Update

Hey peeps

Just to let you know, we are doing a limited internet access thing so I get an hour and a half one day a week.  Sooooo the regularity of the blog is going to be, well regular just one a weekly.  The good news is that I'll have more of a chance to make my blog posts ;).  Well that is all for now.  Pictures can be found on my Facebook.  Well it's bed time here so good night all.

Blessings,
Ryan

Day 3

Today was another travel day.  I got up at 6:00 so that I could see everybody off.  Beer and his friend had to leave for school at 7:00.  So I wanted to be sure to be up to say goodbye.  Once they got up and were ready to leave, we said goodbye and they headed to school.  Trevor and I then went and got ready to leave. We said goodbye to our host and jumped onthe road.  We had about a three and half hour drive to get to Jo'burg.  The scenery was nice as we drove.  The route we were taking was through some of the mountains and so it was very scenic for the time of morning.  We finally got to Jo'burg at around 12:30.  The first goal we had was to get our bags checked in.  Since I was able to offload some of the weight that I was carrying, I made weight this time. Trevor however had two bags, and on domestic flights you are only allowed to check in one of those.  So he had to go pay for it.  Other than that is wasn't a horrible airport experience.  We got there about five hours early.  So after we got our tickets we headed to go grab some lunch.  We went to Wimpy burger and got a quick bite to eat.  After that we found a place to sit and just chilled for a couple of hours.  At around 2:00 we headed through security and went and found our gate.  Once there we sat for a while.  Trevor took a nap and I sat and waited.  At 5:30 it was finally time to board our plane.  We got on and took a hour and fifty minute flight to Cape Town.  In Cape Town we found our luggage and started to head to the entrance.  We had no clue who would be meeting us.  We thought it would be Clark, but didn't know for sure.  As we were walking through the reception area, we heard a "Ryan, Trevor?" Turned and it was Fouad, one of the leaders.  We had walked right by him.  We quickly exchanged pleasantries and then headed to the parking lot.  The majority of the group was already there and so we were going to die eiland to meet up, or so we thought.  When we got to die eiland wefound out that we would actually be spending the first few days at a retreat location in the mountains near Wellington.  However, we were first going to wait for Casper and that group to arrive before we left.  So Fouad and and I headed back to the Cape Town airport to pick them up.  We got there about thirty minutes before the flight was supposed to land.  I hadn't eaten since around 1:00 and it was 10:00 so I ran over to Steers and grabbed a quick bite to eat.  After I got my food we walked over to the arrival area and there was our peeps walking through the door.  I also saw some of the other people I met last year and so I was able to say hi to them.  We then got all of their luggage loaded and headed back to die eiland.  At die eiland we grabbed a small bag and packed for a couple of days of activity.  We then locked up the rest of the luggage and headed to Wellington.  We had about a hour and half drive up to the site and so we arrived at around 2:00 in the morning.  It was such a blessing to finaly be in one place.  We grabbed our stuff from the car and headed to bed.  

Day 2

Well today was a pretty stinking sweet day. Mr. van Vuuren took Trevor and I hunting. Yeah you read that right, hunting. I went hunting in Africa. I have joined the Africa club. Not only did I go hunting but I also shot something. My uncle Jim would be proud. So the day started early. We should have gotten up at around 5:30 but I didn't get out of bed until around 6:15. We quickly ate breakfast and then headed out to the game farm. Once we got there we met our guid and piled into the back of the truck. It was actually kind of funny. We looked like a bunch of militia men in a technical like you see in the African war movies. I mean here I was standing in the back of the truck with a rifle as we drove through the brush. Well the hunt started out pretty slow. We were out for the African Impala. Well we didn't see any for like an hour. We did see some Giraffes... I decided that those weren't worth the effort of trying to clean. So we kept driving. A couple of minutes later we saw three Impala, but I was told they were to small for shooting. So we kept driving. We drove around for around another four hours. Didn't see a thing. So we stopped and took a break. Mr. van Vuuren decided that it would be best if the guide and I got out on foot to see if we could get some. With in five minutes we found a herd of about thirty. I never could get a shot. We spent the next hour stalking that herd. Everytime we would get close, I never had a shot and then they would get spooked and run off. Eventually we lost them. So after all that effort all I had to show for it were some bleeding scrapes from the bush. We finally made it back to the truck and drove around for about thirty more minutes. I was begining to think that this trip was for naught and we would have to go back empty handed. However, since it was around noon the guide suggested that we head to the watering hole and see if we could get one there. Trever decided that he was tired of riding in the truck and so he followed behind us at a distance. Whe got the the watering hole and set up shop in a small blind. After thirty minutes of waiting we finally had some things coming to water. They were Zebras. I thought about how cool it would be to have a Zebra head on my wall, but I knew that they weren't what we were here for. A couple of them started coming to water and then we saw the shape of an Impala through the brush. Just then they must have caught a whiff of us because they got really spooked and started to run off. The final straw that sent them scattered to the wind was Mr van Vuuren driving up in his truck. So we decided to pursue on foot again. At this time it was about one in the afternoon. We walked for about thirty minutes until we finally found the herd. This time we got the jump on them. I got into position about twenty meters away. They started to move through a small clearing in the trees. Everything I saw was antler less, but I was looking for a ram (buck). Finally I saw one with horns. I raised the rifle and pulled the trigger. One shot one kill. It dropped like a rock. We ran over and made sure it was dead. Trevor and the guide then dragged it back to the road and we set off to find Mr van Vuuren. After thirty minutes of walking we finally found him. We all piled into the back of the truck and headed off to find my kill. It took us about twenty minutes to get to it. He had to drive all the way around the farm. We got to the Impala and took a couple of victory pics. Then we through it into the back of the truck to be processed. After we dropped it off we headed back to the house to get cleaned up. Trevor and I then packed up and then followed Beer's parents to Nelspruit. We were going to be staying at one of their friends house. Before I go on, I have got to say Beer's mom drives fast. I mean the speed limit it 120 (kph) and she was going at least 140. But we made it to Nelspruit in time to go to the store. I needed a sleeping bag and Trevor needed a jacket. We also needed to get food for the bria. After that we headed to pick up the guys from rugby practice. When we got to the house, I got out of the car and was immediately swamped by three of the guys that were on my rugby team last year. We hugged and then got the luggage out of the car and took it into the house. By this time the parents had already started the grill and do we went and set out in the cool night while the food was being cooked. We talked about everything. How we were doing, what was going on in our lives and just all kinds of things. Our conversation lasted at least an hour and a half. Once it was finished we went and served ourselves dinner. We had steak, chicken, vorsh (sausage), a sweat cornbread thing, and salad. It was a GREAT meal. The steak I had, to be at least two inches thick. It was fantastic. After dinner we sat and talked for a while. Menzi and Daniel headed back to the hostel about thirty minutes later. The guys
started their homework and the rest of us talked. Trevor and I then distributed the gifts that we brought. We got cowboy belts and belt buckles for the guys. I also got Beer a pair of cowboy boots. He was ecstatic. After he tried them on, he came over and gave me a big bear hug... so for those that didn't pick up on that pun, his nickname is beer which is "bear" in Afrikaans, so bear hug... Any way after a while Beer's parents left to go back to Komatipoort, and our host headed to bed. Trevor decided to go shower and hit the hay. So I stayed up with Beer as he finished his homework. We talked about rugby and school and what his plans for the future were. At about 11:30 I decided to turn in since we had a long drive in the morning.

Day 1

So today was a good day.  I am going to try and do a daily post, which will probably turn into a weekly one by the end of the trip.  Anyway, today was a good day.  What made it good wasn't because we had to get up at 5:30 in the morning. Or because we almost ran out of gas.  No, what made it good was the fact that we got to go into Kruger National Park. For those of you that don't know, Kruger is a wildlife refuge.  It has the big five (Lions, Elephants, Giraffes, water buffalo, and leopards).  It also has various other animals.  So after talking with Beer's dad the night before, we decided to head out really early to catch all of the animals. We almost succceeded.  We got to see three of the big five, and several of the other African species.  It was really cool.  We got to the gate at around 6:20 and saw many of the animals within an hour and half.  What was also really neat was getting to see the animals in their natural habitat.  Most of these animals we have seen at the zoo; however, they are confined to a small enclosure and so they don't behave as they normally do. In Kruger they are roaming free and so you can actually get really close to them.  It was so cool.  The best part was when we had a close encounter with an elephant.  I was able to get one picture, but it actually got closer than where the picture was taken. It was probably about three feet from the passenger side door. My blood was pumping thinking about what it could do if it got angry or felt threatened. I will say that the elephant encounter would have only been trumped by seeing a lion or a leopard.  Trevor and I kept hoping that we could see one take down an impala and start to feed.  Sadly that never happened.  However, it was still a great experience and I hope to get to do it again.  After the park we had to try to make our way to town and get fuel. We were down to an eighth of a tank and I was reeeaaallly woried that we wouldn make it to a gas station.  Luckily we got there just as the last bar on the fuel gauge was going away.  After getting gas we headed back to the house. Trevor decided to go for a jog and I wanted to do a little bit of blogging.  So I blogged and watched rugby for a while.  After that I decided that it was time for a little nap and so I got a couple of hour of sleep.  I then decided to get up and so I went and fixed some dinner.  Trevor and I watch a replay of the Chelsea v. Munich final.  I had forgotten how much I dislike watching soccer.  Playing I can do, but watching is not my cup of tea.  After the game we decided that it was time for bed.  Yes it is eight o'clock at night and yes I would normally wake up at two in the morning and be wide awake, but I took a sleeping pill and so I shouldn't have any trouble knocking my self out. In fact as I type this I can feel myself getting tireder and tireder.  So I guess then I am going to go ahead and call it a night.  This is Ryan Dillon signing off.

Welcome to South Africa

So the trip started when we flew out of Dallas.  It was another loooonnnggg flight from DFW to Heathrow.
It seems to be my luck that I am alway by little kids on airplanes.  There was a little Indian girl who probably
wasn't more than four years old sittin in front of me.  Well this wouldn't have been a big problem exept that the first hour and a half of the flight was without movies.  The entertainment system was not working.  I thought I was going to go crazy.  I couldn't sleep, I didn't feel like reading, and my phone didn't have a charge.  Luckily, they finally got the system fixed and so I was able to do what everybody wants to do on airplanes... watch movies. I think I watched three full movies and half of another.  Needless to say I didn't get much sleep at all.  When we landed in London it was an overcast day.  I can't tell you how cold it was outside because for this trip we didn't have to change terminals.  So we made our way to the departure area and headed through security again.  Security in Heathrow is always an adventure. We always find a way to make it take extra time.  Last time is was Hein's Playbook that I forgot to take out of my bag, this time Trevor got picked to check the entire contents of his bag.  So after I got through security I stood waiting for Trevor to get done.  As I waited I started talking to a security guy standing nearby.  I mentioned that is was just our luck that the first time Trevor was traveling abroad he would get picked for the random full search.  He chuckled, and I mentioned that we should have a little fun with him.  So he asked me what his surname (Last name) was.  He then walked over to Trevor, who had his back to me, and said "Mr. Wait once you are done here can I have a word with you?"  Seeing the look of shock on Trevor's face, made me lose it. Once he was done he walked over expecting to have to answer a bunch of questions.  We then let him know that everything was ok and got a good laugh out of his reaction.  After we left security we went to go look for a nice quiet place to take a nap.  Well that only lasted about an hour.  We woke up and found ourselves surrounded by people headed to Barcelona.  Needless to say we didn't say there long.  We walked over to the other side of the terminal and found another place to camp out.  Well an hour later we found ourselves surrounded again.  We got up and walked around for a while. After we stretched we decided to try again.  We found yet another quiet place to be.  This time we got about a two hour nap, But again we woke up surrounded.  At this time we decided that it was time to get something to eat and so we grabbed a sandwitch and then walked around until it was time to go to our gate.  When we went to the gate the first thing I did was look and see how many kids were going to be on the plane.  There were quite a few. So when we boarded I looked to see how many were around me.  There were a few...  It seems to be my luck that I will always sit by little kids.  Well the good thing was that this flight I was going to sleep.  After they served dinner I took a sleeping pill.  So once they turned out the lights, I was out.  I was able to get about six hours of sleep.  So pretty much when I woke up they were serving breakfast and then fourty minutes later we were landing.  After we landed we got our bags and headed ff to get our car.  Once we got our car we began our journey to my friend Conraad "Beer" Van Vuuren's house.  Well we got lost.  We hadn't even left Johannesburg and we were already going the wrong way.  The good thing is that I was able to get directions before we left that airport, and so after an about face and a couple of minutes of driving I was able to find the correct road and start our five hour journey.  Now I wish I could say that it was eventful; however, the first hour and a half of driving was like going through Abilene. It was brown, dry, and flat. Trevor only made it about an hour and a half, and then he was out.  So I turned up the radio and kept driving.  We finally pulled into Komatipoort at around 1:00 in the afternoon.  It felt like it was 9:00 at night.  I was exhausted.  Even though I told myself that I wasn't going to take a nap I did.  A three hour one at that.  It was glorious. When I got up Beer's dad had fixed dinner and so we ate and talked for quite a while. Once we finished, it was time for a shower and bed.  So I took a sleeping pill and went to sleep.  And that concludes going to South Africa.