South Africa - A World in One Country

South Africa – A World in One Country

Day Fourteen – 5 Oct 2013 – Globetrottin’

Weather: Delightfully hot.

I managed to go to bed at 9 pm, cause we all know that 4:30 am comes fast. My alarm got me up then my wake up call came. What I didn’t know was that the person calling me was the transfer. Apparently, he was chatting with the guy on duty and asked him to call me. He didn’t think I had a wake up call arranged (which I did) and he was afraid to call me, so my transfer did. LOL

He was a pretty chipper guy for that hour. We get on the road and looks at me and says there’s no one on the road, so what are we doing out here? Oh wait, there’s a car. Okay, it’s okay now he says. LOL

He tells me that he is on the graveyard shift then looks at me and says “Dead guy driving.”

I mean, how to you reply to that? LOL

When we get to the airport, a man comes up to me and offers to take my bag in. I decline cause I like to keep my bag with me. My transfer says “ah, you know about them.” Then I remember a warning that at some airports, they’ll offer to take your bags in and disappear with them. Later, in the Johannesburg airport, I get a guy who wants to show me to my terminal.

What’s that all about?

No idea. I don’t want to know. I didn’t go with him.

I go through the self serve kiosk and I am able to switch my seats from middle E to aisle D. After security, I have a delightful cup of tea at Press and Bean with the second largest muffin I’ve ever seen. They served the muffin with butter, jam and cheese. What a breakfast!

The flight to Johannesburg is about an hour and three quarters and we arrive a bit early.

No, that’s not my plane.

At Joburg airport, I found myself out in arrivals so there doesn’t seem to be any direct connection between terminals. I find terminal A and have a bit of time to check out the shopping. All the shopping! Holy cow, this is a nice airport.

I only have time for a recce at this point but I have 5 hours here on Wednesday. I’m in business class for this leg. My seat was 1 D but the entire front row is empty, so I get my pick of window seats.

We get a bit of finger food for a quick meal then I don’t see the attendants again for the rest of the flight. The last time I was in business class, the attendants were constantly trying to feed me.

The flight is just under two hours. The pilot comes on and says it’s 30 degrees out. I pull off my sweat shirt before I get off the plane. Which is a good thing. Thirty here feels like 45.

The airport is tiny. Tiny cute.

I’m the first off the plane and second in line for a visa. Since I’m Canadian, I can’t buy a multi-entry visa. I have to pay $75 every time I enter Zimbabwe. From what I understand, Mugabe doesn’t like the Commonwealth, but for some reason, he has singled out Canada for this special treatment. Apparently, it’s a reciprocal thing. It’s only $30 for Americans and many others.

So, I shell out the $75 and walk up to the open wall with the trailer full of luggage sitting just outside. The attendant calls me over and asks “which one is yours?” I point mine out and he hauls a couple pieces off and hands me my bag.

That’s a first.

Outside, I am delighted to say my transfer was there waiting for me.

Whew.

Actually, it’s two. One is the airport guy and the woman, Sofret, is my driver. She gives me my schedule for Victoria Falls and says my schedule for Chobe will be available at the activity centre at the Safari lodge. I ask her about the Walk with the Lions and she says she can take me to the office there and book it ahead of time. Then I ask if there’s time to do the helicopter ride and she says yes and takes me there to book that.

So, $280 later, I have both activities booked. It’ll be a busy day.

From here, it’s an hour to the border of Botswana. It’s practically a game drive in itself. We come across elephants, a giraffe, kudu, baboons and a bird about the size of a turkey that I think she called a ground vulture. She stops so that I can get a quick photo.

Sofret is a sweetheart.

We chat about Zimbabwe and Canada while we drive. She tells me that education isn’t free in Zimbabwe and neither is health care. She tells me that the average lifespan for men is about 45 and about 55 for women.

Think about that.

I remember my guide in Egypt telling me that the average lifespan there was 45 years. We had a couple in our group who were both 78 years old. The guide was floored. He asked to see their passports cause they did look really good for 78. He thought they were in their 50s and just couldn’t believe we could live into our 80s. I told Sofret that my father was 82 and she just shook her head. I told her my grandmother and great grandmother lived to 95 and 98. She just couldn’t comprehend that.

We talk about snow and heat and how men are the same all over the world. LOL

We get to the Botswana border and as we approach, she points to the Zambezi River and says that four countries meet near here – Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia.

The border is a small affair about as complicated as the Swaziland border. I go through one door, get passport stamped, check out the free souvenirs on the wall (empty) and walk out another door then walk across the border where my transfer hands me over to the Botswana transfer.

We then drive up to the Botswana passport office where I go in one door, get my passport stamped, check out the free souvenirs on the wall (not empty but too many witnesses) and walk out another door. But before I hop in with the transfer, I have to walk on a sterilization mat. Then the van has to drive through a sterilization bath. Both are meant to keep diseases like mad cow out.

It’s a short drive to Kasane where the Chobe Safari Lodge is located right on the river.

What a spot! It’s so hot here, there aren’t even any doors on the place. The reception is just under one large roof. I check in and they send me to the activity centre to confirm my planned activities. I get signed up for the morning game drive and evening river cruise. I ask her if there is anything I can do between the two and she says I can go to Namibia to see….

Stop right there. You had me at “Namibia.”

I don’t even know how much it costs. All I know is I have to make sure my passport is with me. After all, Namibia is just across the river.

That makes this a 5 nation tour. Six if you count the UK stop.

She can tell me tomorrow when my transfer back to Victoria Falls is planned and I said that if it’s late enough in the morning, I’d like to do another game drive. (It’s done by 9 am – which is the big difference from Kruger where we were gone for 9 hours. Granted, the best hours were the first three).

I try to hook up to the internet but have no luck. I even tried the hotel’s computers but they can’t hook up either. I ran into the guy who was looking at the computer and he thought it was just a loose connection but I said I hadn’t been able to hook up with my computer, so he knows now that it’s a bigger problem.

I give up and go back to my awesome room, complete with mosquito nets. The porter said I don’t have to use them as the rooms are sprayed every day by the staff.

Ahhh….so that explains the sweet smell of deet.