These are our personal thoughts written during the trip itself.
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Mark's EntryJanuary 2 - Can't wait to get to Cape TownYea! We can finally leave this place. Our flight isn’t until 1pm so we take some time packing and eating breakfast. At least it isn’t raining. Our ride to the airport is at 11:15 but we have to checkout by 10:00. Since there really is nothing to do here we decide to just sit in the lobby and wait. Fortunately I had something to keep me busy for much of that time: checking out! The checkout process was VERY slow. Even though there were 6 or 8 people behind the counter, it still took them at least 15 minutes to check out each party. And some of those parties were pretty big. One group received a printout of everything charged to the rooms, each page contained about 20 items, and there must have been 40 pages. Wow! I was behind them. So we finally checked out and I paid for my one room charge (3 bottles of water). Ann went to the ‘mall’ and bought a pillowcase. She also stopped at the money exchange place and exchanged a one-dollar bill for 30,000 Zim-Dollars. What a terrible exchange rate. One dollar is actually worth about 1.2 million Zim-Dollars on the black market. So we waited to check out, waited for our ride to the airport, waited while out ride picked up everyone else at the other hotels, waited at the airport itself for over 2 hours, and finally took off about 15 minutes late. The plane ride (coach) was the most comfortable I had been in two days. I was beginning to look forward to plane rides just so I could be comfortable and relax a bit. But again we had a quick connection to make. This one in Jo’burg. We needed to disembark, go through passport control, pick up all our checked luggage, go from one end of the very large Jo’burg airport to the other (international to domestic), go up two floors with our bags, check in for our next flight to Cape Town, go through security, and make it to our gate, a in about an hour. We being experts at this by this time were able to do all of this within about 35 minutes, and we reached the gate just in time to learn that the flight to Cape Town will be delayed by 2 hours. So we sat and waited. I wasn’t worried or stressed by this point. It was actually nice. I was out of Zimbabwe. I was in a nice modern airport. I was on my way to Cape Town, which I expected (hoped, really) would be the most comfortable stop on our journey. And I had no other connections to make after this plane, so who cares if we were a little late. Apparently on this afternoon Jo’burg airport was having technical difficulties and several planes were being delayed. From where we were sitting we had a good view of the large monitors displaying each flight’s status. Several in addition to ours were displaying red. Our plane was originally scheduled to leave at 1700. It was delayed until 1900. At about 1845 we still hadn’t boarded and suddenly our flight listing disappeared from the monitor. Everyone started to worry a little and some found a member of the ground crew to find out what was going on. They were assured that everything was OK. At 1900 the ground crew for the gate next to ours (the one labeled ‘Port Elizabeth’) began boarding people, and many of them were people we thought were on our flight. Again a few people went to enquire and were told that flight was for ‘Port Elizabeth’, so we waited some more. Just a few minutes later, one of the ground crew from that gate came over to the rest of us and said his flight was for Cape Town, and we were to board over there. So we quickly gave him our boarding passes and hopped on the bus to take us to the plane. At this point I’m assuming that they have combined the two flights and we will be making a stop in Port Elizabeth on our way to Cape Town. The bus takes us to a very old 737 sitting at the far end of the airport. It is clear that this is plane is used only for backup. We get off the bus and pile into the plane. There aren’t that many of us, and we don’t have assigned seats, so we just spread out in the plane. Once we are seated we realize there is no crew: no flight attendants, and no pilots. In fact, the cockpit door is wide open. One of the passengers decides to poke his head in and look around. No one to be found. Someone exits the plane and asks the ground crew what’s going on. They tell him that we need to de-plane. We aren’t even sure if that was the right plane. So we get off the plane and back on the bus where we sit for a few minutes, and then the bus starts to take us back to the terminal. We all start laughing. Once back at the terminal, the bus driver backs into the parking space, and immediately throws it into drive and takes us back to the same plane we were on before. We are laughing even harder now. We get back on the plane, this time there are flight attendants, but it’s clear that there are still no pilots. We wait for about 15 minutes when finally this jolly old grey-haired guy in a pilot’s hat pops in and grins at us. He explains that he was on his way home when he was called back to take this flight. A few minutes later he says everything is OK, all we need now is some fuel. Finally after a half-hour to get the fuel we take off for Cape Town (not Port Elizabeth as it turns out). Time is now 2030 (3 ½ hours late). We arrive in Cape Town, are taken to our hotel and check in at about 2300. When we see the hotel, and how nice and big, and comfortable our Penthouse Suite is, we finally get a little upset at the delay because that was 3 and 1/2 hours less that we would be able to spend here. Now that Jacob has his own room we have some privacy. We also have a comfortable bed, so we quickly fall asleep. |
Ann's EntryJohannesburg JumbleOR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa – 2 Jan 2008 – 17:00 Today’s activities are devoted to traveling in circles. Our flight out of Zimbabwe is delayed by fifteen minutes. It is a 90-minute ride back to the Johannesburg Airport. Upon landing in Johannesburg, we must again pass through immigration, customs, and security. Our connection to Cape Town is a domestic flight. We take a brisk and speedy walk to the far end of the airport, check-in, and proceed directly to our gate. We arrive promptly, only to learn that our flight to Cape Town has been delayed by two hours. This is where the confusion begins. We are directed to another gate where we sit and wait. After about an hour and a half, we are told to board the plane bound for Port Elizabeth (which is on the other side of the country.) We are assured by the ticket agents that this is the new flight to Cape Town. A bus takes us to the plane. Everyone gets settled in their seats. Then we are told we have to deboard the plane. There is no crew, including no pilot. Everyone gets back on the bus which takes us back to the terminal. The bus backs into the very same gate we left from, but before the driver can put the bus in park, he is given orders to drive us back out to the very same plane. Now they have a crew. We all reboard the plane and sit in the very same seats. The pilot is now working on his day off, as is much of the cabin crew. Nobody knows what’s going on for sure. The pilot announces to us that the original flight was cancelled because the plane is broken. The plane we are currently aboard was scheduled for maintenance (thus no crew.) But, he’s going to fly the plane to Cape Town anyway – just as soon as the plane can be refueled. So, we sit on the plane for an hour waiting for fuel. We leave Johannesburg three and a half hours late. I am so dizzy – maybe I am in Port Elizabeth. |
| next day: January 3 | ||