Wednesday, December 3, 2008

This leg of the flight was one a Boeing 777-300, which was nice in the sense that each seat had its own monitor and multiple On Demand movie choices. I watched Wall E and Ghost Town. The only problem was the seats were too close to each other. There was little leg room and it is very difficult to work on the laptop. With my elbows by my sides and hands near my chest, I feel like I’m a T-Rex trying to type. Fortunately, the flight wasn’t full and there was an empty seat next to me so I did have plenty of elbow room.

Rey and Liza were a couple rows in front of me, so I didn’t get a chance to visit with them.

The guy seating in the aisle seat wasn’t very friendly. Both times I need to use the restroom; he seemed rather annoyed that he had to get his butt out of the chair so I could use the restroom. I felt like saying “just get over it.”

The flight itself was tame. No funny characters to comment on. I realized it was probably because there weren’t many Americans on board. Ray from Mississippi may have been annoying, but entertaining. I can only wonder what the rest people on board our flight thought about these three annoying Americans.

Johannesburg Airport

I take back what I said about the Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. It has just been upgraded to a three star airport.

We arrive in at the Johannesburg airport around 10:40am. As we enter the terminal, we are greeted with the scent similar to paint thinner, dust falling from the ceiling, and no AC. It appears that the terminal is in the middle of being remodeled, however, I see no one doing any work. We stand in line for a while to get through customers. As I start getting warm, I try to keep my distance from everyone since it has now been almost 48 hours since I last bathed or changed cloths. I’m sure by now I am quite ripe. I imagine the snooty man sitting next to me looking over at this smelly, unshaven, obnoxious American in khaki cargo pants and hiking boots asleep and snoring away on the plane. I doubt he will on line and blogged about it to his friends and family, so I will do it for him. After getting through customs, we get our luggage and proceed to the domestic departures to catch our flight to Kruger national park. We are greeted by aggressive porters who help carry our luggage to the check in counter. Once at the counter, the lady informs me that my check in luggage is over the 20 kg limit and must pay extra. She says each passenger is allowed only 20 kg total for check in luggage. One bag is 25 kg, but she says she’ll let that one go. The smaller bag is 13 kg and I must go to a different counter to pay. I inform Liza and Rey about this, and head over to the other counter with my porter, who the whole way is telling me “No, this is not right. You are connecting from international, so there is no weight limit. I’m going to ask for the supervisor. This is no right. She must be new.” And so on. We arrive at the other counter and hand the gentleman the slip of paper which the lady in the check in counter wrote the total weights and excess weight on it. The porter and I explain the situation. He examines the piece of paper and saw the lady did not fill it out correctly, so he can’t do anything. We only have a couple hours lay over in Johannesburg, and at this point I’m willing to pay a small fee to check in this bag so that I can make my flight to Kruger. I’ve paid enough already and come this far, I don’t want to miss out on the opportunity and inconvenience Rey and Liza. The man behind the counter tells me he can’t collect any fee because she did not fill out the form correctly. She put the excess weight on the back. Plus, total weight minus the allowed weight does not equal the excess weight, and I have to go back to have her fill it out correctly. I’m starting to get more than a little annoyed. So the porter and I head back to the check in counter. Concerned about the time and being frustrated, I’m walking very fast. The poor porter who is carrying my bag and still ranting “This is not right... I’m going to talk to the supervisor….” can barely keep up with me. We get back to the counter and cut the line and go directly back to the original women and told they would not let me pay since she filled it in correctly. She’s took offense to that, and the fact that the porter is telling she is wrong. As she starts to explain the policy, I interrupt her and ask the counter lady sitting next to her if she can listen and confirm if the information is correct. She said she was listening. This annoyed my check in lady even more. She explains the policy again as I ask question and ask to reweigh both bags so I know the amounts myself. During the discussion, the counter lady on the other side (the lady who checked in Rey), who was now listening too steps in. She asked if I just arrived from Paris. I said I did. She turns to the girl and says, they are connecting from an international flight, there are no restrictions. This lady must be the supervisor or her senior, because the girl checking me in sat quietly, with her lips pierced and motionless as the other lady said this. The older lady apologized and explained that these are small plane and they are very concerned about the weight they have to carry. I was just happy it ordeal was over. I smiled and told her I understood. As the girl completed the check in process she was talking with the old lady about the policy and said one of the other supervisor had her do that just the other day. The older lady said as long as they arrive from an international flight within 24 hours, they are no restrictions.

After completing the check in, the girl apologizes and I smiled back at her said thank you. I was just happy to make my connecting flight and not have to pay extra. If she was new, I understand people do make mistakes. And since she was nice after being corrected and did apologize, I was over it. I knew I had to tip my porter any way, but I felt the poor guy did deserve it, having to run back in forth with me, carrying my luggage, and trying to explain to both of the counter people that they were wrong.

Flight to Nelspruit

Our flight to Nelspruit airport outside of the Krugar national park was on a small Jetstream 41, a 26 seat prop plane. Nelspruit is just to the right of Johannesburg on the map.


When Liza saw the size of the plane she was not very happy. She started telling us about her past experiences with turbulence on small planes. Before we boarded the plane it started to rain. As we taxied down the run way for our take off, it started to rain even harder. Liza was not very excited about this. I, on the other hand, was looking forward to the turbulence. I told her that and she thinks I’m crazy. We did have a little turbulence as we took off, but once we climbed higher, the flight was a lot smoother.






Ride to Kruger

We arrive at the Nelspruit airport and meet Tim our driver to the Jock Safari lodge. On the drive to lodge, we see quite a few local people waking along side of the highway, a number of them hitchhiking, or waiting at bus stops. Walking appears to be the only means of transportation available to a lot of the local people.


This is the first time I have experienced driving on the left side of the road; the correct side, according to Tim. I also notice that the drivers of the vehicles are much more considerate and harmonious then any other country I’ve been in. The slower vehicles and trucks on the highway frequently drive on the shoulder of the road, allowing faster vehicles to pass. Sometimes drive three or four vehicles wide on a two lane highway. I know this sounds dangerous and scary, but from my observations, it is common practice and they have it do so perfectly synchronized using their horns and head light/tail light signals to each other.


Tim informs us that the rocks in this area are some of the oldest on the planet. They have been dated as old as 3-5 billion years old.

Once in Kruger national park as we are still heading to the lodge and not even on one of our safari rides, we see all sorts of wildlife, including crocodiles, hippos, giraffes, and kudu to name a few. I’ll post all my pics once I return home. I will post some of the better shots soon in a separate post. As of Dec. 8, I have already shot almost 1300 pictures on this trip.






We arrive at the Jock Safari lodge and wait for the staff to open the sturdy, well protected gate. The place is enclosed by a heavy duty fence which is electrified along the top. It reminds me of Jurassic Park. After a completing our check in and a glass of Champagne, the host gives us a tour of the lodge and our cabins. We arrived a little late and decide to pass on the night safari. We agree to wait for the next evening. The first item on my agenda is a shave, shore, and a change of clothes. It is now 6:30 pm on Wednesday, 53 hours since my last shower.







I immediately fall in love with the outdoor shower.


This is the view from the shower.


As I shower, I hear Liza, who is inside the cabin soaking in the tub her scream “Look at the elephants!” From the shower, I see a herd of elephants walking by. I quickly dry off, throw on some shorts, grab my camera, and start taking pictures. Liza calls Rey who is in the next cabin.


Drinks are at 8 pm and dinner is served at 8:30 pm. We head over to the bar where we meet JV the ranger who will be our guide during our stay, and Larry and Morla, a retired couple from Ireland. They will be in our group for the safari drives. Around 10 pm we head back to our cabins, since our wakeup call will be at 4:30 am. I am more than happy that we are calling it an early night. I am in need of a good nights sleep in a real bed.