AFRICA WINS AGAIN

Nothing is easy in Africa.

We took a taxi (at a cost of $20) to the airport for our flight to Cape Town only to discover upon arrival that our flight was not departing from Livingstone Airport in Zambia, but rather from Victoria Falls Airport in Zimbabwe, just over the nearby border. We made a mad dash by taxi ($30) to the border, where we were dumped with our bags. We signed out of Zambia and grabbed another taxi ($10) through the 2-mile no man’s land between the two countries. We were once again let out of the taxi (with our bags) at the Zim border, signed in to Zimbabwe ($60 for two visas), and then, bags in tow, grabbed yet another taxi to the airport($30). In about 20 minutes, we finally arrived, and barely made it in time for our flight. We were charged for overweight bags ($40), but were at least bumped up to Business Class as all economy seats were taken.

We were starving. But the airport shelves were bare – completely, horribly bare. Except for ½ bottle of scotch and a couple of cans of soda the bar was empty. The “Duty Free” shop had 3 bottles of perfume and a couple of tourist knickknacks – everything, was the same price - $10. Yosy managed to find the only bag of potato chips, apparently in the entire country, in a kiosk that pretended to sell food. It was all they had.

Thank God for Business Class. As the only travelers in the front of the British Airways plane, we were served all kinds of good things – fresh salad, cheese, (CHEESE! Haven’t seen real cheese in 6 weeks), chocolate, crackers, dried fruits. Gourmet dining. Everything tastes so delicious.

But the inconveniences we suffered were all worth it because we saw Victoria Falls (“The Smoke that Thunders”) from the air. The mist was shooting up hundreds of feet into the sky. It was hard to know where the water smoke ended and the clouds began. The Falls are massive, and I now believe that the most powerful thing on earth is water.

We have only 1 ½ hours in Johannesburg to get our luggage, pass through immigration and customs, and make it to our gate for the flight to Cape Town. I’m quickly losing confidence that things will go as planned today.