Mel
The African tummy bug struck us again; thank heavens we were in a hotel room and not at the mercy of a long drop this time.
We had to get up at 5:00 (Tanzanian time, 4:00 – S.A. time). The Precision Air flight took off on time (6:30) and the other 15 passengers and myself landed an hour later at Dar es Saalam airport, after a very pleasant flight.
After collecting my luggage, I looked around and finding no signs or directional help, I did the female thing, I asked for directions. I was taken down some dingy alley ways that had me rather concerned but eventually found myself in an even dingier departure area. It was bustling with people, all heading off to either the Middle East or Zanzibar, not a sign of a SAA counter. As I was only flying out at 3:30 I was informed that I could only book in an hour before my flight and had to lug my 20kg tog bag around for the next 6 hours. The reason for the heavy bag was that we had discovered there were things we had packed and didn’t need which were now being sent home, to make space for the kids.
The next question was - what was I going to do for the next 6 hours? The 6 chairs in the departure check-in area were all taken and I again, did the girl thing and asked for directions. At this point, I wished I had spent a few days at Riverside Lodge and taken their Swahili language course. I landed up at domestic departures, now having lugged my 20 kgs through 2 security check points to discover a few more chairs, a coffee shop and a duty free shop. I killed half an hour in that area and was seriously bored, so with 5 ½ hours still to go, I went exploring.
Eventually I found an airport worker who could speak English and he directed me out the building and up a flight of stairs to the ‘Flamingo Lounge’. The name alone had me a little concerned; I had visions of pole dancers and disco balls, sending little lights darting around a dark room. On entering, I was pleasantly surprised to find a rather pleasant restaurant, with welcoming staff that were only too happy to allow me and my ‘body bag’ to spend the next couple of hours chilling there. They had a large flat screen T.V. – the first I had seen since leaving home 2 months earlier. It was programmed to Sky News – I discovered something over the next couple of hours, Sky repeats their news items continuously on a Sunday morning. Unfortunately the most exciting piece of news was the closing down of a BMX track. Graeme had kept the lap top and Kindle with him, so after 5 hours of Sudoku I felt I must be a pretty logical thinker.
Eventually it was time to pass through security for a third time, the Zanzibar sign had been replaced by a SAA sign and I was able to book in and go through all the other boring procedural checks. After an uneventful 3 hour + flight, I arrived at OR Tambo. Gareth and Kristy, were waiting for me and the whole day had been totally worth it. Johannesburg was freezing; then again I guess it is the middle of winter.
From the airport, we went straight to Julie’s house to see Robs and Baby Luke (and Juls and Adie – of course). We had decided to surprise Robs and not tell her I was arriving early, as I peeked my head around the door and saw the look the look of disbelief on her face, clearly mission was accomplished.
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