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Africa Guide
- A complete and comprehensive guide to every country in Africa with
essential travel information and 100s of tours and safaris, hotels
and car hire throughout the continent.
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June 6: After a
tearful farewell to Deefa Dog and Sally Dog we left cold, dusty and
drought-stricken Narromine in central western New South Wales for the
450km drive to Sydney and the start of our Legend Safari Tour 2006.
Unlike the previous year the Ford
handled the six-hour trip without breaking down - hopefully, a good omen
for the rest of our trip as our three month stay in Africa is usually
plagued by vehicle problems.
June 7:
An early start from the
Ibis Hotel,
which is situated only a short distance from Kingsford Smith airport and
quite reasonably priced, for the city anyway.
We anticipated a long and frustrating
check-in procedure at the airport, however it seems that the airport
authority seems to have got its act together as it only took about
30-minutes to arrive at the Qantas counter, instead of last year's
two-and-a-half hour wait. Whilst we travelled on a Qantas flight we made
our reservation on-line with
South Africa Airways - the fare was cheaper than the Qantas fare and
the fare quoted by our travel agent.
With the obligatory 'duty free' shopping out of the, which included our
passport into the home of our Zimbabwean friends - bottles of Bundy, we
boarded our flight and were on our way.
Fourteen hours, five movies and copious
amounts of food later we arrived at Johannesburg International airport.
There must be something special about aircraft food, for Anne anyway. For
those who don't know her she's 155cm short, weights 45kg wringing wet and,
at home, eats like a sparrow.
Get her on an aircraft and she turns into an Ollie Laroux: eats everything
that's put in front of her and takes leftovers from Keith's meals. She
strongly denies that it has something to do with the 'no-smoking' rule!
A quick zip through immigration and customs and we were on a shuttle bus
to the
Garden Court Hotel, Kempton Park: our usual destination - it's safe,
has a great restaurant and a remarkable bar, McGinty's Pub. Unfortunately
this year it was also rather expensive, with rates being hiked up by about
R$200, R$840 for a double room. We only paid R$799, the amount quoted when
making the reservation. Tips
We have been overnighting in
Johannesburg for many years, but Anne has never seen the city centre: it's
just too dangerous. South Africa has the highest rate of murders, robbery
and car-jacking in the world. You can be killed for a few rand or a mobile
phone.
Next
morning, after a delicious breakfast, served buffet style, we headed off
back to the airport to catch our SAA flight SA74 to Windhoek, and the real
start of our three-month long safari.
NAMIBIA here
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Dabula Safaris
Victoria Falls
Zimbabwe |
