Cutting It Fine

The Zimanga team insist on doing a final pre-breakfast game drive. While I appreciate the "value for money" focus, I am fretting slightly about whether that then makes the timing for the rest of the day a bit tight. It all seems to be based on "it’s a 3 hour drive back to the airport" when the drive up, which was slightly shorter, took a bit over 4…

The game drive starts as a bit of a bust. We spend an hour driving around with absolutely nothing to show for it, not even a few zebra or buffalo. However there’s then a message on the radio that the female lions have been spotted near the river. We head down there, and find the two lionesses wandering around and playing. They suddenly run across our field of view, but before our group has had time to sort out the right lens and settings, and I’m lucky to get a couple of decent "grab shots".

After that the lionesses cross the river and disappear into the bush. We are happy we’ve ticked another encounter off the list, and return to the lodge.

I decide the best plan is to finish my packing, then have breakfast, and return to my room for a quick shower before setting off on the return journey. Well we all know what they say about the best laid plans. The first two steps work well, but I get back to my room, disrobe, and then find that while I was at breakfast a very keen maid has been in and taken away all the towels! Foiled again!

Final formalities complete at 10am we board the jeeps for the final time to drive to the gate, and board the bus back to Durban. At the half-way point I ask the guide whether we’re on time, and there’s a slightly embarrassed pause. Apparently a medium-sized bus towing a trailer with the luggage is limited to 100 kph, and the "three hours to the airport" figure is based on a normal car. So it is going to be tight.

Even though the roads are clear and we only have one very brief comfort stop, we arrive with less than an hour to our flights to Johannesburg, and have to almost run through check-in and security. The flight itself is fine, although much busier than the one I came out on.

Once at Jo’burg there’s more confusion. Some of those affected by the BA cancellation are getting contradictory information about flight times and terminals. Mark and I are on the same Virgin flight back to London, but have different flight times printed on our documentation, so I end up with an extra couple of hours for "retail opportunities", and have to re-arrange my taxi. Finally, as usual I end on a bus to get to the terminal at Heathrow. At least I’m back safe and sound.

It’s nice to go travelling, but it’s nice to come home.