Arranging the trip was a long process and Rob had been working on the arrangements for most of the year. He did lots of research on where to go and where to stay. This page and those that follow will have a lot of pictures. Most of them were taken by the other members of our group. Each picture should have a copyright notice that provides credit for the person who took the picture. I have taken the liberty of cropping pictures and adjusting color balances and brightness wherever I felt it was necessary.
Our trip began on September 2, 2008 when Rob, Kile and our friend Barbara departed from Dulles Airport on Virgin Atlantic and flew to London. Although the main purpose of the trip was to go to Africa, we decided to have a few days in London first, before flying on to Africa. On Saturday, Sept. 6 we left London via Emirates Air and flew to Dubai where we changed planes and then flew on to Johannesburg, South Africa. We got into Jo'burg on Sunday and spent the night in a hotel near the airport. It was at that hotel that all the members of our group gathered. So this is a good spot to give you the cast of characters:
- Kile, author of these pages
- Robert, Kile's partner
- Barbara, former co-worker of Robert's
- Michael, high school classmate of Kile's
- Edward, Michael's partner
- Nicole, Edward's daughter
- Brad, Nicole's husband
- Dennis, friend of Michael's
- Wonnie, friend of Dennis'
- Deanna, friend of Michael and Edward's
You can see everyone plus a few additional people in this picture. Click on the picture to bring up the larger version with the people identified (just mouse over the person's face). 
On Monday morning a van from the Tremisana Lodge arrived at the hotel to pick us up and take us on the long drive from Johannesburg to the lodge, which was situated near the famed Kruger National Park.
We had several days to look around the Kruger park area before the lodge van took as back to Jo'burg. In Jo'burg our group split up into two. Michael, Edward, Nicole and Brad flew south to Cape Town where Michael had business to attend to. The rest of us spent the night at the airport hotel. The next day, Saturday, Sept. 13, our diminished group of six people went sight seeing in Pretoria. On Sunday we flew from Jo'burg to Livingstone, Zambia. We had most of Sunday and all of Monday in the Livingstone area and then flew back to Jo'burg on Tuesday. From the airport we had a shuttle bus take us to Pretoria where we spent the night at a luxurious hotel.
On Wednesday, Sept. 17, we were taken to the Rovos Rail train station where we picked up the train to take us down to Cape Town. We arrived in Cape Town on Friday afternoon and spent the rest of our time in Africa in the Cape area. On Monday, Sept. 22 we began the long flight home.
On the Navigation bar at the left you will see links to pages describing the major parts of our trip. Each page will contain a number of small pictures. Click on any picture to see a larger version of it.