"Red Hot" 7's- Sun City (part 1)
| 07 October 2009
Sun City-
We somehow made it through two border crossings in one day, across the Kalahari, and into South Africa safe and sound! I am not exactly sure how this happened, since we had the “Flying Toaster” on a consistent speed of 155km/ph!). As mentioned in previous post Sun City is home to South Africa’s premier casino and resort. Growing up with many South African family friends, I have been hearing about Sun City since I was a kid… so how could we not go! I will not say it was the ultimate BTK experience, but for some good recreational fun, it was a nice change of pace!
A touch misleading to me was that Sun City is also the name of the actual “town”- then to go to the resort (also called Sun City) you need to pay a 10$ entry fee (70 Rand). This gives you access to the resort area, which includes condos, time shares, the whole nine yards… basically I felt like we were trapped in the ultimate planned community with a monorail running through it! It was not what I expected, but hey, what a pleasurable change of pace from the past several weeks.
There was not a whole lot to report on the casino end (which is just about all that is open for the public at night…). The casino area (2 of them) is very small, clean, well put together. On the way out of the casino we found a biltong shop, and popped in and grabbed some very well flavored peri-peri biltong. It was devoured before we arrived at the exit gate! Yes, that good!
Peri-Peri is a native spice blend that is used in Southern Africa- outstanding in flavor, just need to use moderately as it packs a punch!
Peri-Peri Spice Blend (Dry)Paprika
Chilli powder
Bay leaf powder
Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion Powder
Lemon salt You decide the amounts depending on your palate!
Mission: Trans Kalahari Highway
| 22 September 2009
Mission I –
The road out from the Lake Lodge…
Mission II-
First Stop---
Border Crossing (Namibia to Botswana)
And… a whole lot of patience!
I was given the nick name by the guys “Chef Gordon”
Beach and Nachos... (just not in Mexico!)
| 18 September 2009
The Flying Toaster Rides Again! After spending a little more than a week exploring Tambuti, seeing Otavi (all 3 intersections), and traveling through those parts of Namibia we headed into Windhoek (the capital).
A 5 hour drive…that somehow turned into about 8! “The Toaster” made great time (at the average speed of 160 km/hr!), but we had to make some stops along that way that were just not miscible for a first timer in Namibia!
We stopped in Okhanja at the wood carvers market, popped through a few other small towns… while keeping our close eyes out for Ostrich Biltong to take home to a friend.
Out of luck at this point with the Ostrich Biltong, but somehow we managed to load The Toaster up with more or less meaningless souvenirs and trinkets… Ben is in love with carved animal hooves, legs, and wart hog tusk bottle openers….don’t ask me why, because I will never understand it! I think it was more about the challenge of bargaining with the locals…he is a great salesman that’s for sure!
Anyhow, we finally arrived in Windhoek, where I opted to bail out to the internet café in search of some real high speed internet (which was not much better than what we had been using in Otavi)… and Ben went off adding more weight to our already overloaded Toyota Yaris (The Flying Toaster) with trinkets and African keep sakes…
After Ben bought the entire wood collection from this lovely Himba woman we headed out to the Joffie’s Lake Lodge. The directions we received were, head to the end of the road past the airport, wait until the road turns to gravel, and the entrance is on the left. That sounds like the perfect directions…
Then, it went like this:
Joffie: “Head to the right when you get in, go 16km and you will see the Lake Lodge”….
US: “Sounds good, hey... you know we are in a Toyota Yaris”….
Joffie: “No Worries, Just be careful”.......
US: “Okay, sounds great!, see you in a few hours”.......
Joffie: “Monica made dinner for us tonight so don’t eat much” …..all sounds relatively well for African standards, right…..
Well, things were on point all the way…directions were perfect to the gate…we made the right…and were on the road to the Lake Lodge…so we thought!
Our friend Joffie, seemed to forget to mention that “road” is full of soft sand like you were at the beach! The middle of the sandy road stood about 3 feet higher than the left over tire tracks from a Land Rover! Well, when you are in a car with a ground clearance of about 8 inches…. You can only imagine what happened!
5:30pm-. “The Flying Toaster” stops moving
5:30-5:45- We asses the situation, and try to just pop the clutch and roll it out of the hole we had dug (about 2 feet)
5:45-6:30pm- we spend digging all the sand out from under the tires, undercarriage, sides, etc. While using the license plate and the top of a Tupperware container we just happen to have! (Sun is dropping in the horizon….)
What are a few herds of Kudu & Wildebeests (700 lb+ animals) 50 feet from you while you are on the ground shoveling sand with a license plate!
6:30-6:45pm- After digging 6 feet of clear path, we somehow manage to get the Flying Toaster out of the rut! I am so thankful that Ben is an offroad master, but I was in shock watching him off-road the Yaris for several km, until the roads leveled out…
I mean who off roads a Toyota Yaris through a game farm that looks like the Serengeti!
7:20pm, The toaster survives (as always), and we were greeted with a cold Tefel Lager and good laugh from our friends Jofee and Monica!
“Thanks guys!!!!”
I am convienced that the Flying Toaster got stuck from all the additional African keepsakes that Ben decided to purchase…. I am sure he would look at it as supporting the local communities… hmmmm.
We should apply for The Amazing Race after this little adventure!
PS. Monica and Jofee, Thank you for a fantastic evening, the company, wine, and Lake Lodge were all beautiful and just perfect! 
Monica, EXCELLENT dinner, start bottling your homemade salsa J
You’re home cooked meal made the “sandy road incident” well worth the wait to get to the Lake Lodge! …I don’t think I have ever had a glass of Jordan with Nachos! Loved it all !!!
May the "Toaster" fly again!
