Dumela!! (Hello in Binnie’s language.) We are safe and sound in Thamaga and getting over our jet lag.
The last 48 hours have been hectic and eye opening since we left Amsterdam. So much to comment on and yet we have been moving constantly about and not near the keyboard.
We left Amsterdam on time at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning and headed south in a Boeing 777. The seat configuration is 3-3-3. We were over the left wing in 2 rows. Bella and Binnie had the window seats. Dave and Iain had the aisle seats while Gordon and I had the centre seats.
The flight south was totally boring and hard on the posterior. 10½ hours sitting in one seat is literally a real pain in the ass. (Not aided by the fact that Gordon decided to make use of the air sickness bag halfway through the trip.)
We followed a circuitous route from Amsterdam to Johannesburg. We started off heading southeast towards Switzerland before bending west to cross the Mediterranean and avoid Libyan air space for obvious reasons. Hence we crossed into Africa over Tunisia. At this point we veered east again to travel south down the centre of Africa and came in over eastern Zambia and Zimbabwe before a straight run into Johannesburg. The flight was smooth apart for a bit of turbulence just south of the equator. As these things go, quite mild but the seat belt sign did come on.
Unfortunately while the sky at 35,000 feet was bright and sunny for the whole flight it was cloudy below and we did not see much of the terrain until we descended over South Africa.
We arrived right on time at 9:20 p.m. and disembarked fairly promptly. Everyone was dressed up with winter jackets and toques. They couldn’t quite comprehend why we were in shorts and t-shirts. Granted it was only 4C0.
We went through immigration fairly promptly and with no bags to retrieve we were out in the arrivals area in 20 minutes. From there we had a 5 minute walk to the shuttle bus area. There were 4 mini-buses parked there but none for the hotel we were going to. Several other mini-buses pulled up and still not the one we were looking for. Finally I talked to one of the drivers and he was willing to take us to our hotel. It was a 10 minute drive to the Garden Court Hotel and waiting in the lobby was Andy and our 2 room reservations were on the counter. I handed over my MasterCard to be swiped and then handed our room key to Binnie and the other swipe card to Bella.
I suggested that they put their carry-on bags in the room and then join Andy and I in the bar for a few drinks.
[Apparently, it is time to go to town so I will stop for now. More later from the Hutchison 6 on safari in Botswana]
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