During the night last night, when I was awake around 2:00 am, I saw a message through my email stating I’d placed an order at Amazon.com for US $584, ZAR 10659.46, for some bizarre items I’d never ordered. When I didn’t want to get up and wake Tom, I waited until this morning at 6:00 am to get up, get showered, and dressed to go outside for a good phone connection to make the calls to Amazon and my credit card company.
Similar fraud has happened to us over the years of world travel, but none for such large sums. After spending over an hour on the phone with Amazon and my credit card company, their combined efforts finally got my credit card issue out of my hands. My credit card was canceled, and a new one is coming to Marloth via UPS within a week or two.
Amazon would cancel the orders while I removed my credit card information from their system and changed my password. A few minutes ago, another charge came through my email for US $1842, ZAR 33607.23 for ten Smart Tank 5000 Wireless printers at Amazon.
I immediately called Amazon back and reported the new charges, and they explained that they would also take care of this immediately. With the credit card canceled, I will wait and see if it shows up on the credit card today, to determine if I need to call the credit card company again.
What a hassle! If this had happened while we were in the US, it would have been easier to handle. The phone signal is weak here, and the calls are difficult to hear on the other end.
As a result of this commotion, I got little sleep and hope to recover tonight. My Fitbit says I slept 4 hours and 45 minutes, but I don’t think it was that long.
After all that, Tom and I got busy in the kitchen, making dinner for the next three nights. We both love a fantastic keto ground beef casserole with mushrooms, onions, and cheeses. We also had an additional pan, which we froze for two more nights.
We often make one-pot dishes while in the bush, which prevents us from having to cook dinner every night while in the heat in the bush. It is very hot and humid right now. Finally, we finished the task and an hour before dinner, we’ll pop the 3-night portion into the oven. This will get us through to Friday when we return to Jabula for two nights. We’ll heat the balance of this delicious recipe in the microwave on the remaining two nights.
We always add a fresh salad to these meals, which I also made this morning. We’re set for the evening, perhaps leaving time for a short nap early this afternoon. Getting up at 6:00 am, earlier than usual, makes it feel as if we’re further into the day when now it’s not quite noon.
For yesterday’s self-drive trip into Kruger National Park, once we arrived at the entrance gate, we went into the building to sign up for a 12-month entrance pass to Kruger and other national parks in the country. As mentioned yesterday, we agreed to post the cost of the year-long entrance pass, the Wild Card, which was US $360.15, ZAR 6574.14.
The daily cost to enter the parks for one person is US $29.29, ZAR 535. The annual pass will pay for itself quickly since we’ll enter the park at least once a week over almost six months.
The attendant processed our Wild Card in about 30 minutes, and we were on our way, 30 minutes later. It wasn’t the ideal day in Kruger for excellent sightings, but we were happy to be there, enjoying the ride and the views. We’ll continue to post more photos in the days to come.
Be well.
Photo from ten years ago today, March 11, 2015:
