Ants Big 2004 Summer Adventure
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
 
Last weekend in SA
Last few days in Jo'burg! A few more rellies had arrived back from the UK, so Johanna got to meet more of the SA contingent!
We spent a day at Gold Reef City, which is an old gold mine that has been converted into a gold mine theme park!! Plenty of white-knuckle rides (when they're working!!) and gold related exhibits to see! Standout moments were the log flume where despite sitting at the back of the log, yours truly copped all the water when everyone in front of me ducked...

The Miners Revenge ride where I watched my sunglasses drop 30 meters, seemingly in slow-motion, before hitting the ground, when the ride flipped us upside down and held us there! Somehow, they didn't smash, and despite a few scratches and dents, they are still usable....good old Ray Ban!!
The Tower of Terror was another interesting one! The car is winched 40 meters to the top of a metal structure and you are then held there in mid-air for a few seconds, before the car is released and drops like a stone down 70 meters into a mine shaft!
This should give you the gist of it!!


My cousin Vanessas eldest boy, Keegan (Garth, her husband is a Liverpool fan....say no more!!) celebrated his 7th birthday earlier in the week, so Saturday was his big party! 20-odd 7-year old boys running wild through the back garden playing African Survivor!

It didn't take the adults long to hit the alcohol!!

We had a bit of a family dinner in the evening, with 10 of us sitting down to demolish 3 chickens that Garth had expertly BBQ'd earlier!

Most of the sensible side of the family headed off to bed, but Garth, my cousin Scotty and myself somehow ended up in the family pub (the old swimming pool pump house has been converted to a pretty neat little local!!), where we proceeded to work our way through the stock of vodka, whisky and various disgusting sickly sweet high alcohol concoctions whilst we tried to thrash each other into alcoholic oblivion with a set of dice! I think the UK member of the group put up a pretty impressive display against the SA mob!! At least I didn't wake up at 6:00am sprawled on the floor of the lounge with the TV, fire and lights still going full blast, like one of the group (who will remain nameless!) did! :-)

Sunday was relatively quiet....thankfully! Jo and I spent the morning shopping for last minute african craftwork, before we headed home to get ready for the journey home! All too soon, we were saying our farewells, and heading off to the airport (thanks again Garth!!) to catch our flight back to London.

Our Virgin flight was slightly late getting airborne, and to rub salt into the wounds, we were cruelly given a taste of Virgins Upper Class cabin, only to have it snatched away from us! My cattle class seat had a defect which meant that it wouldn't stay upright! When I pointed this out to the cabin staff, they said they would have to move us up to Upper Class for take off and landing, so we were whisked up there for take-off, moved back into economy for the rest of the flight, and then moved back up there for landing! Well, at least Jo got a bit of a taster of the good life!! :-)

We arrived back in London at 6:35am Monday morning, and spent over an hour getting ourselves through the farce that is Heathrows passport control and baggage reclaim! Unbelievable and embarassing!!

Anyway, everyone was there to meet and greet, and we headed off to Starbucks for a quick coffee and a debrief session, and then Julie was whisking me off to Hitchin, and Johanna was heading back to Stroud with Louise, Rob and Meghan!

We've had a wonderful time in SA, been very well looked after (spoilt rotten if truth be told!) and experienced many of the delights that this great country has to offer! Yes, it has it's problems, there's still a long way to go, but there is a genuine feeling that everyone is beginning to pull together in the right direction!

It's been a fantastic 2 and a bit months.... a real once-in-a-lifetime experience! I've been re-aquainted with many very good friends, visited some really cool places, dived the barrier reef, skied the Southern Alps, bungied off Auckland Harbour Bridge, abseiled off Table Mountain, dived with sharks, tracked Lions in the night, been to Ground Zero, to name but a few! It's been an absolute blast!
So! Now it's back to reality! I'm looking forward to the challenge! :-)

Hope you've all enjoyed reading my ramblings! Thanks to all those who have dropped me the odd email along the way, much appreciated!

Keep in touch if you can! I'm sure we'll catch up at some stage!

That's it!!

Ant

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