The flight over here and the chaos that followed

Benedikt and I were relieved to finally get to the airport last thursday... it had been a busy week with being away for 4 days in Oudtshoorn, then the movers coming and all the tying up of loose ends. And buying and selling of bicycles. Ehem. Benedikt and his bike projects as usual!

Our flight was great as the pilot took a small deviation past that big ass mountain! (Not sure if he was joking about it being a deviation) So we saw the top of Kilamanjaro from our seats... we were SO close to it it felt like we could have jumped out on to it. We could see the surface in detail.... which really just looked like very dark soil wth lots of big craters. It stuck out SO high above the clouds , it was majestic. Was all pretty surreal.

We got through customs after getting our visas etc at 16h15... and got to our hotel which was ONLY 15kms away at 19h45!!
Everyone warned me about the trafic but one can never imagine such choas.
There are just no rules on the roads. And the roads are totally overcrowded with vehicles. We stood still for at least 3 hours!! The taxi itself was a mini bus lite from about the 60s, with a sun roof nogal. We had an excellent driver... he always managed to push his way into the fastest moving lane! He also fixed the engine problem when it gave up on us at one point... he just lifted the front passenger seat up, fiddled around for a bit and we were off again.
So anyway, WHEN you all come and visit us you are to make sure you arrive and depart on a weekend. Apparently traffic is not so bad then.

The hotel we are staying in is divine. Kinda like sun city, its a big village kinda thing, but its not kitch and overboard. (And all the african decor is real) It reminds me of Malawi. And the Cutty Sark in Zim... very relaxed and gin and tonickee. We sleep in a giant four poster bed with mossie nets over us. And we've been wining and dining in fine style each evening.

One of the first things I felt after landing here was that I've returned to my roots. As corny as that sounds, it really feels like I'm in a Rhodesia-equivalent. For us as a family, Rhodesia is a special place, all 3 of us were born there and my parents got married there. We had good times there. Its nice to be back!

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