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Saturday, November 24, 2012

In transit from East to South Africa

 

Lake Victoria by day

 The Tilapia Hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria
 Lake Victoria by night

After spending the night in Mwanza, Grant and I caught the early morning flight to Dar Es Salaam on Friday. Arriving in the city mid-morning (even on the day before the weekend) was a treat traffic-wise. Normally, when Mohammed our taxi collects us late in the afternoon, we spend the better part of three hours grid-locked with thousands of other commuters all with the same idea (that of getting to your destination for the evening!) Today we weaved through the streets with ease and were booked into our hotel by 11.30am.
The view of the Indian Ocean from our hotel room

It is as pretty as the picture suggests

Tomorrow morning Mohammed collects us at 4.30, takes us through the deserted streets of Dar es Salaam to the airport (*sigh* why does it feel as if we're always in transit? LOL!), we board the 6.35 flight bound for South Africa. Four hours of flying, minus an hour time-difference and we land at Oliver Tambo Airport, Johannesburg at 10.30. Give or take between ten and forty -five minutes to clear customs, we collect our luggage and head for the domestic departures way across in another terminal.  

Once we've checked our luggage into the Johannesburg/ Bloemfontein flight, we normally only have a fifteen - minute wait before we board the smaller plane bound for home.

All things being equal, we should land in Bloemfontein by 12.30 on Saturday where our son, Angus, daughter-in-law, Amanda and our grandchildren will meet us and take us home to Marquard. 

I hope you're all having a great weekend. Speak to you later from our home in Marquard.

6 comments:

  1. Wow! What a trip. I can only hope to see Lake Victoria in a dream or your blog. Have a wonderful time with your family.

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  2. Beautiful photos, Jo. I hope your trip was as peaceful and tranquil as the photos suggest. The palm trees remind me of Mombasa, Kenya which of course is on the same oceanfront as Dar. Is it just as humid in Dar es Salaam? I'm hoping to meet the little family from Tanz. who live here if they accept my offer for dinner mid-Dec. If not, it will wait until the New Year. Blessings. xx

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  3. I'd love to see Lake Victoria. It looks beautiful. The seaside hotel was a nice place to stay. Safe trip home.

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  4. Looking forward to your visit.

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  5. Seems that going at different times will make this a nice journey to home.

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  6. Just came across your blog. I lived in Mwadui for a while, and still visit Tanzania on a regular basis. Cool blog.

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Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to leave a comment. I appreciate your feedback. Jo