We awoke to a rainy Sydney morning and after checking out of our hotel we caught the bus to Sydney’s International Airport Terminal.
At 9:00 AM it was chaotic and the extensive queue for our Qantas flight meant slow progress that was eventually rewarded through patience and perseverance.
The customs and security checks were equally slow with massive queues and despite the automatic passport checks available now, Jak’s photo recognition was not adequate and he was required to do a re-check under the old system.
We eventually boarded our Boeing 747-400 at 11.00 and were pleased to have been allocated seats immediately adjacent to a bulkhead meaning that we had masses of legroom.
The plane took forever to move out to the runway as we sat on the tarmac for nearly half an hour before clearance for take-off was given.
The flight was just over 14 hours and although the plane was unexpectedly noisy the service and meals were excellent. Corinne requested a G & T with her dinner and the flight attendant forgot to get it but later corrected his error with much apologising and a peace offering of 2 drinks which she duly accepted.
The flight path from Sydney to Johannesburg does not follow the direct westwards latitude path but instead sweeps southwards towards Antarctica reaching 59o south. This slightly longer path is faster as it avoids the strong westerly jet-stream that is encountered commonly at the normal flying altitude of around 10 000m.
We arrived in Johannesburg at 17:00 local time which according to our internal body-clocks was 01:00 in Hobart. South Africa is 8 hours behind Eastern Australian standard time.
There was no requirement for customs declarations in Johannesburg and after passing through passport checking we retrieved our bags and walked to our City Lodge hotel which is adjacent to the main terminal building.
After checking into our rooms the four of us headed down to the hotel’s lounge area for some drinks to celebrate the successful completion of this effectively “32 hour” long day.
The wines we had were quite reasonable and cost a mere 45 rand each which translates to about $4.50.
Tomorrow we have much easier travel day with a late morning departure time and a short 100 minute flight through to Kasane in Botswana. Exciting!
Boeing 747-400