Lanseria Airport to Mashatu

We both had a reasonable night's sleep and were up fairly early, showered (fabulous) and ready for breakfast which was served in the Garden Restaurant (there is also a Fine Dining Restaurant which appears to only open certain days of the week).  Most hotels offer buffet breakfast but this was a menu of set options, so not exactly what we would have chosen ourselves but nonetheless well presented and edible.

Back to the room to gather up our belongings and as we were shutting the door to leave I was stopped in my tracks - there a few yards away was the lovely French lady and her father whom we'd met in Kenya in January.  They'd stayed in the other ground floor room adjoining ours for just one night on their way home to Orleans having also been in Botswana - what an amazing co-incidence!!!  Sadly we couldn't stop for more than a few minutes as Ian was waiting to collect us, but Bernard reminded us he'd visited Mashatu a few years ago and was sure we were in for a fantastic time.

This next flight was from Lanseria Airport, about 40 mins/30kms drive north of Jo'burg and relatively small, its resident airline Comair having gone bust in 2020.  There was absolutely no info on our travel voucher to show who we were flying with or where we should go in the airport, so after Ian dropped us off we wandered around hopefully and asked a few people - none of whom seemed to have a clue.  The cable for Ian's (Android) tablet hadn't worked last night and I'd found out online that there was a shop at the airport which might sell one, so we popped in and were able to buy the necessary cable.  As we were coming out Ian appeared; he'd had a call from Mashatu Connect and apparently we were to wait in the upstairs café and the pilots would come and find us about 1130.

There were only about two other tables occupied in the café and our comments that, for the additional cost, we must be chartering the whole plane suddenly didn't seem to be quite such a joke.  We ordered coffee/tea and watched little planes take off and land and kept our fingers crossed. 

 

Sure enough around 1125 two guys walked in and quickly identified us as their likely and, they confirmed, only passengers!  They then promptly picked up our luggage and led us through Security (1 lady) and Immigration (1 man) where they had to take a photocopy of Ian's passport as the computer hadn't been updated to cope with 2031 passport expiry dates.  After a quick loo stop as there were no toilets onboard - obviously we weren't paying enough - we walked out to the plane.

Oh My God!  We really do have our own 7 seater plane - a Beechcraft King Air B200.  Not a Lear Jet sadly but it is fully pressurised unlike the SafariLink planes in Kenya and can therefore fly at higher altitude.

Looking down the runway.

We even have food provided and there is a cool box with iced drinks - sadly no Champagne though.

Mine was marked as "Special Request" to take account of my fussy diet and it was delicious - I ate the lot (apart from the olives obviously).

Not something we would have willingly spent money on but we have no choice, so we'll put up with it.

The flight was only about 40 mins and before long we were flying over one of the great rivers of Africa - Kipling's Great Grey-Green Greasy Limpopo River.

Limpopo Valley Airstrip

The first and, most likely, the last flight of this kind.

Being the only passengers it didn't take long to complete Immigration and soon we were meeting Daniel our guide and on the road.  The drive to camp took about 1 hour over quite rocky terrain and a few semi-made up roads, but there was little wildlife to be seen other than a couple of zebra and Saddle Billed Storks as we crossed a small river.

Mmmm, hope the sightings improve.