Our first Braai

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Geo: -26.1951, 28.0339

Our friends had not been to South Africa since last year's World Cup, and they quickly commented on all of the improvements to the Johannesburg airport. It's a beautifully modern facility, and we cleared immigration and customs in record time, and soon met our driver, who was to take us to our "guest house" for the night. Our friends were continuing on to Cape Town, where our friend Barbara's parents still live. Their flight was not until the following morning, whereas we had booked a two-day safari trip, which was also departing in the morning. We booked a lodge close to the airport and it proved the perfect respite from the long plane trip. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked outside of the airport, as the sun was setting and it was clearly in the high 70's. We had arrived near the end of the South African summer, and we were extremely lucky with all our weather during the trip. As it was snowing and temps were below freezing back home, we were spoiled with bright sunny days with high's in the 70's most every day of our trip.

It turns out the South Africans are really into meat and grilling, and they call a traditional outdoor barbecue a "braai." Our lodge was a small family-run hotel, and they hosted a braai on the night we arrived. The skies were clear and nighttime temperatures were still in the 70's, so it was a beautiful night for a few drinks and some outstanding grilled steaks. It was a perfect way to close out the night, especially as we all had early wake-up calls scheduled.

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