South Africa

Accidents and illnesses know no season, so a side-effect of doing air ambulance flights is working on holidays, weekends, etc when much of the world is free from obligations. While I was on call over both Christmas week and New Year's, I made up for it by taking the week before Christmas off. Not just for the heck of it, but because my dad happened to be coming through South Africa for a few days for his job and I went to visit him. So I packed up and headed south in the Land Rover for the week. The trip down was an epic 18-hour battle against an overheating engine (due to, as I mentioned before, a lost radiator cap), having to stop in the dark to add water next to signs saying "do not stop - hijacking hotspot" and such (crime in South Africa is rapidly becoming quite a problem in places). But I finally made it, dragging into the lodge where my dad was staying around 1:30 am. So I hung out for a few days with my dad, which was wonderful. Unfortunately, he had to leave two days earlier than he had planned to and I didn't get to spend nearly the time with him that I had hoped. The rooms at the lodge had already been payed for, however, and it was too late to get any refund on them, so I just decided to stay for three more nights there before heading back to Botswana to start work again. So I relaxed at the lodge, drove around and saw the sights in the area, went to Kruger Nat'l Park (the biggest park in South Africa), went to a reptile farm, and just generally took it easy. Oh, and bought a new radiator cap. It was wonderfully relaxing week and it was great to see my dad for a bit, so i considered that my Christmas holiday. I've posted a few pictures for some visual stimulation. Enjoy.