Our Extreme Morning

We started our Zambia adventure by doing a half day abseil package. That meant we got picked up in a crazy open sided truck at our hotel, drove about 15 minutes and then met the guys who would have our lives in their hands for the next few hours.


We did an activity called the Flying Fox. We got harnessed up and then they told us to run until we hit the green line and then we had to dive!

I have to say it was pretty cool. We got to do it twice so we could get the feel for it the first time then really get a good run the second time. We flew high over the gorge. It was pretty cool. From there we went to rappel into the gorge. I had never rappelled before so the 30 second tutorial was great. They had us lean off the safe side of the platform in our harness and rope, he said sit back, now push off and release rope. Well I did a little but if I released any more I'd be on my behind on the dirt so I chose to just learn on the fly.

This was the scariest time for me. Leaning back over a 150 foot + drop scared me a lot. But I didn't look down and kept pushing off the wall until I hit rock bottom :)

All smiles at the bottom. After this we hiked over to do the Gorge Swing. But that will be a post on its own. I got some video of one of our group doing it and some great snapshots of me taking the plunge.

Thanks for checking in.... more to come from Zambia.

Sunset Cruise

Our first night in Zambia we opted to relax for the afternoon, have a drink and lunch on the patio and then hop on the hotel's boat for a sunset river cruise. It was a small but rowdy crowd on the boat. Our group of 6 grabbed the tables up front for an amazing view of the river, it's animals and the sunset.

Here are the Zambia 6 as we called ourselves..... not really, but it was a fun group to travel with.

We saw some crocodiles along the river, a monkey, some birds, but our favorite animal of the night was the hippo. These animals we learned are very dangerous and fast. They kill thousands of people every year in Africa and are not to be messed with. We saw about ten this night, including a mom and baby climbing out of the water after sundown. It was a truly cool thing to witness. The animals can stay under for 5 minutes at a time so it was hit and miss keeping track of them.

One of the best things of the cruise was free drinks! and a three course snack. This place did it right. We enjoyed the guide, Webster, who told us all about the river, the history and the animals. It was a great initiation to Zambia for our group.

Here is our great ride. We met some really cool people from the US and England. It was a wonderful first night. It let us relax, see some nature, and learn some culture and history about our host country.

We grabbed some dinner after the cruise and rested up for our extreme morning that was to come, but that is another blog.

Welcome to Zambia

After a short flight from Johannesburg we arrived in Livingstone, Zambia. We waited for 15 minutes in line to pay $50 for our visa. Our bags were waiting for us and so was our shuttle driver. He informed us we had about a 25 minute drive to the hotel. We were pumped to be here and ready for some time off of work.

While at the airport I thought it would be a good idea to get some local currency, although we were not aware o the conversion rate versus the dollar. I went to the ATM and saw that my options were 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 or 100,000 +. Knowing it was a tourist town I was timid to get 100,000 so I opted for 20,000. One one of the guys I was with had an iPhone and he pulled up the currency converter. After a minute of waiting and some nerves about how much money I might have just taken out of my account, he informed me that I had just taken out $4.12. The lucky thing was that Zambia accepted US dollars, Euros, South African Rand, and more. It was a very easy country to get around in, sight see and shop. English is the native language and there is little corruption and crime. We felt safe the entire time we were there.

We arrived at our hotel and were greeter with a hand washing and a refreshing beverage while we got checked in.

We got checked in and took in some views of the hotel and the surrounding area. It was a beautiful lodge type hotel, with great rooms, great decks and great views. Oh, an some of the best drinks and food I have ever found at a hotel. All in all it was a great find for our hotel. It was located in the heart of a national park so we were advised to not go outside the fence around the hotel after 6pm. Elephant, hippos and more were known to be found in the area around the hotel. It was such a neat experience to know that these animals were all around us and we were truly in their world. Here's some pics of our hotel.



Well that's it for tonight. I have at least 5 or 6 more blogs to do from my trip to Zambia. I am excited to share the rest of my journey with you. Check back soon!

Sun City Resort, South Africa

The hotel we stayed at in South Africa was amazing. It was close to being Las Vegas in the middle of South Africa. It had multiple hotels, casinos, meeting rooms, and of course a wave pool and water slides. It was a great place with amazing animals (monkeys and baboons lived on site) and beautiful golf courses and activities near by. Here are some pictures of the hotel, and some fun we got to have the last day before we left for Zambia.

The monkeys and baboons were all over the property. The baboons scour the terraces and decks of the hotels and break in through windows or open sliding doors. They eat the food in the mini fridges and then move on to the next room. A few people returned to their rooms to find a baboon in there. Luckily I was not one of them. Good stories to tell after, not so much during the encounters though. No harm done, just some peanut M&M's missing.

Some Great Features of the Hotel. Site of our opening social hour.

We did play a little at the end....

The golf course and the property.

Next stop..... ZAMBIA!

South Africa and Beyond

I am sitting in the airport on my way to Amsterdam and then home. It has been a tremendous trip and I have so much to share with all of you. I only took about 800 pictures so I won the bet of over/under 2,000.

The meeting in Sun City, South Africa was amazing. The best part was an early morning game drive we went on in Pilanesburg National Park. We got to see a bull elephant up close, lots of rhinos and their offspring, warthogs, a couple hippos, wildebeests, zebras, and a lot more. It was a cold morning, but a great way to start my true Africa experience.

Here are some pics from drive.

And to tease you, this is just the beginning of the wonderful world of Africa and it's many treasures I encountered once I arrived in Zambia... but that is another post.... or ten!!

All I can say is that I WILL be coming back to Africa again, and I invite any of you to join me. It is an amazing land of beauty, animals, people and places. I look forward to the next adventure. For now, look forward to more blogs about all of our activities once we got to Zambia.

On to my next journey....

I have more to post about from our meeting and our adventures there, but I wanted to let everyone know I made it to Zambia today. We arrived at our resort about 1:30pm. It is amazing. Words cannot describe it. We are staying in a national park and if we go outside the fence after 6p, chance being trampled by elephants or hippos. True to my form, I am snapping a ton of images and will share all of those with you when I return home.


It is weird for me as I have zero cell phone service here and have to by Internet by the hour if I want to use it.


I think I may win Jenny's over under bet for me taking 2,000 pictures. Tonight on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river I snapped about 20 of some hippos and another 20 of the sunset. It is truly an amazing place. We all booked our activities and it looks like an action packed couple days.


Can't wait!!

Back With the Old Gang

It has been two days of the meeting and two nights of reconnecting with my old co-workers from around the world. It has been an amazing time seeing all of them again. Last night our AWESOME Swedish Idol DSM and his band played. I cannot tell you how much fun this guy is to watch. He got all of us on the dance floor for a few hours and it was a great night to just relax with old friends over a few glasses of wine.

We also have a great DSM from the UK who does a mean Elvis. He got on stage for a few songs and did an amazing job.

Check out some pics from the night and I will upload a video as well when the Internet gods are kind to me again.

Thanks for checking in!! Much more to share with all of you from South Africa and beyond.

My Swedish pal Niklas.

The best British Elvis ever!

A rocking night with the band and the Polaris International Team.

Let the Fun Begin

So after two days of being delayed in my travels, the meeting is underway. A quick recap of what happened to my trip plans.

I arrived in Atlanta Sunday night and as I handed my boarding pass to the nice (insert sarcastic tone here) Delta employee to board the plane, she looked through my passport and advised me that I had no free blank pages so I would not be flying that night. I had open squares for stamps, but not a full blank page for my visas. I was sent back to Minneapolis that night ad got home at 1:00am. I spent the next day on hold and at the regional passport office in downtown Minneapolis getting more pages added to my passport. At 2:00pm on Monday I had my passport back in hand and was ready to go. I got booked on a new flight at 1:00pm Tuesday and arrived in South Africa at 5:00pm Wednesday after the 15 hour flight. We then took a 3 hour car ride to the hotel and that is where we stand. Good thing that the passport thing happened while I was in the US, since I would most likely not have gotten in Zambia for my vacation after the meeting. I would have been truly disappointed had that happened.

So after seeing a lot of familiar faces, we kicked off the meeting with a cocktail hour and a buffet on the beach. It was great. This hotel is amazing. Here are a few snapshots of where we started our night last night.

Next up for me is working at the demo track all day then my favorite Swedish band is playing tonight (one of our sales guys bands)

Tomorrow at 5:45am we depart for a morning game drive. Quite excited about that.

Thanks for checking in. All is well, safe and enjoyable. I hope to post more tomorrow or the next day.

Cheers!

Finally Here....

So some of you may have heard my saga of getting to South Africa. Although I am two days late, i just arrived at the hotel after a 15 hour flight form Atlanta and a 3 hour car ride from Johannesburg. I am very excited to see this place during the daylight as it looks amazing. Look for more updates as my trip progresses, but know that I made it safe and sound.