Sunset XXII - Transit Pergatory
The calm before the storm
Since the inception of fatpaparazzi.com.au we have blogged over 130 days of travel and another 20 of other goofy activities throughout the years. The page we’ve landed on now will be the shortest, contain the least amount of photographs and predominately be negative in nature which you of course know is not our usual flair.
It started well enough with a breakfast by the ocean and cheeky little drone session over the resort before the dark clouds on the horizon brought forth their promised threat both literally and metaphorically. In a sudden rush Lyndall didn’t feel very well and forced back to the bure for some alone time with the crapper while Fatpap grabbed his book and parked himself on a daybed under an umbrella to finish off the last two chapters. Even in the rain it was a lovely morning listening to the claps of thunder and watching the atomic like clouds roll in from the east. Sandies was a beautiful place and a really nice way to spend 2 days doing nothing that even today under darker skies and wetter paths, took on another demeanour focused more on its elaborate gardens and surrounds.
We were heading south today for the final part of our odyssey via a return to South Africa in a manner not entirely ideal. Our African adventure was bookended by our next adventure and that of the Intrepid tour already taken. With alternative dates for both unavailable, we worked with what we had moving the various pieces around to this point to good effect. But today was always going to be a bitch, even on paper it ate a dick and without what you’ll soon learn we received on our arrival, might possibly have broken weaker people or a lesser team.
Captains log: 11:30 and our driver arrived at Sandies for the trip back to ZNZ airport. The 2hr drive had us arrive 3hr before our international flight which after clearing customs we killed with a little concourse shopping and hamburger eating. That later would in time prove an unwise decision.
Captains log: 16:15 and ET 814 departed for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but not without a little side trip in between. Landing back at Kilimanjaro airport we remained on the tarmac with the cabin door as open as a Tallahassee street walker welcoming passengers like it was the 309 to Bondi Junction. Remaining there for about an hour, we took off for ADD arriving around 9:00pm. Now the airport at Addis Ababa was super impressive, much larger than we anticipated and only recently renovated making it seem very modern. It was however grossly over crowded, filled with a type of traveller rarely encountered before and strangely a smoking section no one seemed to use as it appeared perfectly normal to smoke in the terminal proper. With our wits already on a very thin tether, we hid ourselves in a lounge area to nurse a hot chocolate and coffee for as long as it took to justify sitting there.
Captains log: 21:30, flight ET 849 was off blocks and heading for Joburg on what one would expect to be the last leg of this torturous journey. Arriving into OR Tambo International Airport at 3:55 in the morning the place was as empty as Dubbo bus staion on a staurday night. Clearing customs, for the 2nd time on this trip in Joburg, our patience levels were stretched to their limited with Lyndall’s bag being the last to appear on the carousel. Luckily we had nowhere to be but that didn’t stop Fatpap from clicking it given the 17hr journey endured to get to this point.
With hours to kill we did what any normal person would do and sat on cold, uncomfortable plastic chairs near the check-in counters waiting for out next flight to open and dump the bags. With a few eateries starting to roll up their shutters we chanced one for a breakfast of something we can’t exactly recall but remember shouldn’t have been ordered. Someone’s bag was again overweight - refer to the India and Antarctic blogs to discover who - but the extra payment process was kinda welcomed as it gave us something more to do.
Captains log: 10:30 +one day, 4Z871 wheels up heading north for Hoedspruit Airport on the outskirts of Kruger National Park in South Africa. 23hrs had passed since we boarded that mini bus at Sandies and yet we were not where we needed to, nay should have been at this point. Lyndall, not withstanding her upset tummy, was the rock as usual with Fatpap of course the over dramatic man-baby getting disappointed when things weren’t going to plan - that and the fact people in great numbers pretty much give him the shits. This was a journey we knew before leaving Australia was a hard necessity and one in hindsight could have been avoided, but that will be addressed in the closing pages of this blog. However, it did get us to a better place, as all tribulations of self discovery do, that will be detailed in a greater light in the next post as a means of stopping the current flow of negativity.
