Journey from Kilamanjaro to Cape Town

Thursday, April 16, 2015  Journey to Cape Town, South Africa

With the early morning flight to Niarobi, Kenya from 6:00am to 7:00am we experienced a fabulous sun rise over Kilomanjaro just as the plane reached the clouds. Simply gorgeous!

                                                        The sun rising over Kilomanjaro

                                                                           Amazing!

We enjoyed hot tea and biscuits during the quick flight. We had a two hour layover there having to go through customs again. Here they confiscated our little traveling can opener. The authorities didn’t even know what it was, but they still took it.

We boarded the plane in Kenya waiting patiently for takeoff….the plane captain made an announcement that a passenger had left the plane after boarding without permission. He told us that the authorities would be entering the plane shortly to look through the luggage brought on. This whole process held us up for over an hour but the worry of something being left on the plane with Kenyas recent terrorist issues left a weak feeling in our stomachs.  We finally got clearance to go. Larry and I watched a movie, The Judge with Robert Downey Jr, and Robert Duval  to take our minds off the morning events. The flight was three and half hours to Johannesburg.

                                           The prop plane that brought us to Johannesburg....safely.

 

We had a four hour lay over, grabbing a bite of lunch in the airport. We read the local newspaper about the zenaphobia…Unemployed South Africans are violently protesting against local Foreign African employers. There is  25% unemployment rate in South Africa. Foreign Nationals are happy to take the low paying jobs that local South Africans will not. Employers are actually paying lower salaries to the foreign nationals. There are a lot of illegal immigrant taking jobs away from the local 
citizens. It is not a good situation.   

Our two hour flight was delayed for an hour putting us in Cape Town at 7:00pm. We were glad to see the shuttle company sign with HIXSON on it. We were ready settle in for the night at the Road Lodge.  The day was a long travel day, but a good night sleep will have us fit as a fiddle to catch our shuttle to Hermanus at 9:00am in the morning.

So glad to be on the ground in South Africa!