Huey
Africa 2018 - Another untold story...
Friday, February 14, 2020, 17:33

For starters, I'm not a story teller. Also, this is funny now, but wasn't so funny then...

We flew into Joberg late evening. Checked into the motel that joined the airport. After putting our things away, we all met in the dining room and ate. There were 11 in the party, so we got six rooms. Not sure which one had his own room. Doesn't matter.

As usual, I've always got up early. Usually have coffee made by 4:30-5:00 at the latest. The next morning after showering, I went for a walk up and down the long hallways. 12 hours in a car and 15 hours on a plane made me want to stretch my legs.

About halfway through the walk, I passed four African Special Forces Officers. All were heavily armed with handguns and AKs. I thought to myself that someone was going to have a bad morning.

As I passed them, they muttered among themselves and turned to follow me. Within seconds it became obvious they were following me.

I tried going under staircases, behind soda machines and everything I could to loose them. Didn't have much luck.

All but running when I got back to the room door, I got it open quickly. But, by time I was in and tried to shut the door, it was blocked by AK Barrels.

Daren was up and apparently in the shower. He came running out to see what the commotion was. Not sure which was worse, Africans with AKs or Daren in a towel. You can imagine his face when he walked out into a room full of Armed Forces.

There was zero communication due to different languages. We could tell they were wanting us to go with them.

About the time my third heart attack started, Gary came running down to our room. He had gotten a call to go with these guys to be escorted out of town.

So, we beat on everyone's doors and gathered up our stuff.

It wasn't clear until we got in the van until we found out what was going on. There were to be protests that day and they were trying to get us on our way before the streets became blocked. They were successful and afterwards we appreciated the effort.

The hunt and entire trip was picture perfect. But, two years later, I've got to be honest. It was not a good start the first day.


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