Blog #26 – Getting to ZA!

Today I was going to Cape Town. I couldn’t be more excited!

I was going to meet up with my friend from back home Sarah as well as continue and finish my travel with Renne & Caitlin from Guelph. Even though I wouldn’t be taking the flight I had wanted, I knew it was going to be good. I wanted to head into work early to cover the things I had to finish and make sure that I was good to be gone for the next five days.

I only got a fraction of the work done and arranged before I had to head to the airport to check-in for my flight. It was an international flight, so I figured I would give it forty-five minutes. Turns out that was too much, haha!

Once I got to the airport I went to the check-in desk and they told me that I wasn’t on the morning flight. Immediately I was ecstatic; hopefully I was back on the afternoon 3pm flight! Then I was like, wait…no way…what if I am not on either?!

They took into their office in the airport, which literally was the size of a coat closet. After sitting there for fifteen minutes, with the flight leaving in half an hour, I got this ragged printout on a piece of ripped paper with my new itinerary. It wasn’t glamorous, but hey at least I knew that I was booked to make it to Johannesburg for my connection to Cape Town, I couldn’t be that upset!

It ended up that I would be flying with Renne and Cait (after thinking all this time I wouldn’t be) to Gabs and then onto to J’Burg from there. Just as we finally made the walk from the airport out onto the tarmac and to our plane someone yelled out my name! It was Lesley my placement supervisor. She had just flown in on their plane from Dog Camp. We had a brief chat and updated each other on the work side of things. The security and air personal looked inquiringly at us, but couldn’t be bothered to ask us anything, let alone tell us to do something. With that is was a quick farewell, a hug good-bye and a “enjoy yourself in Cape Town!” I felt ready and prepped to leave Maun now.

Once in Gabs Air Botswana provided me with a complimentary sandwich to offset my inconvenience of having to leave six hours earlier and take twice as many flights. I guess that is the way it goes! However, Gabs was gorgeous and it was in the middle of the day, so I spent some time just lying in the sun and waiting for my next flight.

I checked into my flight to J’Burg with thirty minutes left and made it through customs and security in five minutes; small airports rock! This was the finals moments that my cell phone would work in Botswana, my temporary goodbye to my home for the summer. This was when the anticipation of Cape Town really hit! There was so much adventure and excitement waiting for us – we were going to cram the weekend full of as much stuff as we possibly could!

The flight to J’Burg was short and sweet. I had just recently started a really good book call “The Three Letter Plague”, recounting a narrative of a South African’s discovery and experience of the HI-virus and pandemic. It was really nice to be reading again, though a little disconcerting as I was reading about the toll that HIV has taken on South Africa while I was flying right into the country?!

I got to spend my afternoon in the Johannesburg International Airport. There wasn’t much to do, so I just bought some magazines, and alternated walking around, reading my book and flipping through rags. I spent some time just watching the different people in the airport… the inevitable business person just missing their boarding gate…the carefree children enthralled by moving sidewalks…the nervous parent desperately trying to keep track of their kids. We travel so much and spend so much time getting to and from different destinations. It made me really think of appreciating home, the place in life that will always be there for you no matter what side of the world you are on. It isn’t even necessarily materialistic, it is just the one place is the world where you can plant your two feet on the ground and feel rooted in comfort.

After my long layover, I eventually board my flight to Cape Town courtesy of 1Time Airlines. While I laughed the first time I heard it (and have been laughed at many times after that when telling people) the airline was great. Yes, it was a little ominous to think that this was their first time flying…or their last…but the planes were brand-new and the seats were big – so I just read and slept the whole way.

We finally flew over the city. Cape Town was lit up quite brightly, with a slight fog or shimmer. We did a massive loop over the city, out on top of the Atlantic and then back to the landing strip. I was so PUMPED for this weekend! It was going to be awesome! By the time we landed, took our shuttle to the terminal and got out of arrivals – Renne and Cait were already waiting for me. We were staying at Cape Town Backpackers and they had arranged for a shuttle to pick the lot of us up. It was a really nice welcome to the city to have someone there ready for you and to take you to the hostel. I barely looked out the window on the drive as we talked and discussed about all of the different things that we wanted to do. It wouldn’t have been that useful as it was already past nine o’clock at night.

Cape Town was almost like Vancouver; it was hilly, lots of vegetation and enough development to be a full-serve city without the loss of personality. The hostel was very quaint (in a good way, haha!) It was a nice building that mixed old architecture with model facilities and a flare for fun! Sarah was there as soon as we arrived, so we checked into the rooms and went to get settled. We spent the rest of the night catching up on the past months and planning with everyone the next three full days in Cape Town. It was going to be packed full and VERY exciting!

Tomorrow we were going to see the Great White Sharks and not those at the aquarium.