The Taxi collected us all at 7.30 and the girls had their beach gear to the ready. I in the meantime had all my gear and was ready for the trip to Jo'urg. It took ages to get to get to Safari Blue and the girls all had to do their obligatory trip into the bush for toilet stop, before we said our goodbyes and I headed off to the airport via Stone Town. I am quite jealous of the girls trip as it will involve a full on lobster lunch as well as snorkelling and Island hopping, but the flights could not be moved to accommodate the Lion rehabilitation programme so so be it.
I had not had to use Zanzibar airport before but I could now understand what Megs had to go through when we were 45 mins late on collecting her at the beginning of the project. It is small, dirty, disorganised but most of all very very hot and humid. After a month out here I thought I would be used to it but unfortunately not.
The flight though arrived on time and the journey went as well as could be expected. On arrival at Oliver Tambo airport it was a huge surprise to come into a modern, clean, and efficient air conditioned airport, which was strange after the conditions that I had become accustomed to. I was also sharing my arrival with the Proteas (newly crowned champions of one day cricket) and can only assume the crowds were for them rather than this weary volunteer. The car service to the Purple Palm also arrived on schedule and I was whisked off to the simple/basic but suitable accommodation for the night; most important though, was that it had a hot shower and a comfortable bed. The only problem I could really find with it was that we were not in the centre of Jo'burg at all, more like the equivalent of Hounslow. The shops were all closed, the only bar close by was a hells angel haven, with the obligatory drunk asleep on the floor, and bikes charging up and down the road at regular intervals. Now I knew Jo'burg suffers from a crime problem but I don't think it extends as far out as I was. I did manage to go out with the manager and two other travellers, Bjorn from Munich and Ian from Bedford and we took in the Man U game at a bar that did an expert impersonation of a harvester, cheap beer, poor steaks and lots of tellies showing sports.
I am afraid to say though that on this occasion it was me that needed to go to bed as I was shattered from the early start and the
No comments:
Post a Comment