On the homeward leg

The last day in Vic Falls was uneventful as I had hoped. I managed to avoid people I wanted to hide from, got to the airport, enjoyed the lounge in Victoria Falls  and caught my flight to Johannesburg with no drama. 

I begun this post as I lay on my lily white, starched sheet, massive bed, squeaky clean for the first time in weeks, watching a mindless movie on telly. What a treat. There are no mozzies, I have dumped all the unused sprays, medicines, gels and sachets and used up the last of my toiletries. I no longer need to carry bottles of water, sun block, lip gloss, mozzie repellant and my backpack wherever I go. It is cool, bordering on cold, the sky is grey and it is bucketing down outside. I am wearing a sweater, the one that has been buried in the bottom of my bag since I set foot on African soil, and love the feel of the soft merino on my parched skin. 

I have had a ball, and probably by tomorrow will want to start again but for the moment I’m happy to be homeward bound. 

I will miss the neat people I travelled with and am glad I don’t have to bite my tongue any longer around those who tested me sometimes to the limit. All the inadequacies of lodgings over the last 8 weeks have been forgotten, my skin feels devoid of sand and dirt, my bag is packed and I am ready for the long trip home starting tomorrow. 

Dinner tonight is at the Southern Sun hotel virtually on the concourse at O.R Tambo airport. My waiter is Kleinboy and the somellier has a name that I have no show of pronouncing as it is a series of clicks. The guy at reception is called Kea. I showed him a photo of our Kea bird and he loved it. Like most guys down this end of the continent if you say “New Zealand” they immediately respond with “All Blacks” and some of them snigger while others say that we should have taken that cup home. I agree but then we don’t always get what we want. 

It is now D (for departure) Day. All packed and ready to go. I have just made mince meat of the biggest breakfast I have ever had and wonder how many kilos I have gained. Nearly two months of no exercise and copious and uneccessary amounts of food, soft drinks and beer are bound to have taken a toll but oh well.... It has been worth it. 

I woke to an email from my boys vet telling me he hasn’t been well so they are running some tests. Now I really want to get home to see him. Silly how a furr ball can play such a big part of your life. I have missed him everyday. 

And here I am in Doha ready to board for a 17.5 hour trip. I’m not looking forward to it but oh well. I’m particularly over terrible wifi connections that have meant I have spent many hours trying to get these posts out. I will be pleased to get home to my kitchen, my cat and my wifi so I can finish the last of my posts.  

17.5 hours is a very long time to spend in any one place but as a captive in an airplane seat it is even worse. But despite the crew being totally disorganised (as they have been on all my Qatar Air flights) and the many meals being teally bland and boring the time went really smoothly and I managed a nap. We were late taking off so then late arriving in Auckland giving me 1.5 hours to get my bags (they were last off), clear immigration (took 3minutes) and then biosecurity. I didn’t buy duty free as planned so as to save time. As I had been off the beaten track I was expecting that they would want to wash all my shoes and I even had them in a separate bag so I didn't have to worry about unwrapping my bag (the zips have broken so no choice but to get it wrapped). But when I got to biosecurity I mentioned to the officer that I was short of time. He asked a couple of questions about the shoes and said “green lane” meaning no check of anything. 

I was cutting it fine for check in so ran, bags in tow, to the domestic terminal. Arriving at the JETSTAR counter I see my flight is CANCELLED and the next Jetstar to Wellington was too. I was sort of nice to the poor lady who told me they couldn't  get me on another flight till 7pm and if they refunded me it would be very little as the flight was purchased by Qatar as part of the deal I bought. AirNZ had no viable options so I was stuck. 

And suddenly an email comes through from Jetstar to tell me they had booked me on the 4:00pm flight. Oh well that’s only a 10 hour wait in an airport with no amenities!!!! Whats another 10 hours. 

So far I have done 22 flights in 2months, some on obscure airlines. No problems!!  And I come home and good old Jetstar stuff me around. I can’t say I was surprised. It is not the first time they have dicked me around but having already been 32 hours on the trot I do not need to add another 10!

But anyway, what to do?  I walk back to the International Terminal with my luggage (too early to check in and the new flight might be cancelled anyway), stop for an atrocious coffee that I could not finish, check my bags into luggage storage and catch the bus to the Manukau City Mall. The bus wound through some of the suburbs and for the first time in ages I saw ‘real’ houses, green grass and some gardens. I also saw some absolute dumps, unkempt houses, long unmown grass, out of control gardens and generally demonstrating a couldn’t care less attitude. I thought back to the villages  in Ethiopia where despite dirt floors and thatched   huts they had such pride in their spotless homes. 

The bus dropped me at the Mall, the first shopping centre I have been in for two months. I was initially excited but that wore off pretty quick when I saw the shopping frenzy that was happening before my eyes. Bags and bags of ready wrapped Xmas presents. The shops were bulging but still offering discounts to encourage yet more people to but stuff they dont need. 

I wandered through the food court when the site of so many hugely overweight people were gorging themselves on piles of unhealthy fatty fast foods put me off wanting to eat. I thought of the many people in the countries I have visited who eat porridge every day and thank their lucky stars that they can. 

Those wonderful friendly faces and massive smiles have been replaced by glum people jostling for space (even where there is plenty), abrupt service that gives you the impression that the staff are doing you a favour by serving you, 

After 30 odd hours I’m definitely not the cleanest, but I can say that, despite my trackies and unwashed face, I was one of the cleanest, tidiest people there. I thought of the kids that come out of mud huts in pure white clean shirts and the stunningly dressed women in Senegal and wondered who really is better off?  Us in this land of plenty or those that I have just spent time with and have nothing!!!!  Food for thought. Whatever, I miss the wonderful people I met and the people of Africa have left yet another indelible mark on me. I can’t wait to go back. 

Eventually my flight departed and we tose into the skies to the sound of the three screaming babies which surrounded my seat. Oh goody. I must have been one of the lucky ones blessed with the Jetstar wand as I had a $10 food voucher included and with that was lucky enough to get a watered down cup of black stuff called coffee and a apple and caramel muffin which could have been yummy if it were not so chilled.   But within the hour I was ‘home’ to a perfectly still, blue skied day in Wellington. My adventure is done. It has been a blast. Give me a good nights sleep and I will be ready for the next one. 

There is one more blog to come so keep watching folks.