Blog #30 – Farewell Cape Town

Today we depart Cape Town. Sarah is going to come back to Maun for her last few days in Africa before she returns home to Canada on the weekend. Our shuttle was for 7:30AM from the hostel. It would be taking us to the airport and away from Cape Town.

As I crawled out of bed this morning I couldn’t help but feel a little depressed. Cape Town has been amazing and there is still so much to experience. As I finish packing all of my belongings back into the one bag I brought (which barely fit, so I have to off load to Sarah), I can’t help but avoid having this steely resolve that I will come back to Cape Town. I don’t know why, or even when for that matter. But it helps.

It is amazing how quickly the morning flies when you have a plane to catch. By the time we strapped all our belongings to our back we were a tad late for our transport. Our driver in the morning could quite possibly have been the most stressed out man I have ever seen. It was still dark in the city, but our driver was spirited. He drove as if he was possessed, rushing from one stop to another. Dropping passengers here and there, before we could head to the airport. We weren’t in any particular rush, but he seemed to have a whole other idea on his mind. As Sarah and I got tossed around the back of the shuttle, I couldn’t help but giggle a little bit. I thought to myself, if my life ends here of all of the more dangerous things I have done this trip, at least it will be in Cape Town, haha!

We made it to the airport in one piece and checked into our flight. It was a domestic flight to Johannesburg, so getting through all of the ‘airport safety’ processes was much easier. We waited at the gate, for our shuttle to take us to the place. We weren’t sitting together – I had lucked out as the check-in lady had booked me for the emergency exit seats, which gave me almost an extra six inches of space – yippee! Not much else exciting about the flight, except I started a new Sudoko book – hundreds of puzzles in this one!

Getting into Johannesburg airport was pretty easy compared to what was ahead of us. If you have ever been to the JBurg International terminal, it is a little crazy on a good day. Today it was packed! There are probably close to a hundred check-in desks. We entered the terminal at the complete wrong end. Air Botswana had two tiny desks at the complete other end of the room. The room was packed full of people, trolleys, bags, lost children, lost passengers and those that would inevitably miss their flights.

I finally made it to a screen and saw that Air Botswana had the Maun flight leaving at 11:50, which was in half an hour, and then one to Gabarone when our flight was supposed to leave. If they had pulled some funny business and messed with my flights again I was going to lose it! I just decided the best thing would be to get to the desk, check-in and get on the earliest flight back to Maun. It took us about fifteen minutes to walk the less than a hundred meter distance to the counter. This is one of those times you are in a huge crowd and just want to scream and push. There was one tiny trickle of single lane traffic and about a few hundred people trying to use it. Looking back it was mildly entertaining :)

We made it to the gate and checked-in. It literally took them over half an hour to check the eight people in front of us – that was after they sent a handful away to the other side of the terminal. There was no way we would make the flight to Maun that was listed on the board. I was gathering my gusto to talk to the counter. However, he just checked me in – no words were exchanged and all was well. Our boarding pass said departing for Maun at 1:30…just all of the signs in the airport were wrong. It is really unnerving and I held onto that ticket like a lifeline.

Getting through customs was no fun either. The line was huge and the line control medians were overfull with capacity! However, now that our flight was back to 1:30pm we had plenty of time. After making it through we stopped at duty free and loaded up with some CHEAP South African wines – I am talking less than five dollars a bottle for pretty decent stuff. They were going to make great gifts back in Maun!

The flight back on Air Botswana was great. We got put in the first class seats – which again gave us lots of legroom. All in all – minus Air Botswana’s terrible organization - the actual process once you are on the plane is pretty good. I am addicted now to these snacks called “Marula sticks”. They are like fruit to go, but in stick form, thicker and made out of this fruit (I think…) that is sort of like a pear. They are delicious and I have yet to find them in Maun.

As I stepped out of the plane in Maun, I felt as if I was arriving home. The sun was bright and shiny, not a cloud in the sky, and the air was warm and not humid one bit. If I could just take this weather to Cape Town I would be set for life, haha!

I had some issues at customs – as you can apparently only bring two litres of wine into Botswana. Like I knew that?! Anyways, after talking with the customs agent, he just let it slide and sent me on my way. Glad I didn’t lose any of that! Some of my work friends were waiting for me at the airport and they drove us back to the office. I checked in with Lesley, my supervisor, and figured out all of the work that had been done and the load that was waiting for me.

Sarah went to go check out the local Nhaba museum in town while I did some catch up work – after being gone for five days, and with less than two weeks until the program started, it tends to accumulate! Once I got through the major stuff and set up some appointments for tomorrow I called it a night. I was tired from traveling and would just get a good early start to it all tomorrow.

We made the trek home by foot – upon Sarah’s persistent request. So while loaded with our luggage and spirits we had a nice walk home through town, over New Bridge and along the Thamalakane River path to my place. The sun was setting behind us and it really felt like I was going home. We unloaded our stuff in my room, did introductions between everyone and spent the evening just relaxing and socializing. It was nice to catch up with everyone and they were quite excited to hear about our adventures in Cape Town!