Welcome to South Africa

 

 

Finally we were at the air bridge and it seemed forever until it opened.

Half of the passengers on the flight were continuing to Cape Town and this made exiting relatively easy.

The cabin crew had asked that we have ready our passport, boarding pass or baggage claim to show as we disembarked, and it was a rather harsh welcome when a shrewish “South African” voice screeched at us over and over to produce the abovementioned documents. In reality the majority of passengers had the documents ready and this is not the friendly welcome one would expect after a ten and a half hour flight. We have not experienced this rudeness on any of our previous trips and one hopes that the ‘lady’ in question is taught some pleasant people skills. On the plus side the staff checking the documents we pleasant and welcoming.

The immigration checks were finished in no time and we collected our bags and were on our way to the arrivals hall. We collected the sim cards for our phones and arranged for our internet modems to be delivered to us in Pretoria.

Next stop was car rental and we were soon on our way to Pretoria.

Early check in had been arranged at B & B in Hatfield and we arrived at 10am. Many renovations and additions have been made to this facility since our previous stay in 2005.

We had a relatively easy day…internet modems delivered at 2pm, but there was one minor drama. The fuel  flap would not release and allow access to fuel the rental vehicle. Calls to the depot at the airport remained unanswered and as a last resort we paid a visit to the agency in Pretoria. They were extremely helpful and gave us another car until ours could be repaired.

We swapped vehicles and continued on to meet up with forum friends Theuns, Elzet and their adorable daughter Lané. We enjoyed a pleasant meal and evening with them…lots of catching up after not seeing them for 15 months.

Jetlag managed to overtake David and we said our goodbyes and made plans to meet before we return home.

Sleep came pretty quickly…our first night back in South Africa.

 

LP