Friday, January 30, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Weeks 22 & 23: Critters on Campus
Jan 12 - 25, 2009
The last two weeks have been mostly non-eventful. Bill flew out on Tuesday for his workshop in Jakarta, with extended time in Johannesburg in both directions. That left me with the depressing task of daily airport trips (2 hours each time) to see if the last bag had arrived. Bill arrived safely in Jakarta only to find himself with a very bad case of jet-lag & by the second day of the workshop, was so sick he spent the day sick in bed in his hotel. Fortunately he was able to get to the last day & catch up on most of what he had missed the day before. Ironically, he says it was the best workshop he’d been to for ages – it was very disappointing that he was feeling so poorly.
By the time he left Jakarta for the trip home, the missing bag still hadn’t arrived & my expectations of it ever coming were almost rock bottom. On day 15 after our arrival I spoke to the head lady for Air Namibia at the airport & was able to get her to photocopy the documents (tags & boarding passes) that had been taken off us on our arrival, as well as the luggage tag from the bag that did arrive. With confirmation of all the numbers, I got Bill to go to lost & found at Johannesburg Airport to search for the bag there, as well as make a report with KLM. Despite having all possible information, I found that I still couldn’t access the KLM website to directly report the lost bag online. In frustration I wrote a complaint to their customer services, but even then it took 3 days for a response.
Bill arrived safely back in Luanda (with his luggage) and was jet lagged all over again. No sign of the missing bag in Jo-burg, but the KLM person he spoke to told him there was no record of our bag being missing! (This is despite assurances from Air Namibia that they had sent telexes to Manchester & Amsterdam to search for the bag). I finally got an email from KLM, once again asking for all the information (this is day 19 & no sign of the bag). We forwarded the info to Bill’s mum in Manchester & she contacted both Manchester & Amsterdam directly with it. Amazingly, she spoke to someone who found the bag!!!
It had been sitting there all this time (who knows why) & she assured Bill’s mum that it would go on the next flight to Jo-burg & then to Luanda on Tuesday. So, as I write, it is supposedly on its way to us & I will go to the airport on Tuesday to see if it arrives. (Bill has soccer practice with the boys). We are both excited and sceptical at the same time.
Other than the luggage saga, we have enjoyed a quiet weekend together (Bill was away for 10 days). We went out to the Ilha for lunch on Saturday, but other than that, have spent the time at home. I was entertaining myself making geometric kaleidoscopes for a classroom display & Bill entertained himself by making a fantastic birthday card for his son.
Seeing as how all this is rather dull, I thought I’d throw in some photos of some of the wildlife that share the school grounds. The variety of birds is one of the delights of living here. Because they spray regularly for mosquitoes, there is almost no invertebrate life – the exception being the big black slugs that come out every night and the big black carpenter bees.
One of the most ubiquitous birds are the egrets, but there are also mousebirds, finches, a particularly cheeky weaver bird that loves to tap on peoples windows, sunbirds, and blue waxbills (my favourite – they are so impossibly bright blue & as common as sparrows).
As well as the birds, there are lizards that seem to survive the regular spraying. At the moment there is a male agama lizard that has bright blue colouration & another lizard (probably another type of agama) that has red colouration. They are living in the drains that remain dry as the rains have not yet come. It is impossible to believe that this is the rainy season – it is just very hot & dry. I have seen one agama on a tree trunk, but just the one. With the amount of spraying, I wonder what they live on (having said that, the ants don’t appear to be affected by the spraying either & I think they are the main source of food for the lizards.
Well, that’s our news for now – fingers crossed the lost bag will arrive on Tuesday. We have parent teacher meetings on Friday & early close so hopefully we will go camping or something to get out of Luanda.
The last two weeks have been mostly non-eventful. Bill flew out on Tuesday for his workshop in Jakarta, with extended time in Johannesburg in both directions. That left me with the depressing task of daily airport trips (2 hours each time) to see if the last bag had arrived. Bill arrived safely in Jakarta only to find himself with a very bad case of jet-lag & by the second day of the workshop, was so sick he spent the day sick in bed in his hotel. Fortunately he was able to get to the last day & catch up on most of what he had missed the day before. Ironically, he says it was the best workshop he’d been to for ages – it was very disappointing that he was feeling so poorly.
By the time he left Jakarta for the trip home, the missing bag still hadn’t arrived & my expectations of it ever coming were almost rock bottom. On day 15 after our arrival I spoke to the head lady for Air Namibia at the airport & was able to get her to photocopy the documents (tags & boarding passes) that had been taken off us on our arrival, as well as the luggage tag from the bag that did arrive. With confirmation of all the numbers, I got Bill to go to lost & found at Johannesburg Airport to search for the bag there, as well as make a report with KLM. Despite having all possible information, I found that I still couldn’t access the KLM website to directly report the lost bag online. In frustration I wrote a complaint to their customer services, but even then it took 3 days for a response.
Bill arrived safely back in Luanda (with his luggage) and was jet lagged all over again. No sign of the missing bag in Jo-burg, but the KLM person he spoke to told him there was no record of our bag being missing! (This is despite assurances from Air Namibia that they had sent telexes to Manchester & Amsterdam to search for the bag). I finally got an email from KLM, once again asking for all the information (this is day 19 & no sign of the bag). We forwarded the info to Bill’s mum in Manchester & she contacted both Manchester & Amsterdam directly with it. Amazingly, she spoke to someone who found the bag!!!
It had been sitting there all this time (who knows why) & she assured Bill’s mum that it would go on the next flight to Jo-burg & then to Luanda on Tuesday. So, as I write, it is supposedly on its way to us & I will go to the airport on Tuesday to see if it arrives. (Bill has soccer practice with the boys). We are both excited and sceptical at the same time.
Other than the luggage saga, we have enjoyed a quiet weekend together (Bill was away for 10 days). We went out to the Ilha for lunch on Saturday, but other than that, have spent the time at home. I was entertaining myself making geometric kaleidoscopes for a classroom display & Bill entertained himself by making a fantastic birthday card for his son.
Seeing as how all this is rather dull, I thought I’d throw in some photos of some of the wildlife that share the school grounds. The variety of birds is one of the delights of living here. Because they spray regularly for mosquitoes, there is almost no invertebrate life – the exception being the big black slugs that come out every night and the big black carpenter bees.
One of the most ubiquitous birds are the egrets, but there are also mousebirds, finches, a particularly cheeky weaver bird that loves to tap on peoples windows, sunbirds, and blue waxbills (my favourite – they are so impossibly bright blue & as common as sparrows).
As well as the birds, there are lizards that seem to survive the regular spraying. At the moment there is a male agama lizard that has bright blue colouration & another lizard (probably another type of agama) that has red colouration. They are living in the drains that remain dry as the rains have not yet come. It is impossible to believe that this is the rainy season – it is just very hot & dry. I have seen one agama on a tree trunk, but just the one. With the amount of spraying, I wonder what they live on (having said that, the ants don’t appear to be affected by the spraying either & I think they are the main source of food for the lizards.
Well, that’s our news for now – fingers crossed the lost bag will arrive on Tuesday. We have parent teacher meetings on Friday & early close so hopefully we will go camping or something to get out of Luanda.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Week 21: The Highs & Lows of Returning to Luanda
Jan 4 - 11, 09
Our flights back to Luanda started with a 3am wake up call on Sunday morning for everyone in Bill’s mum’s house. We left for Manchester airport with our bags packed & as awake as is possible considering we’d had about 4 hours sleep. Tony (Bill’s step-father) very sweetly drove us to the airport, where the check-in seemed to be a straight-forward process. Although there were lots of other people there before us, the lines were orderly & check-in didn’t seem to be taking anyone an unreasonable amount of time. Ever the worrier, I asked Bill if we had to use the electronic check-in kiosks all around us. Although he didn’t think we had to, he tried to check us in that way regardless – to get a rather strange message that we had to go to the Air France check-in desk. (We were flying KLM.) Bill joined that queue, leaving me in the KLM one with both our bags. He got to the front first & much to both of our surprise, was told we could check in there.
We had our bags checked through to Luanda & got boarding passes for both Manchester – Amsterdam & the Amsterdam – Johannesburg flights. Of course, the flight left on time & before we knew it, we’d arrived in Amsterdam for our 1½ hour layover before the long-haul flight. We were both half zombies from lack of sleep & the time before we had to board passed in something of a blur. It wasn’t until we were waiting to board that we looked more closely at our boarding passes to see where we were sitting. To my surprise it was row number 2 - & I said to Bill as a joke, “Maybe we’re in business class?” He made some snide remark about how just impossible that would be, but sure enough, when we actually got on the plane, we found ourselves sitting in the nose of the plane, in business class – in seats so far apart that even Bill couldn’t touch the seats in front of us with his feet! (He has very long legs & normally his knees are jammed up against the seat in front, yet alone his feet!) The look on his feet was priceless – he looked all the world like a kid who has been let loose in a toy shop (he’s never been upgraded before). I was so worried that they would notice & tell us that a mistake had been made & send us back to cattle class – but of course that never happened, & the plane took off for our 10 hour flight & we just couldn’t believe our luck.
The flight was about as good as it gets for a long haul flight – the seats changed into practically horizontal position for sleeping (which we both did given our lack of sleep the previous night) & we could see out of BOTH sides of the plane from our seats at the same time! Initially we had cloud cover, but just as we hit the Italian Alps the clouds cleared, giving us fantastic views with amazing low light hitting the snow covered mountains & then the frosty fields once we were past the Alps. It was just stunning – we both fly so much that we’ve become quite jaded, but this was like flying for the first time again!
Our flights back to Luanda started with a 3am wake up call on Sunday morning for everyone in Bill’s mum’s house. We left for Manchester airport with our bags packed & as awake as is possible considering we’d had about 4 hours sleep. Tony (Bill’s step-father) very sweetly drove us to the airport, where the check-in seemed to be a straight-forward process. Although there were lots of other people there before us, the lines were orderly & check-in didn’t seem to be taking anyone an unreasonable amount of time. Ever the worrier, I asked Bill if we had to use the electronic check-in kiosks all around us. Although he didn’t think we had to, he tried to check us in that way regardless – to get a rather strange message that we had to go to the Air France check-in desk. (We were flying KLM.) Bill joined that queue, leaving me in the KLM one with both our bags. He got to the front first & much to both of our surprise, was told we could check in there.
We had our bags checked through to Luanda & got boarding passes for both Manchester – Amsterdam & the Amsterdam – Johannesburg flights. Of course, the flight left on time & before we knew it, we’d arrived in Amsterdam for our 1½ hour layover before the long-haul flight. We were both half zombies from lack of sleep & the time before we had to board passed in something of a blur. It wasn’t until we were waiting to board that we looked more closely at our boarding passes to see where we were sitting. To my surprise it was row number 2 - & I said to Bill as a joke, “Maybe we’re in business class?” He made some snide remark about how just impossible that would be, but sure enough, when we actually got on the plane, we found ourselves sitting in the nose of the plane, in business class – in seats so far apart that even Bill couldn’t touch the seats in front of us with his feet! (He has very long legs & normally his knees are jammed up against the seat in front, yet alone his feet!) The look on his feet was priceless – he looked all the world like a kid who has been let loose in a toy shop (he’s never been upgraded before). I was so worried that they would notice & tell us that a mistake had been made & send us back to cattle class – but of course that never happened, & the plane took off for our 10 hour flight & we just couldn’t believe our luck.
The flight was about as good as it gets for a long haul flight – the seats changed into practically horizontal position for sleeping (which we both did given our lack of sleep the previous night) & we could see out of BOTH sides of the plane from our seats at the same time! Initially we had cloud cover, but just as we hit the Italian Alps the clouds cleared, giving us fantastic views with amazing low light hitting the snow covered mountains & then the frosty fields once we were past the Alps. It was just stunning – we both fly so much that we’ve become quite jaded, but this was like flying for the first time again!
The flight went very quickly – it was dark outside by the time we crossed the equator & we arrived into Johannesburg right on time at around 10pm, & considering the circumstances, feeling quite refreshed. We had pre-booked a room in the Transfer Hotel in Jo-burg airport, as our next fight was the next morning at 7.30 & we didn’t want to spend the time travelling to a city hotel & back. Although the hotel was very convenient & we’d managed to eat, & get to bed by 11pm, the room itself was way over priced (broken shower, Ac not working, no clock etc), but we didn’t have to get up super early to be ready for queuing at the Air Namibia desk for our boarding passes for the next two flights. It was while we were there that we realised that we only had one luggage tag, not two, although the lady thought it wouldn’t be a problem as the other bag would be either plus or minus 1 from the tag we had. We got two sets of boarding passes again (all the way to Luanda) & then just had to get ourselves some breakfast & wait for boarding.
We saw several other teachers while we were waiting, but only one other was taking the same connections as us. Although we weren’t in business class again, the flight to Windhoek was half empty, so both Bill & I had a window seat (with no one next to us) & we were behind the bulkhead on the last flight, so still had plenty of leg room. I guess all that good luck was just tempting fate, because as we arrived at Luanda airport, another jumbo plane was emptying all its passengers out onto the tarmac. So, the arrival hall was just packed with people, but we found a queue that was moving reasonably fast & I was able to push my way over to the man stamping the arrival forms with the “I have seen your yellow fever vaccination card” stamp, & get both of our forms stamped. We should have known that it was just too smooth going….
The luggage hall was just chaotic – not a single trolley to be had, both conveyor belts going, but no indication of which flights the bags were from. Bill & I split up so we could each watch a different belt & over the next hour (longer?) we stood there & waited in vain for our bags to appear. When it became obvious that they weren’t there, we then had to find the lost & found office (which thankfully was open) & make our report. He told us to come back the next day (Tuesday) for the next Air Namibia flight & look again for our bags. Bill was wonderfully calm & sanguine about it all – not so me – I was mentally composing my resignation letter!
Once we finally left the airport, there were a couple of school buses to pick us up & the teachers who’d arrived on the Ethiopian Airways flight which landed after us. They got all their luggage, but we shared a bus back with the Spanish teacher who’d been in Indonesia for the holidays & his trip had been so bad (in both directions) that we felt bad complaining about what we’d gone through.
I was still feeling very down by the time we arrived home & it really took a huge effort to force myself to do some school work for the next day (School started on Tuesday not Monday because Monday was a public holiday – Martyr’s Day). Bill (in ignorance about the public holiday) went shopping – the small grocery shop around the corner was closed & the supermarket was devoid of both Kwanza (they ran out just as Bill reached the counter to change US$100) & any vegetables except for onions. Then, it took half an hour in the check-out queue! Amazingly (I couldn’t have done it) he was still upbeat when he got home (over an hour after he’d left) & spent the evening trying to cheer me up. (To compound everything, there was no internet & the power kept flickering on & off all night.)
School, of course, was fine once I was there on Tuesday morning, although a lot of kids weren’t there (around 50% attendance in most of my classes). There were also a significant number of teachers not there either – some (like Jo & Marek) were in Kenya for an IB course), others were at job fairs (like the heads of school) & still others were in strange locations around the world, stranded by lost connections & not quite sure just when they would be arriving in. (& I’m certainly not optimistic about their luggage turning up with them!).
Bill (now absolutely my hero) volunteered to go to the airport to look for our bags & I volunteered to try the supermarket again for fresh food. There still wasn’t any tomatoes or peppers (our stable veges) – just more onions, chilli peppers & that was it really. I did manage to get bread, some fruit & a few other basics, but no eggs or any fresh veges at all. At least it wasn’t an expensive shop ($50 is half to a quarter of what we usually spend).
Attendance at school stayed low all week – 67% by Wednesday & around 72% on Thursday & Friday. I hope everyone is back on Monday. Clubs started on Friday & I have 5 new girls – I have my fingers crossed they will be good.
To cut a long story short – no bags on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday! No fresh veges or eggs in the supermarket until Thursday (we got eggs, 2 tomatoes & the last 2 peppers on the shelf). On Friday, Bill came home with one bag that arrived literally just a few minutes before he checked. It was my Samsonite bag & the only damage was a spice bottle lid popped (making the bag smell nice) & one bottle of lotion leaked also. Fortunately I’d packed the liquids inside 2 plastic bags, so there was minimal damage to the contents of the bag (although everything needed the spice powder removed from it). The next flight in to check wasn’t till Sunday.
On Saturday we managed to get all the fresh food we needed to stock up the fridge again. Sunday’s trip to the airport proved fruitless, the lady at the lost & found said it may be on the flight on Monday – so 7 days later, still only 1 bag has arrived.
We had a very quiet weekend – the trip to the supermarket & out to the airport our only excursions. Bill leaves for an MYP course in Jakarta on Tuesday, so we are preparing for that!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year
Best wishes to everyone - we return to Angola and our adventures a week into the new year.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Week 20: Relaxing at Rio Longa & Flying Out
Dec 13 – 21, 08
Saturday was a quiet day at home – drying off everything that had been soaked in the flood, including all the electrical stuff. However, although one of the multiplugs worked after drying out, one didn’t & there is still no life in my laptop adaptor. Fingers are still crossed that a new adapter bought in the UK will bring my laptop to life again. Lots of people flew out for their holidays – we said goodbye to them as they left for the airport. The residential area was getting quieter by the hour!
Sunday wasn’t much busier than Saturday – I spent a couple of hours making the most of the lack of people around to try to catch photos of the birds flying around the grounds & the lizards that somehow survive the regular mosquito fogging. (Actually the big black slugs seem to survive that too). We were leaving early the next morning for our holiday at Rio Longa, so we organised breakfast & packing on Sunday evening so we would be ready to go on time.
We left for Rio Longa just after 8am on Monday morning & promptly got stuck in traffic. Our driver did a U-turn & then drove us out via the back roads & successfully managed to avoid the main traffic before we hit the main road south again. The trip was fast and easy, and when we arrived at the dock just by the Rio Longa bridge, the boat from the lodge was waiting for us already. We were taken to the lodge in a small powerboat, but the driver kept close to the banks so it was great for taking photographs – we saw a couple of goliath herons – they are such big birds & surprisingly well camouflaged in the reeds. As usual, Bill & I had reached a sharing agreement with the long lens – he would have it on the return trip as I had it on the trip in. It was a wonderful trip – we saw lots of birds & lots of purple flowers – the water hyacinth were all flowering (yes I know this is a noxious weed, but the flowers are really beautiful).
When we got to the lodge it seemed as if we were the only people staying there – we had lunch (they had got the message that we were vegetarian) and then took a kayak across the lagoon to the beach. The waves were really wild – it didn’t look particularly safe to either of us for swimming, so we took a long walk along the beach instead. Just like last time, there were hundreds of crazy crabs on the beach – running in & out of the surf. This time we didn’t see one with a feather – that obviously was a crab in thousand (or more – the beach is covered in them), but we did see a “crab of war” as two crabs were each tugging on opposite ends of a piece of dead fish skin. We saw the remains of a dead fish – almost totally stripped all the flesh of it. I can see now why whole dead fishes aren’t such a common sight on the beach – the crabs must reduce them down to bare bones in just a few hours.
After our beach walk we returned to the lodge & about 5pm we went out in the boat again – a couple of local women working a the lodge were taken up towards the village by the mouth of the river, & we came back along the banks of the mangroves looking for birds & any reptiles. Once again, no crocodiles, but we did see vultures and lots of herons & kingfishers.
Dinner was very tasty, but our solitude was gone as a big group of people had arrived in time for dinner also. Afterwards we retired to our bungalow to crash – Bill read for a bit with the headlamp (there is no electricity at all in Rio Longa, the lighting is all by candlelight).
We had planned to get up early, but it just didn’t happen. Instead we got up in time for breakfast – as we were walking to the lodge, I saw the cat (kept to keep rats away) playing with something at eh base of a palm tree. When I took a closer look, I saw it was a giant crab – the biggest land crab I’ve ever seen – it must have been close to 15 cm wide and was standing up maybe about 10 cm off the ground. Although it didn’t like the cat, it stood its ground & the cat soon got bored & left it. I took a few photos & then noticed the sand around the palms was tracked with what must be these giant crab tracks – there were a heap of them. I don’t know if they come out & walk around at night, or just very early in the morning – it was the only one we saw.
After breakfast we went out “bird stalking” in the kayak. This is something we have now perfected to a fine art – the person with the camera & long lens sits in the front of the kayak, while the other person does most of the paddling. When a bird is spotted, the paddling goes as quiet as possible & tries to steer the kayak as close to the bird as possible without disturbing it. Because the kayak is so quiet to move, this works really well for getting great shots of the bigger birds, but the little birds are always so small through the camera. We went up the side of the lagoon next to all the mangrove trees & were rewarded with seeing lots of kingfishers and bee-eaters. We even saw what we think is a “go-away bird” up on one of the palm trees. When we have gone past all the mangroves, we find a sandy bank, ground the kayak & then swap seats & do it all over again in the opposite direction. It’s a great way to spend the early morning & so cool to see so many birds up close.
When we got back from our paddling, we found Bora & Tina had arrived already – they are staying in Luanda for the whole holidays & we knew they would be coming for our second day at the resort. We hadn’t expected them so early though – they’d left Luanda about 6:30 & as a result hadn’t had any of the problems we’d struck with the traffic.
We had lunch with them & after lunch they sat and read on the veranda while we went for another paddle up the beach side of the lagoon, where we beached the kayak & then walked along the beach until we reached the headland at the south end of the beach. It was a very long walk – well over an hour to get to the rocks – which were essentially just shells stuck together with sand. We’d left our sandals in the kayak, and the sand here was burning our bare feet, so we had to retreat just meters from the actual headland. The beach is stunning – pristine clean, 2 – 3 hours to walk from one end of it to the other (at least) and not another soul on it except for us!
Although we’d taken water with us (& drank quite a bit of it) we were hot & tired when we got back to the lodge. We sat & read for the rest of the afternoon & then showered & changed for dinner. We had dinner with Tina & Bora again, it was nice company and it made us feel less “excluded” as the other guests were having a Christmas party and unwrapping presents!
We were the last to leave (we found out the next day that the party people had left early in the morning) & despite the lack of air conditioning, or even a fan, the rooms are more than cool enough for a good nights sleep. Once again though, we didn’t get up early & simply were in time for breakfast again (although we were earlier than the other two). We did the same kayak trip as the previous morning – out along the mangroves & this time we were lucky enough to see the pygmy kingfishers hiding in the papyrus – they are so small that despite their bright colours, they are really easy to overlook.
After we got back, we relaxed for the rest of the morning – reading old magazines & enjoying the breeze & the beautiful view. We had another leisurely lunch and got ourselves ready for the boat trip back to the bridge to pick up our bus back to school. Disappointingly, we had yet another crocodile free trip, although we did see several big birds.
The bus was waiting for us, so we were on the road back to Luanda very quickly. The trip takes just over 2 hours & we made good progress despite a truck having a tire blow-out just in front of us as we were going up a hill & a 10 minute break at the lunar lookout as Bora & Tina hadn’t seen it before.
It felt strange to be home – especially as we are almost the only people left living on campus. We had planned to have a big day trip the next day, but as we realised how tired we were from the long trip back, we decided to be kind to ourselves & just stay at home to pack & get ready for our flight out on Friday. We were very pleased that we’d gone to Rio Longa – the price is unbelievable, but everything is relative, & we felt that it was well worth the money to have such a relaxing get away. Certainly we couldn’t afford to do it every month, but a couple of times a year isn’t out of the question.
Thursday morning we slept very late (for us anyway) & when Bill went to cancel our trip was told that it wouldn’t have been possible anyway as there were no drivers! Just as well we hadn’t got up at 6am to go out for the day! We spent the day organising stuff we needed & just taking it pretty easy again. We are definitely in holiday mode!
Friday has to be the absolutely worst airport experience of my life. We had no water on Thursday evening & it hadn’t come back on by the morning, so we weren’t able to have showers before going to the airport. Our bus was waiting for us on time & despite some quite heavy traffic, as our route was through a busy shopping area, we made good time. We’d allowed ourselves heaps of time, so the slow trip into the airport wasn’t stressful - & it allowed us to really notice what was going on. Christmas is obviously a big thing in Luanda & we saw lots & lots of people by the side of the road with stuff to sell – either to passersby or to people in the slowly moving cars. Just to give you an idea of what was on sale – here is a list of what I saw (typical of any day I guess except for the Christmas stuff):
Saturday was a quiet day at home – drying off everything that had been soaked in the flood, including all the electrical stuff. However, although one of the multiplugs worked after drying out, one didn’t & there is still no life in my laptop adaptor. Fingers are still crossed that a new adapter bought in the UK will bring my laptop to life again. Lots of people flew out for their holidays – we said goodbye to them as they left for the airport. The residential area was getting quieter by the hour!
Sunday wasn’t much busier than Saturday – I spent a couple of hours making the most of the lack of people around to try to catch photos of the birds flying around the grounds & the lizards that somehow survive the regular mosquito fogging. (Actually the big black slugs seem to survive that too). We were leaving early the next morning for our holiday at Rio Longa, so we organised breakfast & packing on Sunday evening so we would be ready to go on time.
We left for Rio Longa just after 8am on Monday morning & promptly got stuck in traffic. Our driver did a U-turn & then drove us out via the back roads & successfully managed to avoid the main traffic before we hit the main road south again. The trip was fast and easy, and when we arrived at the dock just by the Rio Longa bridge, the boat from the lodge was waiting for us already. We were taken to the lodge in a small powerboat, but the driver kept close to the banks so it was great for taking photographs – we saw a couple of goliath herons – they are such big birds & surprisingly well camouflaged in the reeds. As usual, Bill & I had reached a sharing agreement with the long lens – he would have it on the return trip as I had it on the trip in. It was a wonderful trip – we saw lots of birds & lots of purple flowers – the water hyacinth were all flowering (yes I know this is a noxious weed, but the flowers are really beautiful).
When we got to the lodge it seemed as if we were the only people staying there – we had lunch (they had got the message that we were vegetarian) and then took a kayak across the lagoon to the beach. The waves were really wild – it didn’t look particularly safe to either of us for swimming, so we took a long walk along the beach instead. Just like last time, there were hundreds of crazy crabs on the beach – running in & out of the surf. This time we didn’t see one with a feather – that obviously was a crab in thousand (or more – the beach is covered in them), but we did see a “crab of war” as two crabs were each tugging on opposite ends of a piece of dead fish skin. We saw the remains of a dead fish – almost totally stripped all the flesh of it. I can see now why whole dead fishes aren’t such a common sight on the beach – the crabs must reduce them down to bare bones in just a few hours.
After our beach walk we returned to the lodge & about 5pm we went out in the boat again – a couple of local women working a the lodge were taken up towards the village by the mouth of the river, & we came back along the banks of the mangroves looking for birds & any reptiles. Once again, no crocodiles, but we did see vultures and lots of herons & kingfishers.
Dinner was very tasty, but our solitude was gone as a big group of people had arrived in time for dinner also. Afterwards we retired to our bungalow to crash – Bill read for a bit with the headlamp (there is no electricity at all in Rio Longa, the lighting is all by candlelight).
We had planned to get up early, but it just didn’t happen. Instead we got up in time for breakfast – as we were walking to the lodge, I saw the cat (kept to keep rats away) playing with something at eh base of a palm tree. When I took a closer look, I saw it was a giant crab – the biggest land crab I’ve ever seen – it must have been close to 15 cm wide and was standing up maybe about 10 cm off the ground. Although it didn’t like the cat, it stood its ground & the cat soon got bored & left it. I took a few photos & then noticed the sand around the palms was tracked with what must be these giant crab tracks – there were a heap of them. I don’t know if they come out & walk around at night, or just very early in the morning – it was the only one we saw.
After breakfast we went out “bird stalking” in the kayak. This is something we have now perfected to a fine art – the person with the camera & long lens sits in the front of the kayak, while the other person does most of the paddling. When a bird is spotted, the paddling goes as quiet as possible & tries to steer the kayak as close to the bird as possible without disturbing it. Because the kayak is so quiet to move, this works really well for getting great shots of the bigger birds, but the little birds are always so small through the camera. We went up the side of the lagoon next to all the mangrove trees & were rewarded with seeing lots of kingfishers and bee-eaters. We even saw what we think is a “go-away bird” up on one of the palm trees. When we have gone past all the mangroves, we find a sandy bank, ground the kayak & then swap seats & do it all over again in the opposite direction. It’s a great way to spend the early morning & so cool to see so many birds up close.
When we got back from our paddling, we found Bora & Tina had arrived already – they are staying in Luanda for the whole holidays & we knew they would be coming for our second day at the resort. We hadn’t expected them so early though – they’d left Luanda about 6:30 & as a result hadn’t had any of the problems we’d struck with the traffic.
We had lunch with them & after lunch they sat and read on the veranda while we went for another paddle up the beach side of the lagoon, where we beached the kayak & then walked along the beach until we reached the headland at the south end of the beach. It was a very long walk – well over an hour to get to the rocks – which were essentially just shells stuck together with sand. We’d left our sandals in the kayak, and the sand here was burning our bare feet, so we had to retreat just meters from the actual headland. The beach is stunning – pristine clean, 2 – 3 hours to walk from one end of it to the other (at least) and not another soul on it except for us!
Although we’d taken water with us (& drank quite a bit of it) we were hot & tired when we got back to the lodge. We sat & read for the rest of the afternoon & then showered & changed for dinner. We had dinner with Tina & Bora again, it was nice company and it made us feel less “excluded” as the other guests were having a Christmas party and unwrapping presents!
We were the last to leave (we found out the next day that the party people had left early in the morning) & despite the lack of air conditioning, or even a fan, the rooms are more than cool enough for a good nights sleep. Once again though, we didn’t get up early & simply were in time for breakfast again (although we were earlier than the other two). We did the same kayak trip as the previous morning – out along the mangroves & this time we were lucky enough to see the pygmy kingfishers hiding in the papyrus – they are so small that despite their bright colours, they are really easy to overlook.
After we got back, we relaxed for the rest of the morning – reading old magazines & enjoying the breeze & the beautiful view. We had another leisurely lunch and got ourselves ready for the boat trip back to the bridge to pick up our bus back to school. Disappointingly, we had yet another crocodile free trip, although we did see several big birds.
The bus was waiting for us, so we were on the road back to Luanda very quickly. The trip takes just over 2 hours & we made good progress despite a truck having a tire blow-out just in front of us as we were going up a hill & a 10 minute break at the lunar lookout as Bora & Tina hadn’t seen it before.
It felt strange to be home – especially as we are almost the only people left living on campus. We had planned to have a big day trip the next day, but as we realised how tired we were from the long trip back, we decided to be kind to ourselves & just stay at home to pack & get ready for our flight out on Friday. We were very pleased that we’d gone to Rio Longa – the price is unbelievable, but everything is relative, & we felt that it was well worth the money to have such a relaxing get away. Certainly we couldn’t afford to do it every month, but a couple of times a year isn’t out of the question.
Thursday morning we slept very late (for us anyway) & when Bill went to cancel our trip was told that it wouldn’t have been possible anyway as there were no drivers! Just as well we hadn’t got up at 6am to go out for the day! We spent the day organising stuff we needed & just taking it pretty easy again. We are definitely in holiday mode!
Friday has to be the absolutely worst airport experience of my life. We had no water on Thursday evening & it hadn’t come back on by the morning, so we weren’t able to have showers before going to the airport. Our bus was waiting for us on time & despite some quite heavy traffic, as our route was through a busy shopping area, we made good time. We’d allowed ourselves heaps of time, so the slow trip into the airport wasn’t stressful - & it allowed us to really notice what was going on. Christmas is obviously a big thing in Luanda & we saw lots & lots of people by the side of the road with stuff to sell – either to passersby or to people in the slowly moving cars. Just to give you an idea of what was on sale – here is a list of what I saw (typical of any day I guess except for the Christmas stuff):
- 2009 diaries
- Apples
- Babies car seat
- Balls (soccer, basket etc)
- Bananas
- Bathroom shelves
- Batteries
- Beach chairs
- Car tools
- Children’s stickers
- Christmas decorations
- Christmas trees
- Clocks
- Dog leashes & muzzles
- Electric fans
- Fairy lights
- Fake Rolex watches
- Fishing rods
- Gas bottle hose
- Ice cube trays
- Ironing board
- Irons (not the same person)
- Large mat
- Large size calculators
- Mangoes
- Men’s jackets
- Multi-plugs
- Music CDs (probably pirates)
- Netting (for screens)
- Newspapers
- Paintings
- Pillows
- Popcorn
- Portable barbeque
- Pots for plants
- Rat traps
- Remote controls
- Steering wheel covers
- Toilet rolls
- TowelsWooden masks
We arrived at the airport just after 8:30 am (for a 2:30 flight) & it was already totally packed in the outer section where you have to queue & wait until your flight is ready to check-in. There were a total of 5 flights listed, but we couldn’t find a line for our flight – we waited for about an hour, during which time nobody seemed to go into the airport proper, & it just got more & more crowded. The tension just continued to mount as people were being held back & several flights got delayed. After about another hour, Bill decided to move us up to the front, where we were eventually able to push our way into the main airport when the security people weren’t looking. It was just completely crazy – people were screaming to be let in, the security staff weren’t letting anyone in despite how close it was getting in to the real check-in times & there was a big group of people like us that were just sneaking in anyway.
Once we got into the main part of the airport, our flight wasn’t listed at any of the check-in desks, so we ate our packed lunch (this is an airport with virtually no food facilities) & when our flight finally came up on the check-in screens, we were about 10th in line in the queue. You’d think that it would be almost over by this time, but each person who went up to check in took at least 30 minutes! There was no air-conditioning in the airport, the whole place was completely packed, & people were still trying to push in. It got really nasty – by this time almost everyone has been in a queue for about 4 hours (including children & babies) & there is no end in sight despite being so close to the check-in counter. We stood in that queue for over 2 hours before we finally got to the desk. Although we were Ok for time, it was obvious that the flight was going to be delayed. We asked about our connecting flights & they told us the flight from Windhoek would be held for us & that they would contact KLM to let them know that we would be arriving in Johannesburg late. The good thing was that they were able to check our luggage all the way through to Manchester, so when we finally left the counter, we were feeling reasonably optimistic. That was until we saw the queue for immigration – it was at least 4 people wide & stretched half way around the airport. It took about another hour & a half to get to the front of that queue to get our passports stamped & put our bags through the x-ray machines. By this time Bill’s shirt was completely soaked though – you could hardly see a dry spot on it - & our patience had almost worn out.
The scene in the departure lounge wasn’t much better than what we’d left, except that we weren’t in a queue – no sign of our flight boarding, so we just had to sit (on our cabin bags) and wait it out. People were smoking everywhere, the 8am flight that had been delayed still hadn’t left, and neither had any of the other flights for the day. We finally got on the plane about 6:30pm – we’d been at the airport for 10 hours!
Typically, Bill & I hadn’t been given seats together, but the flight to Windhoek is relatively quick & we were looking at the time & trying to calculate if we could still make our KLM connection in Jo-burg. We thought that if we left really quickly on the Jo-burg flight, we might just make it, as it didn’t leave until midnight. However, when we got into the Windhoek airport, there was a lady calling for all passengers transferring to Johannesburg. All my initial optimism was crushed – they’d let the flight go & we had to stay the night in Windhoek & they’d put us on the 11 am flight in the morning – well & truly too late for our connection!
We went through a special fast track lane in immigration & then collected our bags (at least they didn’t get lost like some people’s) & proceeded to the passenger services. The initial lady we spoke with had told us that they would help us arrange new flights for the connections we’d lost, but when we actually got to the window, the women only wanted our details to confirm our Air Namibia flight in the morning & wasn’t prepared to do anything about our onward flights. That’s when it got nasty – we were tired & had had a hell of a day & this was literally the last straw. Bill demanded to see the manager, & after rather too long, he came out to give us the same story – nothing they could do, wait for tomorrow morning to try to get onward flights etc etc. Bill got angrier & angrier, I got more & more upset, we knew that with it being so close to Christmas, the chances of getting seats on another flight weren’t going to be good & neither of us wanted to leave it unresolved until the next day. Eventually, the manager took our tickets & offered to ring our travel agent (who is based in Namibia) to try to get new flights for us. That was the breakthrough we’d been waiting for – we didn’t have a phone that worked & couldn’t do it ourselves. After about a 5 minute wait, he came out again to say that the travel agent thought she could get us on the KLM flight the next day & would get back to us in ten minutes or so with a confirmation. It was a long ten minutes, but eventually she rang back (this was about 9:30 at night) to say we were both confirmed on KLM the next night, all the way to Manchester!
After that, we were taken in to the city (a 50 minute drive) to a hotel for the night. The hotel dinner buffet had stayed open for us to eat (there was a total of 21 people who’d missed their flight – including some who’d been bumped off the Cape Town flight despite reconfirming their flights). The food wasn’t great, but at least we were able to eat something as it had been a very long time since anyone had had anything to eat. Bill rang his mum to let her know we’d be arriving 24 hours late (hopefully) & then we both crashed for the night. Not a good day at all!
Saturday morning we had breakfast & then were transferred back to the hotel. The trip to the airport gave us a taste of how beautiful the countryside is in Namibia – we will definitely come back for a longer trip! Check in was a breeze (no comparison at all to the previous day’s experience) & they were able to check our bags all the way to Manchester again (a big relief). It was simply a matter of waiting for our flight, which left spot on time & then, once we arrived at Johannesburg, spending the day at the airport waiting for our midnight flight. Although it was a huge waste of time (we couldn’t pick up our boarding passes until 8:30 pm & therefore still a little stressful as we didn’t know for sure that we’d be on the flight) the airport has enough facilities that a long wait is bearable.
Queuing for our boarding pass was a bit stressful as the line was very slow moving. Interestingly, almost everyone in front of us had also come from Luanda & had similar tales of chaos to our own experience. But, once we got to the desk, we got our boarding passes (for both flights), our luggage details were processed & everything finalised. We were very relieved & then it was just a matter of waiting the last 3 hours or so until boarding.
The flight to Amsterdam was about 10 – 12 hours & all though the night. After the previous 2 days that we’d been though, we both were able to sleep quite a bit during the flight. Once we got to Amsterdam, Bill was able to ring his mum & confirm that they’d be able to pick us up at Manchester.
So, after more than 48 hours since leaving home to go the airport, we finally arrived in Manchester (with all our luggage) & we were able to put the whole experience behind us & start to look forward to getting ready for Christmas.
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