Well, here I am (finally !) blogging from the South of the African continent after many travel mishaps & adventures along the way ! (I should know by now, that things rarely go according to plan in Africa, 'eh ?!)
To cut a long story short, our flight out of Tanzania to Kenya was cancelled without notice. We sat at the airport from 4.30 am until 9.30 am and not ONE person representing the airline (Precision Air - and I will name them and shame them here, because their service is shocking and a jolly poor advertisement for Tanzania) appeared to tell any of the passengers what was happening. We were basically left to our own devices, & each one of us had connecting flights out of Kenya which we missed.
We eventually got ourselves onto a later flight to Kenya (on an old 'plane which had some of the arm rests strapped with tin/aliminium foil and covered with tape, a single filthy toilet on board & were served cake and peanuts as an 'alternative' breakfast - great service, hey ?) & of course by the time we arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, we had missed our connection to Johannesburg.
THUMBS UP to Kenya Airways whose staff were courteous, professional & efficient and sorted out the mess which Precision Air had made, despite the fact that it had nothing to do with them. They immediately booked us on a flight out to Johannesburg later that night, booked my daughter and I (along with a South African couple who were also on the same flight as us) into a 5 star hotel for the day, complete with complimentary meals, drinks, airport shuttle service and phonecalls. On arrival at the hotel we were treated like VIP guests in a luxury suite and were able to sleep, shower etc before our flight out that night.
It was not an easy day for us, I am over 8 month's pregnant, travelling with a 4 year old and lots of hand luggage & stuck in a busy African city alone and my poor husband behind in Tanzania was beside himself, he was actually trying to get a flight out himself so that he could be with us to help us and protect us (!!) and I told him not to be silly, we would be just fine. He was terrified I'd go into early labour or something with all the stress, but I was more angry than anything and there's no way this baby is coming until we're reunited with him in a couple of weeks anyway !
We arrived in Johannesburg in the early hours of Sunday morning - utterly exhausted and now with the added worry of getting from the airport to the house we've rented safely, as Johannesburg is the crime capital and it is never safe to be out on the roads at that time of the morning, but my parents were there to meet my daughter & I, and we made it 'home' safe and sound !
Phew ! We are so glad to be here safely now, although quite exhausted by all the adventures & I have been catching up on a lot of sleep. Just finding my feet now & settling into new routines here, and I will soon be back to post on our adventures in Nairobi (with photos of the hotel) and some photo's of our new home for the next 2 months or so.
Thanks so much to everyone for the comments (which I'll respond to soon) & emails, I know that many of you were waiting to hear that I'd arrived here safely so thought that I should just to a QUICK blog post to bring you all up to speed. (My Mum said to me "A quick blog post ? But Lynda, you can never write a quick blog post as you always have so much to say !" ha ha !!!!)
I'll be back soon ...... ;)
