Today is the start of four weeks in South Africa and Namibia, with a long haul flight from Sydney to Johannesburg of around 13 hours and 45 minutes. Sydney International is busy this morning, with people going in all directions trying to avoid the construction works in the airside terminal. The Qantas First lounge is strangely quiet though, with few people travelling on business on a Sunday morning.
Speaking of airports, I’ve upgraded my camera backpack on this trip from the ThinkTank Airport Essentials to the Airport Commuter. The Essentials was a great pack, but just a little too squeezy for 2 DSLR’s, a short zoom and a telephoto, plus laptop, iPad and associated paraphernalia. The Commuter is a little deeper, and a tad wider, and with some reconfiguration of the dividers easily fits a Canon 5D MKII with 24-105, a Canon 7D MKII with 100-400 II, a compact camera, a couple of bags of cables and chargers, and a set of binoculars with room to spare in the main compartment. The front section of the bag easily fits my 14” Ultrabook an iPad Air as well. So happy camper with equipment so far, even if the overall weight of the bag is a concern for the small plane flights in South Africa and Namibia.
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QF63 to Johannesburg is on-time leaving from Sydney, and failing to hear the announcement in the lounge, I’m one of the last to board the plane. It’s an old 747, with what appears to be the old-first class refitted as business class, due to the 1-2-1 seat configuration. It’s been a LONG time since the business class seats were installed. No brand-spanking new Marc Newson designed seats here. The staff are friendly and attentive though, and despite it being a day flight, it’s very quiet in this section.
QF63 flies an interesting route from Sydney – it flies south south-west towards the Antarctic ice fields to avoid the trade winds across the Indian Ocean. Last time I took this flight, we did indeed see ice, but the weather is against us this time and the pilot alters course over the Southern Ocean to avoid it.
We arrive 30-40 minutes ahead of schedule at about 16:30, which would have been a good thing other than it meant we landed at the same time as an Emirates 777 and another flight, which means that Immigration is a zoo. Even being one of the first off the arriving flights still puts about 70 people in the queue ahead of me, and at least 300 behind me.
It’s a relief to finally fight my way through the arrivals hall (also a zoo with people waiting for family and tourism operators waiting for arrivals) to walk across the road to the Intercontinental Hotel. This will be the third time I’ve stayed in this lovely hotel, with another 3 nights ahead on this trip as I change locations. I had enough Amex points to pay for this stay, and the reception desk promptly upgrades me to a better room, so off to a flying start on this trip.
It’s a quiet night in the hotel for me, ahead of a 9am departure tomorrow morning to catch my shuttle flight to Ulusaba airstrip, which is the closest to my first destination on this trip of Exeter River Lodge in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve.
