Homeward bound, ah, not quite!





We are so used to waking early now that we are up at 6 again and packing our bags.  Mike gives us the good news that we don't have to take our tents down, as they will be used by a new group coming into camp.  Fantastic!  That means we can put clean clothes on and they will stay clean.  Our tally is- pitched the tent 15 times; took it down 14 times.  Hils, Gary and I go for a walk around camp in the cool stillness of the morning and sit on loungers by the pool admiring the river for the last time.

 We leave camp for Livingstone airport at 10am and spend the next 3 hours waiting for our flight to Johannesburg.  It is a neat tidy  airport but it is tiny, crowded, there is nothing to do and it becomes increasingly hot and stuffy.  Our flight to Johannesburg is an easy, comfortable 1 hour and 40 minutes.  When we arrive we find our flight to Sydney has been delayed for an hour and a half.  Good, we think, time to shop - wrong! - the airport is packed and shambolic.  It seems that South Africa built a glamorous shiny new airport for the world cup but failed to instigate any decent systems to make it work.  We queue for an hour at the transit counter and when we finally get through to the departure gates find the crowds are even more oppressive.  We have not shopped at all while in Africa so, keen to pick up a few gifts and momentos, we make for the large "Out of Africa" shop.  The crush in there is impossible and several of the cash registers are not working causing queues to snake right around the shop and out into the departure lounge.  We persevere, though, and when at last we have been served we escape to the relative peace and quiet of a cafe where we linger over longed for flat whites.  When we get our boarding call we find the queue for our flight stretches right out of the departure lounge and through the shopping area.  It is slow moving because of increased security measures with each piece of hand luggage being manually searched.  Once aboard our Qantas aircraft we look forward to take off and another step on the journey home BUT it is not to be. We sit in the plane, on the tarmac for four hours while engineers try to fix an engine fault.  The plane gets hotter and hotter and stuffier and stuffier.  The crew do a great job of feeding us and handing out ice creams etc but they cannot open the cabin doors due to safety requirements.  A couple of people on the plane have anxiety attacks and the rest  of the passengers are  thoroughly bored.  Eventually with the arrival of a set of steps the rear doors of the plane are opened giving some relief.  At 11.30, four hours after our expected departure, we are told that we will be taken off the flight and put into hotels for the night. This means we have to clear immigration, collect our luggage and wait to be allocated hotels for the night. Those travelling Business Class and some people with children are accommodated in the airport hotel but we are allocated The  Birchwood Hotel, about 20 minutes away by bus.  We make our way out of the airport to the shuttle bus stop only to find the shuttle can take just 12 people at a time, and there is the best part of a  jumbo jet full to clear!  We have a very long wait, allowing people with children to go first, and finally arrive at our hotel at 1.40am.  It is a modern, conference centre complex spread out over several acres and requiring a ride in a golf cart to reach our rooms.  Hils and I get a room each and for the first time in a few weeks have our own bathroom and  a bed. Luxury!  We fall into bed exhausted but can't sleep because the golf carts rumble past for hours delivering more passengers to their rooms.  The rumbling carts finally stop at around 4am.

Photo: (1) Mother and bay at our camp site