Flying to Atlanta was no different than any other plane trip that we have taken. Get on plane, get off, go find connecting gate.
But when we did get to our connecting gate that is when things started to change. For one, the plane was super sized. Just like our plane that we took years ago to London this one was a extra big jumbo jet. When we were looking at it through the window it seemed to almost take up the entire frame of the window sill. Second, plane passengers were standing around in safari clothes. Third, there was kiosks stating what not to bring back from Africa. I was already excited about the trip. When we got to the gate I got super excited.
Sleep on the plane was not to be had for three reasons:
1. The plane noise.
2. The college friend photo shoot and
3. The plane chair.
The plane noise:
I did not have great expectations about sleep on the plane. I thought that if I got as much sleep as I did when I was an Intern on call I would be good. On those call nights two hours of sleep was darn good. We feel asleep around midnight and I woke up around 2:30 AM due to noise on the plane. The guy next to John had earphones in but his music was on full volume. I could hear his music full blast when I had my head phones on. Apparently he did not get the memo that if your turned up your headphones to full volume that everyone near you could hear.
The college friend photo shoot:
A group of college kids were taking pictures of each other sleeping ont he plane. They were all sweet kids. We met them while waiting at the gate. It was their first trip to Africa too. It seemed like every half hour one of them would take a picture of someone in the group. All was ok when they took pictures when the cabin lights were on but once the cabin was dark the bright flash was just a touch annoying. I figured that they had to take all those pics to prove to their parents that they were indeed on this expensive flight (that their parents paid for). That being said if I had went to Africa while in college I probably would of taken a lot of pics too.
The college kids taking pictures went like this:
-picture when first on the plane.
-picture of friend falling asleep
-picture of friend mostly asleep
-picutre of friend asleep.
-picutute of friend really asleep
-picture of friend waking up
-picture of friend awake on the plane
The plane chair:
I had a lovely plane seat. Aisle seat and near to the bathroom. No one was behind me so I thought I would have a lot of room to recline the chair to sleep. Problem was the button to recline was broken. Thing was I could push back to recline but the seat would not stay locked in that position. Every time I moved the seat would snap back to the upright position. Kind of a like a plane seat murphy bed. For a while there I tried not to move. But alas I would get to sleep, turn over just a bit and wham the seat went back up on me. Sigh. I finally gave up and just fell asleep sitting upright.
By the time I had given up on my seat reclining and our nearby passengers settling down (briefly turning off the music and movies) it was 6 AM.
I nodded off for another couple of hours. Around 8:30 AM I woke up cuz my butt was really sore. By that time we had been on the plane for a little over ten hours. I had to get up and walk around. That little walkaround trip was quite fruitful. I got to see Africa through the back plane window for the very first time. At that time we were flying over the desert of Narobi (I think).
All told I got about four hours of sleep on the plane. Remember when I said that as an Intern that I was happy when I got two hours of sleep? I was quite happy that I got four hours of sleep on the plane. In fact I was quite giddy about it.
After 15 hours in the air we landed in Jo-berg. Distance from Atlanta to Jo-berg was 8,650 miles per the plane movie screen. I'm guessing that we flew over 10,000 miles to go from Omaha to Cape Town.
We arrived an hour late in Jo-berg. That meant that the airport race was on. We went through customs, picked up our luggage, ran to the domestic side of the airport, checked in at the counter to get our Cape Town tickets, went through the security line and then got on the plane. All of this was done in less than an hour. Kuddos to all of the airport staff that moved us through so quickly!!! After our 15 hour plane to Jo-berg we didn't think that we would have enough juice to make our Cape Town flight. But alas we made it.
John and I sat on opposite ends of the flight to Jo-berg. Not that he smelled or anything it was just that we had ticketed late so the seats available were slim pickings. We had to ticket in Jo-berg for Cape Town. We could not ticket for this leg of the trip in the US.
I had told John not to take on nap on the flight to Cape Town so that he would sleep when we got to the hotel. After our dinner was done, I thought I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes. Apparently Cape Town was just a dream away for me. John got a good laugh when he stopped by my seat when he went to the bathroom. He asked me when I got off the plane "No naps huh?"
Gladly a rep from Adventures by Disney (ABD) was at the airport. Otherwise I would of gladly laid on the floor, and slept there for the night. Our driver pointed out what he could on the way to the hotel. However it was night so we could not see much. Cape Town is 7 hours ahead of Omaha. We did however see the outlines of all the shanties by the airport. The shanties are tiny. No bigger than a tool shed. Our driver told us that they have no running water or indoor facilities.
Alas, after a long journey we reached the hotel. Best night of sleep that we have had in a long time!!!
Next up: Cape Town.
