Much like Day 5, Day 6 was a travel day. We deplaned in Johannesburg, where the passport control area was not electronic as it is in London. Here you actually take your passport to the control officer who asks you how long you’re staying, and gives you an actual stamp! Because we were connecting with a domestic flight next, we had to then re-check our bags on the next airline. This must be a very normal and frequent occurrence, as there was very good signage that directed us to the recheck area.
Once we had our bags safely checked to the next location, we headed to the next gate. Here’s where I wish I had done more research. No doubt we screamed “tourist,” and as we headed to the next area a gentleman walked up to us and asked what our gate was. Next thing you know, he’s got our boarding passes in his hand and he’s our “porter,” taking us to the next location. This, of course, was for an expected tip, and we were never given a chance to politely refuse. Once he got us to the security area to the gate area, he was ready to collect his “tip,” which we did not have. We had not had time to change any cash yet, so unfortunately we had to give him the disappointing news that he had picked the wrong tourists!
The security line at this spot was pretty long, and reminded me of the wait in U.S. airports. We made it through without incident, but a sunglass case fell off the side of Jeff’s backpack as we were walking away. We stopped to retrieve it, and taking that brief moment to stop we were yet again easy targets. This time it was for the shoe polishers. Even as he tried to politely refuse, Jeff found himself being led over to a chair. I wondered how it would go this time, since we still had no cash. As I pondered this, Jeff decided to throw me under the bus, and next thing you know, I’m being led to a chair! I will say, the white rubber soles of my tennis shoes did look brand new when they were done. As for payment, we didn’t get away as easy this time, because they took cards as well! When they asked how much, in US dollars they quoted $100! Jeff of course refused this, and after I got my conversion calculator out, we ended up paying the equivalent of $14 each, or $28 total. A lot for a few minutes of shoe cleaning, but we were tired and ignorant, a bad combination!!
Speaking of money, it’s pretty difficult here to convert in your head. Based on what we figured out yesterday, 1750 ZAR, or South African Rand, is about $100. This makes doing the math in your head a little harder, (especially for non-math geeks like me), so i just keep my conversion app ready! Things do seem to be cheaper here, as we stopped at a gas station on the way to the reserve, and purchased a large Snickers bar, some Belvita-style cookies and a large package of Kleenex for $4 U.S. This is about half of what those items would cost in the U.S.
Back at the airport we eventually found our gate, and had been sitting there for a few minutes when we noticed everyone leaving. A very nice lady then came over and told us we’d had a gate change, which they did not announce overhead. We followed her downstairs to an area where you board a bus to be driven out to the plane. Once we got there, we figured it had to be a pretty big plane, based on the amount of people and busses waiting. Sure enough, as we drove over to it, it was a large DC-10, that probably held about 200 people. This was South African Airways and we were headed to Durban.
This flight was just over an hour, but the service was great, with both a drink and a choice of sandwich to eat, all distributed and collected in about 45 minutes. US airlines could take a lesson from this, as flights under an hour usually never offer food, or pretzels is the most food you get! As we hadn’t had lunch, the sandwich was great!
Our arrival in Durban was uneventful. I did notice as we approached, however, that it was located just off the coast of the Indian Ocean, so we saw beautiful beaches as we were landing. We deplaned for the second and final time that day and headed to get our bags. They had been through quite a journey in the last 6 days!!! Once our bags arrived we knew to look for our shuttle driver from the reserve. We did find him fairly quickly. As we were the only names on his board, I was surprised to see another couple standing with him. As we would find out, this couple was supposed to fly into the 2nd available airport (which was significantly closer to the reserve), but got re-routed due to weather at that airport. I had selected the airport further away, as they had more frequent shuttles to the reserve. It was looking like I had made the right choice after all! They were a lovely couple from a town in northern Indiana, right outside Chicago. It was a midwesterners reunion in South Africa!!
By “further away ” I mean we still had a 3 hour drive to the reserve. The other airport that was turning planes away was only 1.5 hours from the reserve. Our driver, a very friendly gentleman named Cyinda, let us know that we’d be stopping halfway for a bathroom/snack break. This is where we made our $4 purchase. Cyinda gave us a lot of interesting information about the agriculture of the area on our ride. Before I arrived, I had a very stereotypical picture in my mind of what the landscape would look like….flat and brown with a few scattered trees. Boy, was I wrong! Apparently due to its proximity to the ocean and other water sources, this area of South Africa was VERY green with constant rolling hills. These hills often contained farms or showcased one of the several prominent crops in South Africa. We learned them to be, 1. Sugar Cane, 2. Eucalyptus Trees, 3. Macadamia Trees, and 4. Pineapples and Bananas. And then there was the wildlife! Not long into our trip, Jeff said, “Monkey,” and sure enough a large, grey monkey was running across the highway. Jeff then jokingly told the driver, “Okay….I saw my wildlife, you can take me back now!” One thing that was very clear was that any farms located near the highway did not use fencing of any kind, and there were oftentimes cows and goats feeding inches from the shoulder, seemingly unconcerned as vehicles whizzed by them!! I wondered to myself more than once how many animals were hit on the highway every month (or day!) The last interesting observation was that trucks in South Africa do not use the term “oversized load.” Instead they use the term “Abnormal.” I found this pretty amusing!
At the end of a very long 31 hours of traveling, we finally made it to our reserve. We made it to reception and got our key, along with some useful information. We learned that our ranger for our daily trips in the park was James, and our first ride was tomorrow at 6:00 a.m.! I thought that was early, but our travel companions were told that their ranger was leaving at 5:30 a.m.! Then I thought 6:00 was ok!! It was about 5:50 p.m. by the time we reached our “tented room.” Dinner is served from 6:00-9:00, so we decided to take much needed showers and get our bearings!
The dinner buffet was nice, with one meat selection being Impala bratwurst. I had to try it, and it was pretty good! During dinner there was a dance performance of native dancers that was interesting to watch. By the time we finished dinner we were feeling the effects of the long travel and headed back to the room! Sourh Africa is only one hour ahead of London, so we only lost an hour in all the traveling.
A great 9.5 hours of sleep was just what the doctor ordered! And when I got up at 4:30 to use the restroom, it was already pretty light out! Tomorrow will be an exciting report of out first-ever safari!!! Soooo excited!!!
Carpe Diem...seizing life's adventures 