Goodbye South Africa ……

Tuesday 14 May
Last evening we met up with two of Fiona’s golfing friends Leonie and Mollie and together with Hugh and Joan, we had a very enjoyable meal at Fiona and Stewart’s house.

This morning after packing our cases, we went over to Joan’s flat for our final meal together. Joan put on a delicious quiche which we ate out on their verandah

Joan and Hugh’s verandah

Then it was time to collect our bags and head out to the airport and say our goodbyes to Fiona and Stewart after an extremely enjoyable stay in Cape Town. Should Stewart ever consider returning to work he should become a tourist guide, as he knows Cape Town so well and is so interesting for a visitor to listen to.
We were able to book our flight all the way to Perth which saved us having to do so again in Johannesburg. Whilst awaiting our departure I was a little startled at how inexperienced some pilots are in South Africa when they have to identify planes such as this!!!

I just hoped our pilot would be more experienced!!

Our trip to Johannesburg was uneventful and although we had three hours between flights, we used all of that up browsing the numerous souvenir and duty free shops and the time passed very quickly. We boarded our plane for a 10 pm departure and were surprised to find it was only half full. The trip across was extremely smooth and with a tail wind, we landed in Perth 45 minutes early, but after a sleepless night. Penelope was there to meet us and we were in bed by 7 pm Perth time, trying to adjust to the time difference!

After a very late start today we had a visit from my brother Don who stayed for lunch and we spent the afternoon catching up on his news in Capel. Tomorrow we are catching a midday plane to Melbourne where it is apparently very cold and this will mark the end of this blog. We have both thoroughly enjoyed this trip and wonder when we will see our South African family and friends again.

An evening silhouette of a Cape Town icon

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We have found the Internet!

26 April
We are really in South Africa and have found a tiny little pocket where there is Wi-Fi . It is late so we will try and update things tomorrow if this little pocket is still here. Here’s hoping……………!!

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The trip that nearly wasn’t!

20th April
Well we nearly didn’t make it! I was going through all our travel paperwork and I noticed there was nothing that looked like a ticket. I felt we should go to the travel agent and enquire why, but Jill said ” don’t be silly, they don’t use tickets now” and the agent who gave us our itinerary should know what they are doing. Having seen all those films where people turn up to the airport without any tickets or passports, I wasn’t convinced, so decided to phone and they said ” Yes, you should have tickets, would you like to come and get them!!” I think we would have looked rather silly in South Africa trying to convince them that we should be allowed to fly on their aeroplanes without tickets!! Anyway, we arrived at the airport having been delivered there by Fi, with our luggage, passports and tickets where we were confronted by many booking in computers instead of booking staff. We duly looked helpless and a kind Qantas gentleman came and guided us through the booking process and we were soon through the baggage check and headed off to our departure gate.

The trip across to Perth however didn’t earn Qantas any brownie points. We found out their marvellous new fangled ticketing systems placed Jill in row 55 and me in row 56 right behind her. I noticed later that within 3 seats of where we were sitting there were ten obviously single travellers. So we complained to the stewardess and luckily we were able to swop with one of the single travellers. Lunch came and they had run out of whatever it was that was good and we got what was left. For afternoon refreshment, they simply ran out and gave us whatever they could lay their hands on. So, I am not inclined to recommend Qantas to any other travelers. Let’s hope our next leg of the journey is better!! We arrived in Perth 15 minutes early, but they forgot to tell the person who drives the disembarking arm and so we had a 15 minute wait for him to turn up before we could leave the plane. We were met by Penelope and managed to get home without any further incidents about 4.30 pm Perth time.

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Yes, we’re off again!

Sunday 14th April 2013

Yes we’re heading off again, this time to Perth and South Africa and so we are busy getting everything ready. This trip is going to be more catching up with family than touring around, but who knows we may get a bit of sightseeing in along the way.

Hope you enjoy travelling with us.

Grandpa fulfilling his final babysitting duties at Nicola’s house before we leave.

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