Johannesburg - Victoria Falls - Maun - Makgadikgadi
29.06.2024 - 29.06.2024
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Southern Africa 2024
on Grete Howard's travel map.
After yesterday’s delicious hot breakfast, I am disappointed that today they only offer a hot buffet, not table service. Mentioning it to the waiter, he readily agrees to get the kitchen to make the same dish again for me. I guess anything is possible when you tip well on the first morning.
Avocado, salsa, jalapenos, and poached egg on toast, even spicier than yesterday's
Chocolate croissant to follow
OR Tambo International Airport
After a brief stay in Johannesburg in the delightful Piazza Penthouse at the Houghton Hotel, we are now moving on to the next part of our adventure: Botswana.
Our airport transfer driver drops us off at the terminal – sadly at the opposite end of where we need to be. I start walking until we see a porter, who we enquire about where we can get a wheelchair from. He runs off to try and find one and comes back with not just a wheelchair, but also a porter to push so that he can get back to his original job. Such service.
At the check-in desk, there seems to be a problem. Two flights have been combined, and every time the staff allocates us seats, they get knocked out of the system. The supervisor steps in, running backwards and forwards to the airline office to try and sort it for us. Eventually, they manage to secure us seats, but their PC refuses to talk to the printer, so they have to finish the transaction at another desk to print the boarding cards and luggage tags. The supervisor personally takes my 600mm lens, which has to be checked in separately because of its fragility, to the appropriate luggage desk. Throughout the transaction, they are both exceptionally friendly, apologetic, and professional.
Special Assistance
I completed a Special Assistance request online before leaving the UK, and printed it out, which I hand over to the check-in staff. They insist that I must complete one of their forms, in triplicate, which I then need to take with me to hand to the staff at the other end. Damn bureaucracy.
At the Gate
As we wait for the plane to arrive, and for us to board, I bitterly regret packing my fleece in the checked-in luggage: the gate area is freezing cold. Every time the door opens to let passengers out to board a plane (there are many flights before us, as combining our flight with another, means that we are travelling an hour later than we originally thought), a frigid wind blows in, chilling me to the bone. The hairs on my arms are fighting for position with the goose pimples, my teeth are chattering loudly and I am shivering like a leaf in the wind. It’s a long two-hour wait.
Finally the transfer bus arrives and I am one of the first to get on it. Unfortunately, this means another half an hour sitting next to the open door on the bus with blasts of icy air cooling me down further while the rest of the passengers arrive. I am frozen to the core, and then some.
This is a first, I had no idea AVIS did flights! They don’t, they partner with Cemair for advertising space on their aircraft.
We are all ready to go, everyone is in their seats with their seatbelts fastened, and the air stewardess (there is only one crew member on this flight) has gone through all the security briefings when the captain comes over the tannoy: “Sorry about this inconvenience, we have a slight technical problem, the engineer is on his way...”
After much probing and shifting in the cockpit, engineer number two arrives, and they both look for this ‘slight technical problem. They seem unable to sort the problem, however, and the captain announces that we “may have to transfer to another aircraft”.
Another half an hour goes by, and it has been decided that this plane is a no-go, and we’ll all have to get off and on to a transfer bus again. I have to say that the stewardess is extremely professional, calm, and apologetic, which I think is very much part of the reason why the passengers seem to readily accept the situation. I don’t hear a single grumble from those around me. Good – better safe than sorry!
All out!
Getting back on the bus proves a little difficult as the driver has not lowered it, so it is a huge step up. Not good for my poorly knee! As soon as I board, someone immediately gets up to offer me their seat, which is much appreciated. While the engineers have been trying to fix whatever is wrong with the plane, the captain has arranged another aircraft for us – it is, however, right at the opposite side of the apron, and Johannesburg airport is huge. We seem to drive for miles to get there.
As I said earlier, our flight is combined with another flight, this one to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The logical thing (to me) would be to fly Jo’burg – Maun – Victoria Falls, for two reasons:
1. Maun is closer to Johannesburg, you almost fly over Maun to get to Victoria Falls
2. Most people who travel to Victoria Falls tend to stay in the town for a few days to see the falls and enjoy the surroundings.
Maun, on the other hand, is merely a transfer hub, with the vast majority of passengers who land here travelling to other parts of the area, often by small aircraft.
Two ladies in front of us on the plane are in the latter category. As a result of the delay (flying to Victoria Falls first, plus the new aircraft) they miss their light aircraft connection resulting in them having to book overnight accommodation in Maun, and a new flight for the following day, thus missing the best part of 24 hours of their safari. I am quite sure those two ladies are not the only passengers affected by this mess.
It would make so much more sense to fly Johannesburg - Maun - Victoria Falls
To Cemair’s credit, the turnaround in Victoria Falls is super-quick, despite the vacuum cleaner refusing to work (the machine, not the operator), and ramp staff coming on board the plane with a bag asking “Does this bag belong to any of the Maun passengers?” I am guessing the bag has lost its tag.
Trying to clean the plane
A game park near Maun from the air
Maun Airport
The catalogue of errors and total disarray continues as we finally land in Maun. A gate agent comes out to meet the plane, but refuses to let passengers off, as she is under the incorrect impression that we are all in transit. After much arguing with the air stewardess, she finally relents and lets us exit the plane. As I stand at the top of the stairs, the stewardess asks the agent where my pre-booked wheelchair is. The agent looks at her quizzically, shrugs her shoulders, and brusquely states: “The office is closed, I’ll have to call someone”. I get the distinct impression that Maun Airport is not expecting us at this time.
Knowing that I struggle with the stairs (these are the ones attached to the aircraft, not the much more sturdy ones that are brought out to the plane), the stewardess has to ask several times before someone reluctantly helps me down the wobbly steps.
Once on the tarmac, Mrs Officious, the 'delightful' gate agent, keeps us waiting for several minutes while she makes a few phone calls as she decides what to do with us.
Fortunately, I am perfectly capable of walking the short distance from the plane to the terminal building, but what if that was not the case? Very shoddy service, especially after being made to complete an Assistance Form (in triplicate) at Jo’burg. I am not at all impressed.
Before we landed in Victoria Falls, entry forms for Zimbabwe were handed out to all those passengers disembarking there. Not here in Botswana, however, the forms are on a ledge in the arrivals hall, and there is no one around to inform us that we need to complete these. Having spent many years as a civil servant, form-filling is second nature to me, so I am through to the immigration counter before the vast majority of passengers, many who do not have a pen to hand, and can’t remember the name of their accommodation.
The passport scanning is quick, easy, and painless, and as soon as I am through to the baggage hall, I look for a toilet. Closed for renovation. The only open toilet is in the immigration hall that I just left. Feeling desperate and frustrated at this stage, and knowing that it is a two-hour drive to our accommodation, I am beyond caring and sneak back through to use the loo. As there is only one immigration official on duty (another point that makes me think they are not expecting us), he is way too busy to notice me.
The luggage arrives quickly and all unscathed and we make our way towards the exit. At customs, there is a red lane and a green lane, and as we have nothing to declare, we make a beeline for the green exit. Oh no! We are sternly told off and made to go up to the red desk where we we are asked a series of cursory questions by a grumpy jobsworth.
Welcome to Botswana.
Holding up a sign with our name on it, Moscow (our guide for the next two weeks) greets us from behind a huge smile, and all is well in the world again.
A short walk from the terminal building we find the vehicle that is to be our ‘home’ for the next couple of weeks. It’s a 16-seater truck for just the two of us, giving us plenty of space to spread out.
The road leading from the airport is long, straight, smooth, and devoid of the usual street-side stalls we have seen in Malawi and Zambia.
All we see alongside the road are a couple of elephants and some antelopes. With the smooth road, we are driving quite fast anyway, so not good for photography. Thankfully, a blanket is provided for each of us in the car, to keep us from getting cold again when travelling at speed in an open-sided, and open-topped, car.
We pass a couple of police check points (which are much more civilised than those in Malawi), and a Health Check stop where the car tyres are disinfected, and where pedestrians have to alight and walk across a mat so as not to cross-contaminate the soil in different parts of the country. Moscow suggests we stay in the car and just remove our shoes for him to take them across to be dipped in the solution. Good man.
Boteti River Camp
As a result of the delayed flights, we arrive at the camp just as it is getting dark. The check-in is non-existent, we are taken directly to the room: a stand-alone chalet with an outdoor toilet.
Our cabin
The outside bathroom is quite cold for those night-time visits
The lodge is owned by Bush Ways, who also owns the safari vehicles and employs Moscow, our driver-guide, hence the laid-back arrival procedures.
Map showing Maun and Boteti River Camp
Dinner
Starter of Golden Carrot Soup – I like the fact that the portion is not too big. It is served with a lovely hot bread roll.
The main course is a buffet consisting of roast chicken, rice, corn on the cob, green salad, and a Provençal bean stew. The chicken is tender and falls off the bone, while the bean stew is very tasty.
The chocolate pudding is even better than it looks!
Thank you very much to Undiscovered Destinations for organising this epic Great Africa Trip 2024 for us.
Posted by Grete Howard 09:42 Archived in Botswana Tagged safari botswana south_africa victoria_falls maun kwai freezing makgadikgadi avis undiscovered_destinations safari_vehicle disinfection special_assistance haughten_hotel cemair check-in_problems engine_problems new_flight two_flights_combined bad_servce health_check boteti_river_camp bush_ways outdoor_toilet
A nightmare journey but a warm welcome - it's great how quickly the latter can erase the discomforts of the former!
by ToonSarah