Flying 2016 – part 2

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After a short night, where our neighbours had to leave their room for the airport around 5 AM all the while making a racket, we found ourselves enjoying a breakfast fit for kings at the Lodge. Bacon, Boerewors, baked beans in tomato sauce, omelet with mushrooms, I was thoroughly enjoying it.

As we were to fly out at 12, we decided to not take a gamble and leave the Lodge with the the shuttle to OR Tambo at 9, just to be on the safe side of things. And apparently, this was a good thing, as British Airways decided to upgrade their backend system today. They apologised in advance, and made a big mess out of it anyway. All flights were grounded that morning for some hours, after which the delays were numerous and long.

We were met with a huge line at gate 22, which turned out to be the for previous BA flight and not ours. The initial estimate was a 2,5 hour delay to Windhoek, and was now scheduled to leave at 14:20 instead of 12:00. After lunch, we saw that it was delayed another 15 mintes, with an estimated takeoff time of 14:35. Boarding commenced on time, but it took a long time, after which it took another hour to inform us about the plane having some minor technical difficulties. These were quickly fixed, but it lead to more delays…

So, after a delay of 4 hours, we finally embarked on our flight to Windhoek, which only took slightly under two hours as the all female pilot team hit the throttle hard to make up some of the lost time. It shaved 15 minutes off, but it’s a start!

The car was quickly picked up, as was our luggage, and we were off to the first lodge in Namibia, Terra Africa. Diner reservations were made and we found ourselves in the quirkiest nod coolest ever place we’ve ever been to: a German Style Beergarten, but in a true Namibian Style. You’d have to have been there to fully grasp the complexity of the thing, but for now I can assure you that the food is good and the atmosphere is great!

Tomorrow, we’ll have a full day of travelling by car, down to Sesriem. That’s about 350km, and a first taste of what driving in our Renault Duster truly is like. 🙂