In South Africa and checked out our new truck today

Today we went to Bushlore – the 4WD Safari rental company from whom we are buying our vehicle. It was in great shape and the company is fantastic. What a buttoned up operation. They helped us get our paperwork with the motor vehicle department, our insurance, the vehicle emergency tracking system in our name and made sure the vehicle was all set to go. You can tell this company is successful because they take great care of their customers. After going over all the gear in the truck we did an equipment shopping run to a big Target type of store called Makro (a chain we used often while sailing through Asia.) We were able to pick up 90% of our long list of gear all in one place.. We have another day or two of sorting things and buying food and we should be off. Buying this fully outfitted vehicle while we were still in the US easily saved us two weeks or more.

We love learning local colloquialisms in our travels. Australia of course is the most colorful with an entire language called “strine.” One example from Australia is that a baby’s pacifier is called a dummy and when an adult throws a tantrum or starts screaming about something he is referred to as “spitting the dummy.” Australia’s neighbor New Zealand has a colorful description of outhouses- they are called “long drops.” The one we heard here today was one I’ve heard once before elsewhere – some one was telling us to go down the road past the speed bumps which he referred to as “sleeping policemen.”

Rob