Day 1 and 2 (Now Day 0 & 1): TIA (This Is Africa)
Door: Nayan Heijmans
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Nayan
01 September 2016 | Zuid-Afrika, Johannesburg
TIA is a common term in South Africa. It means that you should not expect anything to go as planned. Having visited Asia on several occasions, I thought it would be about the same as the Asian hassle. On the contrary….
François and myself left my home around 13:30 on the 30st of August. Flying from Brussel to Amsterdam with KLM would take us 50 minutes and save us €100. That was an easy call, for two graduating students. All went well and we arrived on time at Schiphol Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we had to wait approximately 1,5 hour which included getting out and in the planes. The next plane from Kenya Airways took us to Nairobi and this flight was 7 hours and 50 minutes. Day 2 started after this night-flight and so far, so good.
Next was our 4-hour flight from Nairobi to Joburg (Johannesburg, South Africa). After we boarded the plane, we had to wait for it to depart, which resulted in a 45 minutes delay. Well this can even happen to the best airline companies, every traveller knows. The plane went on its way to Joburg and when it was 30 minutes in the air it turned around. The captain said that she heard some noise coming from one of the doors and that they didn’t want to take any risk with it. We landed back in Nairobi, were not allowed to get out and hours later than planned the plane set course to Joburg again.
Where we should have landed in Joburg at 10:50, we set foot on South African soil for the first time at 13:30, a delay of more than 2,5 hours and 24 hours after leaving my home.
Finally, we thought, the flights were over. We headed towards the passport control, which of course had a big line at “Passports holders, which require a Visa.” Although it was nothing compared to the line we experienced with crossing land borders in Asia. After being around 15 minutes in line, we saw an official during the line, which asked us for our passport. I showed him my passport with visa and François his passport without visa. Then he told us to pass the big line of people waiting and go straight to the counters for South Africans, where there was no line. When we arrived at the counter it was immediately my turn. I gave the official my passport and one stamp and two written lines later, I was through. Although we were a little bit sceptical, if François could get his visa stamp at the South African counter, it took him the same amount of time as myself to get his visa on arrival. One minute later we were both officially in the Republic of South Africa. Would the tables have turned in our favour?
Next was the baggage claim. Adventurers as we are, we brought with us both a big backpack with our clothes and one big suitcase with a camping tent, sleeping bags and some other stuff. When we arrived ad conveyor belt 3, some luggage was already on the belt. It didn’t take that long for us to have found François’ backpack and the suitcase. It took only 30 minutes from that point for the entire luggage from our flight to be on the belt. However, not my backpack, no tables have turned, AT ALL. With my baggage ticket they checked where my backpack with all my clothes and shoes was chilling. Apparently it didn’t want to go on board and it decided to stay in Nairobi. The guy from that counter told me that it would arrive in Joburg on that day and that they would deliver my backpack on that same day, or the day after. No clean clothes, no toiletries (apart from my mini traveling toothbrush and even smaller toothpaste in my hand luggage) and no shoes for the next two days probably.
Without backpack and without a good mood we left the baggage area to pick up our rental car from Hertz. We arrived at the rental company at 14.30. We were third in line and when it was our turn, it took them around 1-1,5 hours to complete our booking. When we finally got our keys we went to see our Toyota Hilux 4x4 single cab with canopy. After inspection, it seemed like that the canopy didn’t open anymore. So we could not use this car and had to wait for a replacement vehicle. First they had to check if there was an alternative. This took them quite some time and when they had finally found one in the depot it had to be brought to the airport, which was around 5km and should take around 30 minutes. As you might have guessed, this took them a lot more than 30 minutes. In the mean while we became quite hungry, since the last meal we had was on our last plane, I went back to the airport for two hamburgers. Then, finally our baby arrived. Together with the 1,5 hours waiting time at the Hertz counter, we spend over 3 hours waiting for our 4x4 to be ready to go.
Around 17.30 we finally left the airport, on our way to our first African hotel.
For those of you who didn’t know, in South Africa they drive on the left side of the road. Combine this with shifting gear with your left hand and driving a big beast in a big city and you’re guaranteed to get tricky situations. Luckily all went well and when we were settled in our room, an Uber driver named Henry brought us to restaurant Carnivore on the outskirts of Joburg. After the 50-minute-drive we entered the restaurant at 20:15. We apologized for being so late because we had a reservation at 18:00. This restaurant is famous for its menu. As a starter we got spinach-soup with some bread. The main course contained a Lazy Suzan (platter) with 6 salads and 8 sauces. Waiters circulate in the restaurant wielding Masaai swords with different kinds of game meat (wild animals) and domestic meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb) on it. They cut the meat with a sword above our plate and we got to taste between 10 and 15 different kinds of meat. The game meat we tasted contained for example zebra, blesbok, kudu and crocodile. The concept was all you can eat. Besides all this meat there was also a big baked potato, traditional ‘pap’ and chakalaka sauce included. For drinks we first ordered ‘Dawa’ (traditional house cocktail containing only vodka, honey and some limes) and after the dawa we ordered two bottles of wine. When we had enough of the meat we had to lower the small flag standing on the table to show that we ‘surrendered’ and to finish we received a desert. We asked for the bill (815 South African Rand = approximately €52) and called Henry. On our way home we decided to call it a day. It has been a long 2 days with just a couple of hours sleep.
François and myself left my home around 13:30 on the 30st of August. Flying from Brussel to Amsterdam with KLM would take us 50 minutes and save us €100. That was an easy call, for two graduating students. All went well and we arrived on time at Schiphol Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we had to wait approximately 1,5 hour which included getting out and in the planes. The next plane from Kenya Airways took us to Nairobi and this flight was 7 hours and 50 minutes. Day 2 started after this night-flight and so far, so good.
Next was our 4-hour flight from Nairobi to Joburg (Johannesburg, South Africa). After we boarded the plane, we had to wait for it to depart, which resulted in a 45 minutes delay. Well this can even happen to the best airline companies, every traveller knows. The plane went on its way to Joburg and when it was 30 minutes in the air it turned around. The captain said that she heard some noise coming from one of the doors and that they didn’t want to take any risk with it. We landed back in Nairobi, were not allowed to get out and hours later than planned the plane set course to Joburg again.
Where we should have landed in Joburg at 10:50, we set foot on South African soil for the first time at 13:30, a delay of more than 2,5 hours and 24 hours after leaving my home.
Finally, we thought, the flights were over. We headed towards the passport control, which of course had a big line at “Passports holders, which require a Visa.” Although it was nothing compared to the line we experienced with crossing land borders in Asia. After being around 15 minutes in line, we saw an official during the line, which asked us for our passport. I showed him my passport with visa and François his passport without visa. Then he told us to pass the big line of people waiting and go straight to the counters for South Africans, where there was no line. When we arrived at the counter it was immediately my turn. I gave the official my passport and one stamp and two written lines later, I was through. Although we were a little bit sceptical, if François could get his visa stamp at the South African counter, it took him the same amount of time as myself to get his visa on arrival. One minute later we were both officially in the Republic of South Africa. Would the tables have turned in our favour?
Next was the baggage claim. Adventurers as we are, we brought with us both a big backpack with our clothes and one big suitcase with a camping tent, sleeping bags and some other stuff. When we arrived ad conveyor belt 3, some luggage was already on the belt. It didn’t take that long for us to have found François’ backpack and the suitcase. It took only 30 minutes from that point for the entire luggage from our flight to be on the belt. However, not my backpack, no tables have turned, AT ALL. With my baggage ticket they checked where my backpack with all my clothes and shoes was chilling. Apparently it didn’t want to go on board and it decided to stay in Nairobi. The guy from that counter told me that it would arrive in Joburg on that day and that they would deliver my backpack on that same day, or the day after. No clean clothes, no toiletries (apart from my mini traveling toothbrush and even smaller toothpaste in my hand luggage) and no shoes for the next two days probably.
Without backpack and without a good mood we left the baggage area to pick up our rental car from Hertz. We arrived at the rental company at 14.30. We were third in line and when it was our turn, it took them around 1-1,5 hours to complete our booking. When we finally got our keys we went to see our Toyota Hilux 4x4 single cab with canopy. After inspection, it seemed like that the canopy didn’t open anymore. So we could not use this car and had to wait for a replacement vehicle. First they had to check if there was an alternative. This took them quite some time and when they had finally found one in the depot it had to be brought to the airport, which was around 5km and should take around 30 minutes. As you might have guessed, this took them a lot more than 30 minutes. In the mean while we became quite hungry, since the last meal we had was on our last plane, I went back to the airport for two hamburgers. Then, finally our baby arrived. Together with the 1,5 hours waiting time at the Hertz counter, we spend over 3 hours waiting for our 4x4 to be ready to go.
Around 17.30 we finally left the airport, on our way to our first African hotel.
For those of you who didn’t know, in South Africa they drive on the left side of the road. Combine this with shifting gear with your left hand and driving a big beast in a big city and you’re guaranteed to get tricky situations. Luckily all went well and when we were settled in our room, an Uber driver named Henry brought us to restaurant Carnivore on the outskirts of Joburg. After the 50-minute-drive we entered the restaurant at 20:15. We apologized for being so late because we had a reservation at 18:00. This restaurant is famous for its menu. As a starter we got spinach-soup with some bread. The main course contained a Lazy Suzan (platter) with 6 salads and 8 sauces. Waiters circulate in the restaurant wielding Masaai swords with different kinds of game meat (wild animals) and domestic meat (beef, pork, chicken, lamb) on it. They cut the meat with a sword above our plate and we got to taste between 10 and 15 different kinds of meat. The game meat we tasted contained for example zebra, blesbok, kudu and crocodile. The concept was all you can eat. Besides all this meat there was also a big baked potato, traditional ‘pap’ and chakalaka sauce included. For drinks we first ordered ‘Dawa’ (traditional house cocktail containing only vodka, honey and some limes) and after the dawa we ordered two bottles of wine. When we had enough of the meat we had to lower the small flag standing on the table to show that we ‘surrendered’ and to finish we received a desert. We asked for the bill (815 South African Rand = approximately €52) and called Henry. On our way home we decided to call it a day. It has been a long 2 days with just a couple of hours sleep.
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