Friday, 13 June 2025
Our tour has treated us to some truly amazing accommodation at outstanding, hotels, lodges and resorts. We have probably enjoyed a higher standard of rooms than we would usually book for ourselves. Honestly, we’re pretty 3-star travellers, happy with a clean and functional room rather than 5-star luxury. I think we have ended on a very high note at the magnificent Victoria Falls Hotel, with its dramatic outlook to the falls, the gorges and the bridge.
The Victoria Falls Hotel, built by the British in 1904, originally housed the workers on the Cape-to-Cairo railway before operating as a luxury hotel, famous for it’s high teas and G&Ts. Today the property is still owned by the National Railways of Zimbabwe but Zimbabwean hotel and hospitality operators have run the accommodation and restaurant side of things since the 1970s. Steeped in history and one of the oldest hotels in Africa, the Victoria Falls Hotel reminds visitors of the luxury and elegance of a bygone era. I mean, who doesn’t like having their bed turned down with a chocolate left on the pillow in the evening?!
So, just shy of a month after we arrived in Africa, it was time to start the long journey home. After one more delicious breakfast buffet on the Jungle Junction terrace, our tour of Namibia, Botswana and Victoria Falls was officially at an end. We checked out of our rooms at 10.00am and gathered in the foyer to await our airport transfer, which we expected to arrive at 10.10am.
The appointed time came and went and no minibus arrived to collect the nine of us. With our flights not until 2.00pm this afternoon, we weren’t overly anxious about our transfer to the airport as we had plenty of padding. By 10.20am Deb was asking the desk if they knew anything about our transport and was told that it was actually booked for 11.00am and, they claimed, this had been communicated to Wian. With Wian long on the road there was no way to confirm this, but the desk asked the company providing the transfer if they could come sooner as everyone was ready and waiting.
Our driver, Oliver, arrived just before 10.30am and we were on our way home or, in Deb and David’s case, off to Singapore for a three day stopover. On our way to the airport we had one more police checkpoint to navigate. An orange cone was put out to make sure we stopped but, once Oliver had pulled up, the cone was removed and we were waved on through.
At the airport, Marilyn and Bernard were able to check in straight away on their AirLink flight to Johannesburg. The rest of us were on the South African Airlines flight leaving just a little bit later, so we had to wait a few minutes for our check-in counters to open. Once check-in opened, we were first in the queue and able to divest ourselves of our checked luggage quickly, with it being booked all the way through to Melbourne.
Our cheap Aldi bags are in a pretty sorry state, but they have held up until the end of the tour. I was worried about the zips bursting but it’s their wheels that have been the weakest point. And, even though a rigid base adds weight, I think we have accepted that it is a necessity to provide enough structure to be able to wheel a soft bag comfortably. They’ll be straight into the bin when we get home. Hmmn, maybe some false economy there?!
We did the immigration thing where we were officially stamped out of Zimbabwe and then the security thing, where the creep behind me kept pressing himself up against me. Eeeuw, what a nasty fellow. I exchanged places with Bernie and the creep was pressing himself up against Bernie, oh well, really, I suppose it was our back packs rather than our actual bodies but still … not acceptable! Bernie just leaned back into him rather than be intimidated. The guy was such a smart arse, that as we approached the scanners, he was bantering with the staff. I think that’s risky because you don’t want them to get upset with you and decide you’re a flight risk. Anyway, he got away with it.
Damn, this was a shoes off security point, regardless of what sort of footwear you were wearing. Such a pain. For the first time at a security checkpoint (this trip), I forgot to take off my Apple Watch, so I set the scanner off. Damn. Removed my watch, went back through the scanner and was good to go. Guaranteed we are going to have to go through this rigmarole twice more before we arrive home. Aargh!
We now had nearly three hours to fill in until flight time so … we all browsed for last minute souvenirs. That was interesting because there was a power outage so the shops were in semi-darkness and, of course, they had no ETPOS. I have really liked the beadwork African animals that I have seen in quite a few places BUT I have steadfastly resisted buying what is essentially just another dust collector that I do not need.
However, this morning as I browsed, I found a beaded animal incorporated into a serviette holder which meant I could buy a souvenir for our house that has form AND function. Win/win! Better still, we still had enough USD to pay for it in cash. While the rest of us slummed it in the cheap seats, Deb and Dave retired to the business class lounge as they have treated themselves to business class seats for the trip home. Very nice indeed. They may have the good seats BUT they don’t have their boarding passes for the next leg of the journey because the printer at their check-in counter refused to spit them out. They will have to proceed to the Singapore Airlines desk at Johannesburg to sort that out.
When seats became available at the gate where the Air Link flight would be departing from, we said our farewells to Marilyn and Bernard, unsure whether we would see them again in Johannesburg.
We were due to board at 1.25pm, but it was 1.45pm before boarding commenced. Everyone was loaded quickly and we found ourselves with an empty window seat beside us. The staff had to spray the plane, it mainly seemed to be into the overhead compartments, which set me to coughing. Even though I covered my nose and mouth during the spraying, the residue in the air was tickling my tonsils, nasty! Despite boarding commencing late we were pushing back from the terminal just after 2.00pm and in the air two minutes ahead of schedule. With one last glimpse of the falls from the air, we ascended through the clouds, and we were on our way to Johannesburg on the first leg of our looooong journey.
Despite the short duration of the flight (1’45”), we were offered a full meal service of a beef curry with rice, rather than just a sandwich. Personally I would have preferred a sandwich! Approaching Johannesburg, our pilot advised us that we were being put into a holding pattern due to congestion, but he still hoped to have us on the ground ahead of schedule at around 3.40pm.
Hmmn, it must’ve been very congested because it had gone 4.00pm by the time we touched down at O.R. Tambo International Airport. Not to worry, we had time to fill before our ongoing flight to Singapore. We followed the International Transfer arrows to … the security scanners. With only one of three machines operating it was a bit slow to get through our second security screening for the day.
Like truffle hounds we managed to find our way to a Häagen-Dasz ice-cream kiosk on our way to Gate 14. Yes, we’d had curry on the flight from Victoria Falls and, yes, we were probably going to be fed again soon after taking off for Singapore BUT, there’s always room for an ice-cream. Especially when both of us could choose our favourite flavour. Double lemon gelato for Bernie and a single coffee for me. Yum!
We had a long wait at Gate 14 for our flight, with the incoming flight from Singapore arriving late. Boarding for SQ481 finally commenced about 8.30pm which was some 40 minutes after we had been due to leave. We were very excited when the cabin doors were closed and we found ourselves with a spare seat beside us in the middle group of three. Gotta be lucky sometimes and today we’ve had two flights in a row where we’ve had a spare seat. Yay! Finally, with everyone aboard, we pushed back from the terminal and we were in the air an hour late at 8.50pm. Our pilot announced over the PA that we should make up time in the air and he hopes to have us touching down in Singapore on time.
We struggled to stay awake until the meal service, but soon we both had the lamb with rice meal in front of us. Hmmn, I was expecting it to be Rogan josh, but it was sweet and sour lamb. I’m not a huge fan of sweet and sour but it was alright. Still not much of a fan of Singapore Airlines meals generally.
With the meal service done, the crew turned down the lights and I plugged myself into ‘Slumber Studios – Get Sleepy’ again (after discovering it on the flight over) and … it worked a treat. The people that they engage to read the stories have the most marvelously soporific voices that I managed to sleep for much of the ten and a half hour flight but, importantly, woke in time for our next meal service.
Saturday, 14 June 2025
The meal was deemed ‘lunch’, even though after sleeping I felt more like it should be breakfast time, and consisted of pork with mashed potatoes. It was now around midday Saturday, Singapore time, so I wanted to stay awake, but didn’t want to commit to a movie, or anything with a story line, in case I did doze off or arrive in Singapore before the end of the program. I found something pretty mindless to watch, ‘Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking’. The show featured pairs of professional bakers baking items from the sets of the Harry Potter films. Amazing, whimsical creations. The show was hosted by the actors who played the Weasley Twins, James and Oliver Phelps with guest appearances by Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood), Warwick Davis (Goblin Bank Teller, Professor Filius Flitwick and Griphook) and Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley). Oh, and a couple of expert judges who I had never heard of.
We were due in at 12.15pm but, when we arrived at Changi Airport’s Terminal 2, it was closer to 1.00pm. Seems we didn’t make up time in the air after all. No problem, we had a long wait ahead of us in Singapore, with our flight to Melbourne not departing until this evening at 7.00pm.
Comparing notes at Victoria Falls Airport, with the members of our group not from Melbourne, we had learnt that they were flying with Qantas, directly from Johannesburg to Sydney. Marilyn and Bernard were then heading for their home in regional NSW and Mandy was flying on to Brisbane. And I think they were all going to be arriving home on Saturday night.
Now, we have an aversion to flying via Sydney, which we must have communicated to the travel agent, so we were booked via Singapore so we could fly directly into Melbourne, without having to transfer between the International and Domestic terminals at Sydney Airport. That worked out pretty well for us flying to Africa but now, on the way home, we faced 6’45” sitting around at Changi Airport. With 20/20 hindsight we ‘might’ have been better to just do the Sydney transfer between International and Domestic??? You live and learn.
At least we had already killed 45 minutes with our late arrival into Singapore, ha, ha. Knowing that we had this layover in Singapore, Bernie had pre-booked for us to spend our time in the transit lounge in Terminal 3. We caught the Sky Train to Terminal 3 and, with the Butterfly House located downstairs from the lounge, visited the butterflies on our way. We found some lovely, comfy seats in the lounge with plenty of outlets to charge all our devices. Best of all though, we were able to freshen by showering and cleaning our teeth. We were also able to eat fruit, hydrate with water, tea and Coke Zero while we managed to post our blog for Wednesday and a summary of our fourth week in Africa on Facebook.
At a quarter to six we exited the lounge and started the long walk to our gate only to find that this flight would be leaving late too. Once again due to the plane arriving late from its previous destination, this time late in from Christchurch. Finally, after the passengers had disembarked and the plane had been cleaned, refuelled and loaded with food and luggage, we started boarding … at about the time we should have been taking off.
The plane was loaded quickly and by 7.21pm we were awaiting clearance to push back from the air bridge. Not bad. We were finally on our way just after 7.30pm, half and hour behind schedule. Although then we were in for quite a lengthy wait on the tarmac. The captain asked the cabin crew to take their take-off stations at 8.00pm and we were in the air soon after. At last. We were looking forward to arriving in Melbourne in six and a half hours time.
They fed us again soon after take off with more rice. This time with chicken. I think this is part of my problem with the food on Singapore Airlines, too much rice? I don’t mind rice but find it a bit boring to have it for every meal.
I tried to watch more of ‘Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking’. I was feeling really drowsy so I was drifting between asleep and awake. Invariably I was asleep for the grand reveals and failed to see the finished creations, ha, ha. I saw bits of Episodes 2, 3 and 4 but missed Episode 5 in its entirety but, importantly, I was awake for the grand finale to see the final two creations judged and learn who the winners were.
Sunday, 15 June 2025
Another meal, this time a light, breakfast calzone filled with egg, potato and pesto. With just over an hour until we arrived in Melbourne, I decided to watch an episode of ‘Fake or Fortune’ featuring an episode trying to determine if a painting of a white chrysanthemum could be attributed to Piet Mondrian. Aargh, didn’t anticipate how many interruptions there would be with announcements about duty free shopping and messages for passengers transiting through or arriving in Melbourne. I just managed to catch the outcome – Fake – literally while we were gathering up our belongings to disembark. Instead of being worth around £200,000, the art detective, Philip Mould, now put the painting’s value at perhaps £200. Oh dear, not quite the inheritance from his mother that the owner had hoped it was.
After departing an hour late, we made up time over the Australian outback, landing in Melbourne only ten minutes late at 4.30am. It seemed we were the only flight in at this very early hour as we were able to negotiate the Smart Gates in record time. We zipped through the Duty Free shops and proceeded to the baggage carousel where we collected our sad sacks. Those zips were still intact but the wheels on both bags were now busted. Bernie left one wheel from his bag behind in Victoria Falls because it was no longer functional. My bag now had a wheel hanging off too. Thank goodness we could load them onto a luggage trolley to manoeuvre them out of the terminal building.
But first Customs. As per usual the queue was poorly managed with the staff waiting until the queue was snarled up beside the baggage carousel, before redirecting everyone to queue around the back of the carousel. Grrr, so frustrating to be near the head of the queue and then end up much further back as everyone jockeyed for position. Still, silver linings and all that when an official came along checking for people making declarations. Yes, we said, we have been in Africa. He then pointed us into the Red lane and we fast tracked through the taped chicane to find ourselves back near the head of the queue.
Another official quizzed us about whether our footwear was clean or if we had soil or plant matter attached to our shoes. We said our shoes were clean and he stamped our cards and motioned us forward. We showed our cards at the gate and we were waved through. Easy.
We really thought that we would be put through a much more rigorous interrogation and/or inspection because of returning from Africa. Although, when we went through the Smart Gate it asked us if we had been in particular African countries and we hadn’t been in any of those listed. Apparently, not all African countries are treated equally by the Australian Border Force.
We let Kerry know that we had cleared Customs and headed out to the drive through pick-up area, which was also very quiet early on a Sunday morning. There was plenty of room for Kerry to pull up for us to load our luggage into her hatchback. That has got to be a first!
Kerry had us home before 6.00am to our cold, cold house. The thermostat said only 10°C on the upstairs landing, brrr. We turned on the central heating to try to take the chill off and then, because it was still dark outside (dark = night), we set an alarm for 9.00am and crawled into bed to try for a couple more hours of sleep.
So that’s another amazing overseas adventure under our belts.
Next on our travel agenda is a domestic holiday. In just over six weeks we will be loading up the MU-X for a 4×4 driving holiday in the Finders Ranges. It’s like the Bon Jovi song ‘Gonna live while I’m alive, I’ll sleep when I’m dead’. We always planned to see more of Oz in our retirement and we still have A LOT of the continent to explore!
Welcome home.