for the first order. You can track your bag on the internet and see where it is which is a feature I liked a lot. A few of the other services have this feature also. Just really liked the people I talked to more than the others so we will see how it all works.

I was lucky as they gave me a great deal to try out the service for myself because of course I want to know how it works and how their service is during the process.

So we will go carry on only for the 5 night river cruise and the 6 nights we are in Africa before boarding the ship. We have to go through Heathrow with the smallest carry on size. They say 22" INCLUDING wheels so all the 22" cases on the market wont work. Heathrow is such a pain.

So this will be a trick. COLD weather in Europe and very hot weather in Africa and all the paperwork (that is very heavy) for the safari and cruise. PLUS all of Ken's cameras.

Wish me luck.

Yippee! I'm so happy to know that we're not the only ones who will be recycling clothes due to luggage weight restrictions! :) No thinking "didn't you just wear that ?"

We found a luggage storage within the Zurich airport we'll probably use. Then want to store luggage again in JNB (can't spell it ) Does anyone know if a laptop is safe within the Fed Air storage room in JNB airport ?? We're debating whether to take ours or not???

Yes Marcie, when you see me in the same black slacks with different accesories, just smile! We will do the same.

It seems so weird Ngaire is talking about how hot it is in Africa, when the Roar2 folks were shopping for warm clothes. How quickly the climate changes. We are set for that part I think, ah now for the cruise. No 12 pair of shoes for me......

Trust me Cindy it will be HOT in the afternoons.It changes quickly.

We are at the beginning of the hot and rainy summer months. Hopefully early enough to have no rain as it increases with the rainiest months being January and February.

Madikwe is normally much cooler than the Sabi Sands area but was actually warmer at Madikwe than Sabi Sands during ROAR. It was also VERY dusty as Madikwe had not had rain since APRIL.

Madikwe is at a high elevation one of the reasons there is no malaria and it is usually a lot cooler. Both big things to consider when going in November.

While they were cold in Sabi Sands on ROAR in November it will hot and more humid in Sabi Sands. Donna and Alan are going into the Sabi Sands first and Marcie, Tom, Frank and Carla are going to Sabi Sands when we are in Madikwe. I have told them to take Malarone for the mosquitoes and be prepared for the heat.

We all need to be prepared for the heat of the day. After lunch return to our air conditioned rooms and take naps and for the hearty a game of pooch while drinking whatever cool drink - floats your boat.

I will deal with the heat....just want to go now!! Cannot wait....

Cindy, you are going to LOVE it! I will never forget on ROAR 2 when we went on our first game drive and came upon elephants almost immediately. I watched my daugther Jes's videos again today just to hear her almost breathless comments when things were happening when she was filming. I don't think there is a better vacation that a "well traveled" person can take! I would love to go back on a safari one of these days!

Cindy,

I am with you can't come fast enough. We are so ready.

Carolyn

My passport with my Brazillian visas is supposed to be delivered TODAY. YEAH!!! Finally.

Still in shock that we got ours in 3 days with regular mail.


Congrats Ngaire!

FV

Congrats Ngaire! that is a great feeling.

Here is what's is going on at Kings Camp, sounds like a lot of fun and what you come to africa to see and do. Got to say Kings Camp really was the best camp and location for us on roar.


From Warren at Kings Camp
All is well at the camp but it is still very dry and very hot. We are waiting with anticipation for the first good rains. We recieved around 9mm of rain last week but the baking sun quickly burnt off the moisture. The camp is the only place where you can find any green vegetation and some animals are coming into camp for this nutrition. We have Kudu, Bushbuck, monkeys, baboons and warthogs on a daily basis feeding within the camp grounds. Last night an elephant bull broke into camp and proceeded to break the water pipes. These are the daily trials and tribulations of living in the bush.

Sounds like quite an exciting evening for Night Watchman Johannes!

Dena

I imagine he summoned Tomias, his lieutenant: "Come to me!"

Tomias was undoubtedly assigned to shut the water pipes and rustle up some repairs.

Pleasure
Number 7 (ranking member) a/k/a Anne

Just wanted to send a thank you to all who post with so much information!! I seem to surface more when i approach a cruise........this silly job gets in the way. I will speak to them about that! I am so excited for this African adventure, and will tell you we would have never done this without all of your enthusiastic posts. We look forward to good times with our friends and making new ones.

Happy times ahead........
Cindy

A Few Photos From Madikwe Hills:


Terrie, Ted, Cathy, Mike, Don, Ngaire, Carolyn, David.




Male Lion ROARING !!!


Brown Hyena Adolescents.


Boy That Was Good.




Max Our Tracker, With A Little Centipede.


Jackel, Lured Over By Our Ranger With His Jackel Mating Call.

Awesome photos, as usual, Ken! Thank you so much for sharing them! Your photos are the next best thing to being there!

The winner of the POOCH championship at Madikwe Hills was David, English USA. Highest overall points and top game at 129!!!

Off to the Birkenhead challenge!

Great to see you all enjoying sundowners! Oh how I wish we were back there with you.(It DOES look greener!) Love the hyena pups & the jackal next to the RR. Thanks, Ken!

Excellent photos. Thank-you!
Pat

Just fabulous . . . thanks for sharing!

Peggy

Great pictures, as always! I loved that sunset (sunrise?) picture!

Gorgeous pictures, as usual!

When we were at Leopard Hills, the elephants were breaking the water lines on a regular basis.

A "little" centipede?! :eek: Zoicks! Great pictures as always, Ken - wish we were all there.

Hello from Birkenhead. This place is magnificent and we could easily stay here a very long time but alas, today we board the Navigator so the next part of our journey begins. We have closed B.H. down the past two nights....way to much fun and laughs with wonderful friends.

Savanna exceeded all our expectations!! We saw the Big 5 several times over. Lots of thrills with 2 Lion brothers catching a Kudu (sp?) and feasting on it for 2 days. On day 2 an elephant snuck up on the 2 lions and boy did they take a quick hike! Nature is so amazing and so unpredictable. We saw a precious 2 day old elephant and saw leopards galore. Luckily, unlike Donna and Alan we were always allowed to go off track where you actually see 80% of all the animals. The lodge itself was great and they waited on us hand and foot. Each evening when we returned from our game drive there was a hot bath waiting for us with champagne or wine. We had the best ranger in South Africa (Paddy) who has been a ranger longer than all others in this country and trained so many others. Life is good!

Our only surprise encounter was when we (Carla, Frank, Tom and me) were being escorted to our room one evening and there was a 7 ft. Python laying next to the walkway. The head ranger was immediately called on his walkie talkie and came to the rescue. In the meantime we just all kind of froze....it was a scary encounter to say the least. Fortunately we never had any thing else scary happen....unlike our trip to Mateya last year when our jeep was charged by a full speed Momma elelphant. In my life I don't think we'll ever have anything scarier than that elephant experience.

We're going to spend the day here at Birkenhead and then head towards Cape Town and the Navigator. In route we're going to stop at a penguin colony and arrive at the Navigator around 4. It was unanimous that everyone wanted to spend the last day here. Oh, forgot to mention that yesterday a group of us went on a shark watching boat. More exciting than that has been all the whales we see passing by right in front of our hotel. We could sit out for hours watching them. Birkenhead is a little slice of heaven....well, ok...probably a BIG slice.

More later from the Navigator! :)

Marcie, glad you a having such a great time. Where is Savannah? It sounds wounderful. How does it compare with Mateya?

Marcie - what fun! Glad you are enjoying Birkenhead House. The spa was terrific, too, if you have time to get a massage. Kudos to Olivia for passing that information on.

These posts are like the Calgon bath beads ad .. they take me away, back to the wonderful places of South Africa! Keep up the great reporting and enjoy seeing everyone on the Navigator. I'm thinking it will be a great reunion with the full DC cruisers.

Cheers, Anne

Heavenly, simply heavenly, Marcie! ...So.Africa never fails to provide adventure & pleasure, first rate....sigh.

I wonder if they are on the ship yet!!! I just checked and there are not ships in port to stalk them from :(

Happy to hear from the Birkenhead Gang! Tell everyone the sistah's said hello :hello1:

We are on the ship, and I've had one wonderful dinner with great friends, with Ngaire and Ken joining us at the end for 9 of us around a 6 top and closing down CR! It is 1 a.m. here in Cape Town, and I can't get to sleep, left Galileo's (like Horizons on the other ships) hours ago saying I was tired! Must be the adrenalin of getting on a ship again!

Anyone who comes all the way to South Africa without a visit to Birkenhead House is "missing the boat"! As I was a part of the original planning group for ROAR ONE, a loooong time ago, I will tell you we hadn't a clue about all that is available in this wonderful country, and chose the Rovos Rail between our time in Cape Town and the camps, never looking beyond, except for an extension to Victoria Falls. Thank goodness for all of us that Ngaire was willing to take us on, and learned so much more since with her many visits here. This is truly a country where you can do it all in a very diverse country geographically without having to have weeks to cover a lot of "ground". Wine country, cape country, whale watching, shark viewing, oh-so-relaxing in Hermanus in addition to wonderful game safaris!

Saw the Bittles briefly as I was headed to the ship (and they were headed to a full-cruisers event.) Beth and Crystal recognized frazzled me pulling two rollaboards toward the ship and said hello, they were all decked out looking glam! for the same event. So nice to keep adding new friends on every cruise! We had a really big "circle" in Galileo tonight, and I barely got to say more than "goodnight" to Beth! Marcie had her attention, and they were getting acquainted.

So nice to see Jerry again, after being with Peggy for a couple of days. Okay, ready for bed now.

Woo hoo, our first post from the ship! Thanks for the update, Olivia! What does everyone think of the ship, I know there are a bunch of first-timers!

It's great to be on a Regent ship again!

After 12 or 13 game drives (we lost count) plus shark viewing, Alan and I boarded the Navigator, unpacked, ate dinner and collapsed. Guess we are the wimps of the group!

Ivory Lodge and Madikwe Hills offered completely different experiences and we were happy to enjoy both of them. Our ranger at Madikwe, Jacko, was especially good.

Birkenhead House is the perfect way to relax after a safari. Atlhough, with our one full day there taken up with the shark viewing and the pleasures of socializing with a fun group, relaxation was scarce. I'm ashamed to admit that we didn't take the walk along the coast. Oh well, we'll save that for next time because this is one trip we'll definitely be repeating.

We're taking it easy today, maybe a little shopping before we sail. It's fun getting to know a new ship.

I uploaded some GAME pictures from Savanna (Sabi Sands region) where Frank, Carla, Tom and I spent 3 nights. We loved it!! I made sure to include a picture of the 7 ft. Python snake we encountered walking back to our cabin (our ranger is holding it!!)
Best to view as a slide show:
http://picasaweb.google.com/petlovermarcie/SavannaGame#

Marcie...wonderful photos - amazing what you got to see!

Thanks for sending them along.

That's what we want to see...photo's! Thanks Marcie...more, more :app:

Others took lots of pictures at Birkenhead so hopefully they'll share those too. Hope I didn't gross anyone out with the picture of lions eating their dinner....just survival in the jungle!

Marcie - wonderful pictures! The close up of the leopard at the water hole is superb.

Olivia and Donna - great to hear from you, and glad you are safely aboard the Navigator. A crossing is just the ticket after a full tour and the safari schedule in South Africa. Donna, we also had Jaco for our ranger at Madikwe Hills. He added a lot to our safari - big thumbs up for Jaco!

Keep the sea mail coming. Wishing you all calm seas. We KNOW you'll have a great time ..

Cheers, Anne

Hard to believe we left home a week ago tomorrow. CPT exceeded our expectations. Westin Hotel for 2 nights using pts - very nice. Birkenhead 2 nights and it is spectacular. Olivia, Peggy and the Mondaes had BH all to ourselves the first day till safari gang arrived about 7:30 PM. I had 90 minute facial very $$$ reasonable. I selected the facial for sun damaged skin which followed hrs abusing my skin at BH!!! Sun, views, pools, food, fellow guests all wonderful. Arrived back to CPT and ship about 5:30 last night - had late dinner and some after dinner drinks. Today shopped in CPT and kept running into fellow cruisers. Sailaway at 5 PM, I think. Karen I have not toured the ship yet - still little confused about where things are on which decks etc - met Beth and Crystal as we boarded we all recognized each other and look forward to seeing more of everyone now we are on the ship - I don't know if there is a semail thread so move if necessary Karen - way past my nap time - Joanna

I think I am as excited as you are to set sail! I bet you will have a wonderful cruise!

I have tingles down my spine seeing your photos, Marcie - and reading all these posts from you lucky SAMBA/GAMErs. :app: :app: More, more more!!!

we had fun dinner last night large table with b'dy celebration - huge lobster tails. Still learning our way around ship. We slept in this am and headed to pool shortly. So nice to finally meet fellow LCTers in person. Dinner tonight with Capt he seems very friendly. Seaday so just chilling - more later

Hi all,
What a trip! We are having a fabulous time of course. I too have to rave about Birkenhead house. We loved the game park, Donna and Allen, David and I saw more than I expected, and it was something we will never forget. How wonderful to see all the LCT friends new and old. Crystal and Beth are showing us the "ropes". Beth has reluctantly but graciously passed David and I their "WINGS". Of course I bit...asked what the wings were........they are their FLY wings, as in BAR FLY. Guess until we boarded they had our very comfortable seats in the Navigator Lounge. Carla and Frank, David and I were very comforable there last night.......Just a great trip. David (aka picture boy) has had a digital card malfunction, the photo shop here is trying to retrieve, but he has several group shots. We will work on getting them out. Great sea day......Bye!

Cindy, What did you do with the brass name tags from the bar stools?????

They are being re-printed......the crew agrees we are more than deserving....... :) :)

Great pictures Marcie! Especially the leopards and the python, whoa!

The Madikwe area looks totally different with all the green.

Had a great day in Namibia. We went on a Regent tour as we wanted to drive the sand dunes and figured there would be nowhere we would really want to go by a taxi. Fortuntely we picked the right tour. It was fantastic. We had a guide who I can best describe as the Crocodile Dundee of Namibia. He had a great personality and was running around in bare feet while picking up scorpions, searching for snakes, digging up geckos and feeding bugs to cameleons. None of this was at all scary. We were in a 30 year old four wheel drive truck "thing" that was made by land rover. Nothing like the land rover that comes to mind when you say land rover. Ken will post a picture. We went up and over so many high sand dunes much bigger than those in Dubai. It was truly terrific. At one point the six vehicles put the front wheels over the cliff and we were all there together. Then with no engine, brakes only we all went down the dune slowly together. The sand rushed in front of us and made a sound like a lions roar. It was spectacular.

Regent threw a special event that was one of the best we have had. Huge white tents in the sand dunes reached by four wheel drive vehicles. A Namibian choir, and other forms of entertainment and some pretty good food for a buffet meal. Very enjoyable.

So now we start our sea days. I am so looking forward to just relaxing. We have played some pooch, Beth, Crystal, Jan, Terri and Mike learned quickly and are good players now.

Okay off to get ready for dinner.

Our excursion in Namibia was not as great as Ngaire's but we still had a fun time. There's only one word to describe Namibia - SAND. Dinner in the desert was fantastic and now we're enjoying lazy days on the ship. Love that!

Here are Tony's pictures (mostly people)click as slideshow:

Cape Town/Birkenhead:
http://picasaweb.google.com/petlovermarcie/SouthAfricaTony#

Around The Navigator:
http://picasaweb.google.com/marciematassa/AroundTheNavigator#

Walvis Bay, Namibia
http://picasaweb.google.com/marciematassa/WalvisBayNamibia#

THANK YOU Marcie!! Tony, those are fantastic pictures, I looked at them twice!!!

Thanks for posting Marcie! As Karen said...Tony, those are fantastic picts!

Everyone look great and continue having a wonderful voyage.

Happy Thanksgiving, Nancy

Oh FABULOUS!! Thanks so much and I'm crying because I'm NOT with you all

Thanks for those wonderful pictures and sharing your exciting journey with us. It's the next best thing to being there with you. Continue to have a marvelous time and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Photos From The Namibia Desert:


1978 Land Rover, The Last year This Model Was Made.


About To Go Down Hill.






Nice Earring.

What a treat, more pictures. I just love the one of the Land Rover and sand dunes. Thanks for posting. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Pat

Those pics are FABULOUS!!! I have always been fascinated by frogs and lizards. Scorpions - uh....NO. ;) Keep the pictures and posts coming, we are loving them! Happy Thanksgiving!