Day 2 – The adventure begins

Our journey is obviously less heroic than the one of Dr. Livingstone, but because of the recent events in Brussels, it is more adventurous than first expected. The British Airways flights from Brussels to London Heathrow  have only been partially scheduled  since  last Saturday, thanks to the gradually reopening of the airport. So we  only received a few days ago the confirmation that our journey can begin as scheduled. And to  complete the  story and adventure, air traffic controllers decide to go on strike.  Can you image that a few individuals keep an entire country and economy hostage? This is really  not what Belgium needs at this moment. The action appears to hit our national carrier Brussels Airlines the most. Our British Airways flight remains scheduled. The airport has been reopened, but it is not our familiar Zaventem. The destroyed departure hall remains out of sight as you come out the parkinglot. Two large tents have been errected just  behind the existing building. In the first tent takes a first security check place. This tent can only be accessed by passengers with a valid printed ticket. This is also the goodbye zone. In the next tent you can wait until the opening of the check-in. The BA flight from Heathrow to London is a full flight. When we arrive after check-in, pasport control and immigration at the gates, the first thing you notice: little activity, few passengers, opened stores but no customers. The atmosphere can not be described other than death. Not the pleasant busy airport we all know. It will take some time before everything will be back to normal.

Until we arrive at the  gate at Heathrow, I did not quite realize that the British Airways flight to Johannesburg will be operated using an Airbus 380, the largest aircraft in the world. The airbus has a special place in our hearts. She is, after all, assembled in Toulouse and the pieces are transported via the specially built N124 from Bordeaux to Toulouse passing through Vic Fezensac. On our visits to Pia in France, we saw that aircraft pieces pass several times or we saw the convoy standing along the  side of the road. So it is special that I am the first one in the family to experience the flight. These aircrafts have been specially built for the comfort of the passengers. They "ride the turbulence," with special technology allowing passengers to  have less discomfort. The 'fasten seatbelt sign’  is only lit exceptionaly . Despite that technology it is still a fairly turbulent flight, but you always have a lot of turbulance passing the equator. After a forced  delayed departure due to a non-moving jetty, we arrive half an hour late in South Africa. We are met by our South African tour guide / driver Herman. He guides us in the coming weeks.

We drive immedately  heading north towards Zimbabwe and after a lunch in a road restaurant, we arrive at Entebi National Park in the north of South Africa. This is in the Waterberg region, one of the four major mountain ranges of South Africa. It is a 22,000 hectare nature reserve which consists of jagged rock formations and meadows on a lower plateau. At our lodge we are  greeted by  a baby giraffe . This starts well. We start the adventure with a game drive of about 4 hours. This is not only on dirt roads but also over rocks, cliffs, bridges, etc. The traditional animals such as wildebeest, zebras, Imapala and other antelopes,  are all over the place. 

A little further there are hippos in the water.

Quite exceptional we see a rhino with a little one.

Well little one, at birth these rhino babies  weigh in at an even 45 kilos. And that after a 16-month pregnancy. Yeah ... ladies.  The elephants hide for the time being in the woods. But even these show themselves a little later. It is even a close encounter as one of the elephants comes right at me (we're in an open jeep) with his trunk almost touching me before moving  behind the jeep. A lion is spotted  by rangers but finding  it still proves to be a different story. In the pitch-dark finally one of our rangers can locate him. We admire from a remote distance the king of the jungle. When one of the two other jeeps moves backward, the lion roars. A terrifying roar in the dark. Goosebumps.

We take our dinner at our lodge in a boma. A boma is an African tradition where a barbecue is held in a big circle around a big fire. The evening ends with traditional singing and dancing.