Passport info

U.S. citizens are required to present a valid passport that has at least two blank visa pages before pages 22, 23 and 24 in their passport and the passport should not expire within six months of the last day you are in the country. U.S. citizens are not required to secure a visa in advance of travel to the country. You may stay in the country without a visa for a stay of up to 90 days.

Everybody look at your passport and make sure it doesn't expire before December 2010!

Sike!

Yeah... whoops. Hold please.

Know Your Enemy

Good rundown of the Super Eagles here. "Feed the yak and he will score!"


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/soccer/01/11/wcup.nigeria/index.html

Izintaba Game Farm

We are booking the Kudu Cottage on the Izintaba Game Farm today. Here is the link:

http://www.izintabalodge.co.za/

Check it out.

Jobedi Game Lodge

I just sent an enquiry to these folks. Hopefully they are nice. Here is the web address:

http://www.sa-venues.com/accommodation/melkrivier.php

I kind of like that Bushwillow Cottage at the Windsong Cottages location. What do you all think?

South Africa Climate

I looked up the temperature ranges during June for some of the areas we will be visiting. In Cape Town the high and low temperature for June is 64/46 F with 3.3 inches of precipitation. Durban 's high low temperature range is 73/54 F with 1.3 inches of rainfall for the month. Johannesburg's temperature highs and lows are 63/39 with only .3 inches of precipitation in June. It looks like quite a difference across the country but relatively mild for winter.

Lawrence Is Booked

Here is my itinerary:

Thursday, June 3

United 7288 leaving Detroit at 6:00 AM arriving at Washington Dulles at 7:28

United 6971 leaving DC at 8:20 AM arriving at NYC JFK at 9:40 AM

South African Airways 204 leaving JFK at 11:15 AM arriving at Johannesburg Tambo at 8:15 AM next day

South African Airways 327 leaving Tambo at 11:00 AM arriving at Capetown International at 1:10 PM

Wednesday, June 23

South African Airways 203 leaving Tambo at 7:35 PM arriving at Dakar, Senegal 2:15 AM next day

South African Airways 203 leaving Dakar at 3:15 AM arriving at JFK at 7:40 AM

Delta Airlines 6236 leaving JFK at 12:30 PM arriving in Detroit at 2:45 PM

People need to sleep don't they?

We booked our lodging for Cape Town – a two-bedroom apartment on the bay in Muizenberg, which we have from June 4 through June 10, when we should be leaving for the game in Port Elizabeth. You can scroll down to find the Strandloper, which is the one we booked.
http://www.whalewatchers.co.za/acc/muiz_beach.php#

Rental Car Question

From Cori's post we know we have a choice of renting two small cars or one big eight passenger Toyota Quantum bus. The Toyota uses diesel fuel and seems to meet our needs for space and safety but will cost over $3,000.00 for the duration of our visit. What do you all think. I am now thinking of leaving South Africa one day earlier on June 23rd. I could book my return flight from Durban rather than Joburg, turn in the car at the Durban airport and save one long days drive back to Joburg.

We booked, bitches!

If you want to join us on any part of our trip, here is our flight itinerary:
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Delta 6728 departing DCA 6:10 a.m., arriving JFJ 7:30 a.m.
South Africa Airways 204 departing JFK 11:15 a.m. arriving JNB 8:15 a.m. Friday, June 4.
South Africa Airways 327 departing JNB 11 a.m. arriving CPT 1:10 p.m.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
South Africa Airways 207 departing JNB 5:45 p.m., arriving IAD (Dulles) at 6 a.m. Sunday, June 20 (with a one-hour layover in Dakar, Senegal, for refueling).
Found on kayak.com, booked on orbitz.com.
We can cancel up until 11 p.m. tomorrow if anyone has reason to question our sanity.

One Vehicle or Two???

What is the opinion of the group on whether we should pay more to get a vehicle big enough for all of us or just rent two vehicles? The only large vehicle I see available right now is a Toyota standard van (holds 8 people) for about $3,100 for 20 days if we paid online in advance, while the super small cars are available for $800 for 20 days, $1,000 for a slightly larger car, $1,500 for a standard-size Toyota. These are all manual transmissions -- you pay nearly twice as much for an automatic transmission. And these are total prices, taxes and everything -- it looks like a lot less when you first see the base rate. Under one theory, Brent and I could pick up one car when we land in Cape Town on June 4 (haven't booked yet, but am about to) and the remaining Beckwiths (and Nate?) could rent another, which would save us from having to arrange for a different person dropping off the one vehicle on the 24th than picked it up on the 4th. The minivans seem to all be gone, but maybe I'm not looking at the right websites. It would be so much better to stick together, to only need to find secure parking for one vehicle, and so forth, but I'm not sure whether y'all think it's worth the money. I guess if we're dividing it six (or more) ways, it won't be quite as bad -- $500 apiece for a big ole van and the ability to stick together for 20 days. What do you guys think?