Day 0 … and off we go

Wednesday 18 September

Today we began our Southern Africa journey. We had. Domestic flight booked with Virgin to Perth with a connecting flight to Johannesburg with South African Airways. However we didn’t depart Melbourne until 6.45 pm so had the whole day at home to do the last minute jobs, have a visit from Kim, spend time chatting with Han and also complete a jigsaw puzzle before George arrived to pick us up.

George arrived in the fanciest car I have ever been in … and the only one in Australia. It was a Genesis which is the luxury brand of Hyundai … and came with sunroof, automatic blinds for the rear seats, heat seating and cooling, seat recline … pretty dang snazzy!

Checked in safely at Melbourne with our luggage going through to Johannesburg … so we grabbed a bite to eat (cheaper than buying something on the plate) and then boarded our flight. Fairly smooth flight with the expected turbulence as we arrived into Perth (that Fremantle Doctor). Easy transition from domestic to international, seats allocated for our onward flight, a glass of wine to truly kick the trip off and then onboard for the 11 hour flight.

Again … smooth flying, lovely food, wonderful service, time for some movie or serial watching before we settled in for a sleep. Ian slept ok whilst I did my usual restless tossing as I struggle to find a comfortable position (but that is the drawback of international travel when you live in Australia … all flights are long).

Arrived into Johannesburg on time so made our way through the usual protocols … passport control and luggage collection (surprisingly no quarantine or customs security) and headed off to check in to our next flight to Victoria Falls.

So having arrived in South Africa and received our stamp in the passport when then went through passport control again to “leave” (but we will be back). So passport control and then security and we are airside again. As we have 5 hours to kill before our flight we had pre purchased access to a lounge so we are now sitting in the Sholongolo Lounge … having showered and about to eat something from the extensive buffet on offer (probably too early for a champagne!)