We said our goodbyes to Daniel, who had to leave earlier than us to collect newly arriving guests who'd driven and were leaving their car at the airfield.
The guy who drove us back to the airport turned out to be the brother of "Fish" the guide our French friend Bernard had when he visited some years ago. He was very nice but was more of a transfer driver and besides there wasn't much game to be seen (mid day). We bumped into Daniel on his way back and almost didn't recognise him with a different hat to usual and a full mask on.
Our plane was waiting for us at the Limpopo Valley Airfield and practically as soon as the truck stopped the pilots were trying to rush us; so different from the first lot. These two spoke Africaans between themselves and one definitely had “short man” syndrome. We had to take our bags into customs for them to check, but quite what they were looking for we don't know; I told them I was smuggling a baby elephant home.
Farewell to the Limpopo River
I'm hoping the plane at least bought some cargo from Jo'burg and didn't fly up just for us, as once again we were the only passengers with our little snack boxes and supply of cold drinks (still no champagne) and the flight was about 35 mins. Arriving back to Lanseria Airport, the really arrogant pilot told us we didn’t have to present health questionnaires - we did - and then just wandered off saying he didn’t know about our transfer back to OR Tambo where we’re staying overnight in an airport hotel. Luckily the other guy waited behind us until we’d cleared immigration and we caught up with knob.
We were then put in a white car with no taxi firm name on the side or anything so as we were driving off, just to be sure, I asked the guy where he thought he was taking us and luckily he gave the right answer. Actually he said he was supposed to ask us but hadn’t got around to it. The journey took about an hour as it was rush hour on a Friday and people were heading off for the weekend, but he was pleasant enough to chat with and quite informative. He was born in the north near the Limpopo and his parents still lived there but he’d moved to Jo'burg about 20 years ago as there was no work locally.
City Hotel is connected to the airport by an underground walkway and so after check-in we dumped our bags and then wandered across to see where we had to check in the following day. Flying to Botswana is of course international rather than domestic so we headed to Terminal A but couldn’t find any Airlink Check-in desks and when I checked on our paperwork sure enough it said Terminal B Domestic. So we retraced our steps and headed off in the other direction until we found the correct place. We asked someone if the voucher Safari Consultants had given us was sufficient to check in and yes, provided we had ID. Pleased we knew exactly where we needed to go tomorrow we headed back, noting that there were plenty of luggage trolleys near the lift up to the hotel (you can’t actually take them up). We then did a quick re-sort of the bags; as although weight wise we were fine, to meet with Flylink’s baggage size requirements our larger bag would need to be squashed a bit. The camera bags are slightly over the hand luggage limit but I intend to carry one of the larger lenses. Online check-in worked fine and I was able to download our boarding passes should we need them.
Having already looked at the hotel restaurant menus and decided it was considerably preferable to anywhere we’d seen at the airport, we both ordered pizza and a bottle of wine to share. The pizza (chicken tikka with added pepperdews for me and mushrooms for Ian) was probably one of the best I’ve ever tasted, although it was so huge I never managed to finish it. The bill came to an astonishing c£20, once again proving how cheap South Africa is - we really need to book a trip here whilst the exchange rate is so favourable.
After a shower and a little more wine, thoughtfully on sale at Woolworth’s at the airport and so cheap we were happy to throw away what we didn’t drink, we settled down to a comfortable, warm night’s sleep under a duvet. It felt wonderful not to be weighed down by blankets and we both woke the next day feeling quite rested.
The hotel breakfast was very good, plenty of choice and a cooking station for eggs of all sorts. Suitably fortified we headed down to the walkway but the large supply of trolleys from yesterday had vanished overnight so Ian went off in search. Meantime a family who’d gone down in the next lift appeared to have a trolley which they couldn’t get past the barriers outside the lift (designed to stop trolleys going up). Having taken off all the bags they decided to lift it over so they could dispose of it, so I quickly asked to have it. We dropped our bags and collected our tickets and, blow me down, the flight was departing from Terminal A - the Namibia fiasco all over again except this time there was no wasted lounge involved.
Quick rant - how quickly the world has forgotten “social distancing” despite the ubiquitous floor stickers. To board the plane we were herded (no other word comes close) onto a bus, packed in so tight you couldn’t move and left for 15-20 mins for whatever reason. Ian and I had masks on but many others didn’t.
I like the Sunbird logo the Flylink Airline has adopted.
The flight however was excellent and reminiscent of flying pre 2000 when drinks and meals were complimentary and the staff fantastic.
The difference between Ian and me- I think it's quite clear which one of us has never been a waitress.
A few shots through the grubby windows. I think this may be the Makgadikgadi pans, the largest salt pans in the world
