The trip home 15 July 2014

I could not sleep, so got up early and finished most my packing, had a bath then went taking some photos before breakfast, it was unusual to have nothing to do, apart from sit around and chat, breakfast was, as usual, a pleasant experience, our ranger Evan I’d offered to let us have copies of his photos, whilst waiting for him to do mine. We chatted about photography, I had not realised that it was Evan the Rangers last day, but he was moving on to a new job after this day, some of these photos were quite stunning, after we had something to eat, then off we went after saying our goodbyes for the trip to Johannesburg, we had a short drive until we reached the transport to take us there. Interestingly, the ride in the vehicle was worse than the four-wheel drives, we were travelling around in during the Safari, it seemed a long trip with only a short break for the toilet and a snack, it took nearly 4 hours, part of which I slept through.

When we arrived at the airport it seem much more disorganised than Heathrow, with poor signage, eventually I found my way to the desk, but this time it seemed to take a long time in the queue, on the seem to be some problem with the conveyor. For reasons I do not understand I was told I could no longer have the seat I wanted, so was offered another one, on that particular row, it seemed that none of the three seats had been booked, so I could choose which was most convenient for me. I mentioned that I could cope without assistance at this airport but would need help at Heathrow, so this was logged, I then went through security and passport control, then up to the lounge to relax. There were problems with my card, but I was surprised at the lack of efficiency at this particular desk, I mentioned wanting a shower so was given three packets wrapped in polythene and pointed in the general direction, quite different to that at Heathrow. I had my shower, then relaxed in the lounge with a drink and snack, then went to board the plane.
There seemed to be a long disorganized queue waiting to board, eventually it was my turn, and I was directed to my seat, I now understood why the people did not want to see it in the seats, this was because they were immediately next to the toilets, I decided I would sit in the middle seat, which seemed to be the most spacious, when a flight attendant came along, he said he could move me to a better seat, which also would have more legroom, so I took advantage of this. Yet again I struggled with the sound system and then gave it up as a bad job and had a read of the paper. The evening meal was pleasant and afterwards I settled down to go to sleep, I slept for a while, but then found for the rest the flight I had brief periods of sleep and wakefulness.

Finally we arrived at Heathrow the rest of the passengers disembarked apart from those of those who needed assistance. They seem to have a crazy system to get us to the exit, it consisted of a wheelchair for part of the trip, then an electric vehicle to take me on the next leg of the trip, finally and another wheelchair through to the baggage hall, unfortunately at passport control, there was some sort of problem, at the two passport desks, there seemed to be some sort of difficulty. So we waited for nearly quarter of an hour before finally passing through, my case was ready for collection. So I set off to find the vehicle to take me home, it was a different driver and vehicle to on the way out, not quite so luxurious this time, but the driver was pleasant enough, it took about four hours to get back home, so in total. I’ve been travelling for over 20 hours, first task was empty the case and do some washing, then check my mail, yes the holiday was finally over.

The trip to South Africa 8 July 2014

Well I left you readers at the lounge, things from there did not go quite to plan, I duly went to the desk at 7 45pm but no assistance, the nice ladies offered to contact the service that would take me to the plane,  unfortunately someone had disconnected the phone, so it took a little while for her to find out I was not registered for assistance, but that this would now be resolved.
Whilst waiting  I was sat by the desk so it was interesting to watch the people arriving,  they came as you would expect in all types, but it was the ones who wanted to bring  families in without paying the extra money per person that seemed involve the most debate, it was only at that point I realised to use the lounge on a casual basis was £35 each, a room was £120 per night or £20 per hour with a minumum of 3 hours to pay.
After 3/4 hour someone came yo collect me it was just as well because I would never of made it otherwise  to the plane in time.
The staff on the plane were pleasant, I found my seat but an elderly man who obviously had the window seat was blocking my access therefore nobody could move past me, he seemed oblivious to the chaos, I moved a little further down the passage to enable others to reach their seats until he finally was settled. 
He fid not engage in conversation so I decided I would explore how the sound and audio system worked,  it was quite complex with little in the way of instructions as far as I could see,  but worse was that either their headphones or my hearing were not up to the task,  so I gave up and had a read instead. 
It did not seem that long before my evening arrived it was fruit juice, then a cucumber salad with dressing, followed by a chicken pasta dish which was quite pleasant and finally a mousse desert and to finish off cheese and biscuits, I was offered  tea or coffee but felt they would keep me awake not sure really that the Pepsi was any better.
The elderly man had finished his meal before me donned his eye mask ear plugs and blanket and was fast asleep,  when I looked at the clock it was past 12 so decided to follow suit. I must of slept for a couple hours, as everywhere was dark and quiet. I had a further go with the music but  quality of sound put me off. I slept on and off for a number of hours.
At some point the staff came round with breakfast,  I had a full english, this also came with fruit juice, a danish pastry and a yogurt so according to , my friend Brian thay constituted a full 4 courses LOL they were stingy with the coffe so only got one cup. There wad an announcement I did not quite catch so enquired it seemed someone had taken ill and the staff were seeking someone with the skill to assist, obviously not me.
The elderly man woke so I mentioned he had missed breakfast, this was brought and finally we got chatting he was telling me he does a lot of travel round the world and has bought a property in New Zealand. I mentioned to a member of staff that I would need assistance when we arrived,  she said she would sort out but for me to wait until others had disembarked,  which I was happy to do. On landing it was explained that we would all have to wait until the medics had dealt withe the sick person.