January 2nd - 4th - Zanzibar, Tanzania to Port Elizabeth, South Africa

I  think I left the last blog on the morning of the 2nd.  Our driver arrived just after noon and we drove from Nungwi to Stone Town.  He dropped Randy off at the hotel enroute to the airport.  Randy has two more nights there before flying to Rwanda to see the gorillas.  I decided to skip that five days as it was too expensive for my budget.

I got to the airport before 2 p.m. for a 4:30 flight.  You had to show your boarding pass to even get up the ramp to the airport.  Luckily I had mine on my iPad because I did not have a hard copy.  Then there is a security check right at the gate as you enter.  There were two lines but it was incredibly slow.  Check in was not much faster but the good part was that my bags were under the limit.  My checked bag was 19 kg and my carry-on bag was 5 kg so I was good to go.  Then we had to line up for immigration.  After waiting in line and finally getting to the front you find out you have to go fill out a form and then get in line again to get a stamp on your boarding pass that let's you then go through the next security - also very slow.  By the time I got finished that whole process it was well after 3 p.m.  The departures area was packed and there were very few empty seats available.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find food outlets and some shops and even free wifi!  I had a samosa, pop and an ice cream treat to tide me over as Mango airlines is South African Airlines no-frills subsidiary so there was going to be nothing free on the plane for to eat or drink.

The flight was late by half and hour but that was okay for me as I had no plans.  I was sitting in the front row - no, not first class, just the front row of a no-frills airline.  I locked my backpack and put it up above behind me.  I always hate doing that but the crew uses the first overhead bins so you can't put anything else there.  All I had with me was my book and a water and that turned out to be fine.   I had the aisle seat and there was a lady in the middle seat.  The window seat ended up vacant so she moved over there and we each had a bit more room.  She was interesting as she had lived in various parts of Africa over the past 30 years.  Her husband was a geologist I think.  Some of her stories about her experiences, the different places she'd lived and where we are going on our tour were fascinating.  I just hope we skip the not-so-nice parts of the stories and only get to enjoy the wonderful parts.  

When I arrived at the Johannesburg airport I had to stand in line for a short while in the visa line.  Canadians don't actually need a visa but the "no visa needed" line didn't have anyone in it and didn't have an officer at the other end so I went in the "visa needed" line, which turned out to be the right choice as others who took the first route got sent back to the end of our line.  I was to get my bag and go to the information desk to meet the lady to take me to the hotel shuttle but she didn't seem to be around.  They knew her and said to just wait so I did.  A half hour later I had them call the hotel so they could phone her and tell her I was waiting.  She came along right after that and I got my ride to the hotel.  While I was checking in, another couple arrived in a taxi and they weren't too pleased because they couldn't find the lady at the airport either.  The airport was basically empty so I"m not too sure what she was doing but she wasn't where she was supposed to be.

The hotel was nice but it was just a stop over for the night.    By the time I got to my room it was going on 9 p.m. and I was tired and hungry.  After such a healthy lunch my dinner consisted of Pringles, M&Ms and water - the only kind of thing I could get from the vending machines.  And after that delicious meal I went to bed.

The next morning I got up, had breakfast, packed up and caught the 9 a.m. shuttle back to the airport.   i checked in with no problem, went through security and then had time to look around on the way to the gate.  After so many small airports with just one departures area it was fun to be back in a large one with lots of stores, especially book stores so I bought a couple more books.    Then I made my way to the gate just as someone was running around telling everyone that there had been a gate change.  So we all took off in another direction to find the new gate.  It was on the lower level so obviously we were going out by bus first, not directly on to the plane.  We waited for quite a while down there and no one told us anything.  Eventually, well after our departure time, they eventually loaded the buses and boarded the plane.  But then it took quite a while to get going and there seemed to be some confusion over some seats.  The captain did eventually apologize and mention that they had to bring in a different plane and he apologized for the delay and for the mix up with seats.

The plane beside ours when we were boarding was the largest plane I have ever seen.  It had double windows from the front to the back of the plane so there were two levels of seats for the whole length of the plane.  There just happened to be four pilots who were going to be passengers on our flight so I asked them what it was and they said it was the new Airbus 380-800 (or something like that) and depending on seat configuration it can hold between 500 and 1,000 passengers.  They referred to the 1,000 passenger version as the cramped Chinese model while the 500 passenger version had lots of beds and private areas.  It's supposed to be a great aircraft to fly and very fuel efficient (although I can't imagine how!) but apparently not many of them have been built and sold as not many airlines and routes can justify that size of aircraft.  I think I could have told their marketing departments that tidbit of information.

Anyway, the flight was fine but I did arrive over an hour late.  The hotel had booked a taxi for me and the poor driver had been waiting all that time.  Just as we didn't know before we departed what the delays were and how long they were going to be, neither did he so he just stayed at the airport and waited - not a very good return on the time he invested but he seemed to be okay with it.   The hotel is just a block from the water and in a very upscale neighbourhood.  There are lots of large houses that I assume were all privately owned single family dwellings at one time.  Now a lot of them are hotels or guest houses.  This guest house only has about 10 rooms but it is very nice.  The rooms are large and very comfortable and have a small fridge and microwave and sink so you can eat some meals in.  There is a small swimming pool and garden area and a BBQ area (or braai in South African speak) and a games room as well as the restaurant and lounge area.  The restaurant only serves breakfast as far as I can tell but then at other times the office sells drinks from a cooler in the restaurant.  

I had breakfast at the restaurant on my first morning (the 4th) and I thought I was the last person to eat.  As it turns out I was the only one and they still did a full buffet with small amounts of everything.  What a waste of time, energy and food!   I have since bought some bananas, juice, cereal and milk so I can make my own breakfast.  I also bought some other supplies to so I can make some sandwiches if needed.  The grocery store is about five short blocks away so it's pretty handy.  And it's in a small mall so I also got an adapter as my universal adapter doesn't seem to work in South Africa for some reason, and a new memory card for my computer so hopefully I can start posting pictures again.  That story is still confusing to me!

I walked to the beach yesterday (3rd) about 4 p.m. after I was settled in.  It was still hot but there was a nice breeze blowing.  Apparently there is always wind blowing in Port Elizabeth because it is called the windy city.  The park right at the end of our street was crowded with people sitting in the shade and kids running around playing. There was not a good beach at that point but rather some rocks below a sand bluff.   I shall have to go exploring it more this week.  I went to the left toward Boardwalk and the pier.

The pier looked rather busy as I set out to walk to it but along the way I realized that the beach before it was totally packed with people.  There were hundreds of people on the sand and in the shallow water.  Before that there were also people in the pools behind the rocks.  Even the shallowest of pools would have people in it.  But the main beach was just amazing.  I don't know how they could possibly get that many people on one beach.  Very few were out in deep water.  Most were right at the shore in very shallow water and if they really wanted to get wet they had to sit down.  The noise was almost deafening with shrieks and laughter and splashing.  It was totally amazing to see and hear.  And 99% of the people were black.  There was an occasional white person around but certainly not many.

I walked out on the pier and the other side of the pier was rocks again.  While the first group had a calm little bay with shallow water, the other side had big waves crashing into high rocks and the people on the other side of the rocks were dry.  From this point on there were buildings along the water front with lots of shops, restaurants, bars and ice cream stands.  I walked down a ways further and saw another totally packed beach on the other side of the bay.  Obviously the locals all flock to the best beaches.

Now I thought the Boardwalk was going to be a board walk but I finally realized that I had in fact missed the Boardwalk so I backtracked and crossed the street moving away from the water.  The tourist information office, which is what I was looking for, was at the entrance to the complex which is sort of like a Downtown Disney set up.  There is a lake in the middle (man made I think) and around it there are restaurants, stores. a huge entertainment centre with lots of games for kids of all ages, and a huge casino for the more adult kids who like games.  There is also a big outdoor amphitheatre with nothing going on while I am in town, cinema, go-cart track, miniature golf, bumper boats and some rides for the young kids.  And every night during the holidays, meaning now, they have a water, lights, music, ... show over the lake - assuming it's not too windy in the windy city.  I will have to see it sometime but not last night.  I wanted to be a bit more familiar with my surroundings before walking home after dark.  Besides I was too hot and tired at that point.

I've sort of mixed up days in this blog but not much else happened on these days.  The afternoon of the 4th I simply relaxed by the pool and read for a while.  I had to read all the tourist information I got so I could figure out what I really wanted to see.  By the time the day finished I'd also figured out that I really only have three days left to see anything, not four as I had originally thought, so I'm not going to see too much at all.  But then I'm not likely to fight the crowds at the beach for my square metre of water to stand in so I may have lots of time to tour the city.  Stay tuned for further updates.