Gaborone Game Reserve

We took Stephen for a short ride around the Gaborone Game Reserve. I did see a new bird, a pied avocet. I was so mad when I was clearing off my chips before I went on safari up north. I wasn't paying attention and I deleted some good pics of a kingfisher before I had downloaded it to my external hard drive. Luckily it was a bird I had already seen but it was close to the road and from teh camera looked like good ones but oh well what can I do. It is so funny to watch people when they first see impala. They take all kinds of pictures of them and I stop for them but at the end they do the same thing, .....another impala. I feel bad for them they are beautiful but there are so many of them you kind of get board with them

4:30 Friday!

Stephen arrived from Carlsbad and we took him to our ususal Friday dinner place, Rodizio. Claudia and I had our peach mojitos. They are so delicious! We all look forward to our 4:30 Fridays. It doesn't even matter to us if we work on Saturday. Just getting off at a normal time on Friday makes the week.

Jean and Linda's last dinner

Linda and Jeans last dinner out was at the Palms Hotel. We had a good time but the food and sevice wasn't as good as the other places we usually go. It was most amusing to watch the old white South African guys with the hookers that hang out at the hotel. It was so gross and actually very sad. Most of the men were wearing wedding rings. Seriously why would you do that when HIV is such a major problem in this country. The next night Linda, Karen Claudia and I went to the News Cafe and had dinner and drinks. It was just ok there too. I think I will stick to my favorites when it is my last week of dinners in Gabs.

Red Mango, yum!

Sunday morning we all went to breakfast near the Razzel then went shopping at the Rosebank market. I bought the cutest pair of tennis shoes. Then it was off to Melrose Arch so I could have my yogurt. I was thinking of this yogurt for a whole year. I loved it so much last year I just had to have it again. Come to find out they have Red Mango in Orange County. Now I can go have it when I get home. It was so delicious! I am so glad we made it there before we had to go to the airport. We found our way back to the airport, dropped off the car and said good bye to our Jo'burg friends. It was a short flight back to Gabs but we were all so happy to be back in safe Botswana where it is so calm and laid back. Such the opposite of our weekend in Jo'burg.

Pirates vs Chiefs in the World Cup stadium, SA

After returning from the mine we went to a mall in Soweto to meet one of the workers from the Jo'burg lab and to have something to eat before the game. I had Nando's of course. I had no idea the game was in Soweto. We parked at someones house and then were supposed to get on the bus right there by that persons house and that would take us to the game. Well the bust stop was closed so we had to walk to the next one. We were walking on the streets of Soweto. We got to the next one and it was closed. We were walking forever. We fonally got to the 3rd stop and got on the bus that took us to the stadium. It was the statium that the World Cup final was played in which was pretty cool. The game was pretty fun until oneof the people got their camera stolen. After the game that is when all the stuff happened that I would rather forget about. There were over 76,000 people at this game. Most were drunk. We waited around int he stands for a bit before we headed to the bus. There were people everywhere. We finally got to the opening of the tunnel and 2 people went thru and they shut the gate. I was right in front of the gate and was trying to get out of the way. The people were going nuts and they ripped the gate back open and I got swept in throught the gate while all the others didn't. I was so scared that someone was going to try to pick pocket me in this mess or get separated from the rest of the group. The others finally got thru the gate. We were in wall to wall people and we couldn't move going toward the bus. There was 1 guy that had a stun gun and he held it up in the air and kept setting it off so people would get out of his way and he could make it to the front. I think it took an hours in that mess before we all got on a bus. Luckily we all made it on the bus. We got off the bus and had to walk thru Soweto again. It was not fun let me tell you. We were all a bit shaken up after the whole experience. That is one thing I will not do again, especially the bus part. The game itself was fun though.

Cullinan Mine, SA

The Cullinan Diamond Mine, also known as the Premier Diamond Mine, has uncovered some of the largest diamonds in the world today and the mine lies over one of the biggest kimberlite pipes in the world. The Cullinan Diamond Mine is the third richest diamond producing mine in the country, but its major claim to fame is the discovery of the Cullinan Diamond, exposed here in 1905. The Cullinan Diamond, which now forms part of the British crown jewels.

All the expats from Jo'burg and Botswana plus Ewetse and Richard went on the mine tour. We left early Sat morning to get to the mine by 7:30am. There was a terrible accident on the road ont he way and of course my car had no pick up so the 2 other cars went through the police and by the time I got thru he was waving others thru. I tried to follow the others but the police started yelling at me and I finally got through and caught up to the others. The mne is in the town of Cullinan which was farm land before it was a mine. Before you reach the mine tour building you see the building with the air vents for the mine. We arrived at the the place for the tour and we had to get dressed into coveralls and boots. Then it was a short ride to the mine where we had to get hard hats, helmeet lights and a safetly briefing before we went down into the mine. Walking through the complex before we went down in the elevator you could see the lifts and conveyor belt that the kimberlite moves around on after it is brought up from the mine.

The elevator took us deep down into the earth. The guide took us along the tunnels of the mine. It was a long walk in uncomfortable boots. We saw the loads of rock and kimberlite being loaded into the bins and rolling off. You wouldn't believe how much was being loaded over and over again. It was amazing to see the way diamonds were mined. After we came back up out of the mine we were taken over to the original open pit mine. The hole was massive and now closed off because it was dangerous. We then went to the gift shop and then to lunch before heading back to the Razzel to get ready for the soccer game.