I am writing this tonight as I ‘wing’ my way back home. There has been another unbelievably busy week
gone by. Sunday morning the 24th
we had a reasonable start to the day. By
8:30 we were all packed up and settled into the Think Tank of the hotel for a
long and detailed account of Dr. Livingston.
A Mr. Washington is a preacher who is also a gifted lecturer on the
subject. His slight build and somewhat
‘shark skin’ kind of suit coat was not distracting. To me, however, he was not as much a good
speaker as an excellent recitationist. Never making eye contact, hardly taking
a deep breath, never pausing except once for a sip of water, he talked in a
rhythmic monotone for a solid hour. Mr.
Washington certainly knows his subject matter but I am sorry to say that little
of it will stick to my brain due to the style of presentation.
This hour was followed by a half hour ‘wrap up’ by Vitalis. A few issues were revisited and some
suggestions made to improve the experience for everyone. These include the idea of adding in a few
more walks, some free time after dinner, and even fewer or lighter meals. I think meals can be offered all they want
and if you don’t want to eat you simply choose what you like. None of it goes to waste as the staff eats
after the guests but for some, apparently, the meals went to waist!
We then made sure we had all our belongings and boarded the
bus for the short drive to the Victoria Falls airport. We were delighted that rather than leave
Vitalis here where we first met him, he was now continuing on with us to our
post trip addition in Cape Town.
Our flight was not until 1:55 but we had left the hotel and
were checked in by 11:00 a.m. It seems
that British Airways does not assign the seats on these flights until you
present yourself in person at the airport.
So we were plenty early in case the flight was overbooked. The line was quick when we arrived and check
in was easy. Because we were so early there was no line at security
either. But the waiting room was
overcrowded without nearly enough seats for people to wait for the number of
flights out.
Although we were flying internationally from Zimbabwe to
South Africa we waited in the Domestic waiting room. Not nearly enough seats and overheated. They
are building a new International Terminal and so must cram everyone
together. Since there had been a
Southern Africa Economic Community Conference in town that was ending, the all
the flights were filled and indeed had been overbooked.
Bud bought a big bag of Lays Potato Chips and generously
shared them. Boy! Did they taste good after so long without
this familiar taste of home.
We finally flew off to Johannesburg. It is about a two hour journey and at the
other end we found we had more time to kill waiting for the flight to Cape
Town. Since both Cape Town and Victoria
Falls are major cities for tourism, I was surprised that we could not fly
nonstop to our destination. We had a couple of hours together in this waiting
room and it seems like everyone bought candy.
We have become good friends and shared our treats and lots of laughs.
The second leg of the trip, another two hours, landed us in
Cape Town after nine p.m. and we were met by our local guide, Ian. Ian had gotten himself locked out of our van
so after gathering all the bags and walking some distance outside to it Fred
had to show him that when the key fob doesn’t work there is a valet key inside
to open the door and then you put it back together to start the ignition.
The Inn on the Square turned out to be on Green Market
Square which was one of the places that was a must see for Susie. It was 10:30 at night by the time we reached
the hotel and were greeted with big glasses of orange juice. Another very long travel day ended with us
not taking much time to look around but rather we settled in quickly.
Susie and I each showered and then read for a
while. I had finished my James Patterson
and passed it on to Fred who had passed it on to Susie. She lent me her The Orphan Train so we were
set to relax. But the lights did not
stay on very long as we were worn out with the long day and the excitement of a
new stage of our travel.
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