Flying South
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe - Day 7
The traveling Baxter's made their way south to Zimbabwe. Alarms set EARLY, James picked us up and took us back to Kigali International Airport where we were reunited with our drone. During his stint in drone jail he bulked up a bit and got some prison tats. When planning this trip, I could not find a flight that went directly to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe from Kigali, Rwanda. The flights I remember seeing flew all the way down to South Africa before flying back up which took forever. I found a more direct way, by flying Rwandair to Harare, Zimbabwe and then flying FastJet to Victoria Falls. This was the first time on all of our trips that I had to book flights like that. This also meant that we had to fully exit the airport (customs, passport control) and pick up our bags before turning around and checking our bags into the next flight and going back through security. Interestingly, that part all worked out smoothly. The problem we had was that there were two FastJet flights from Harare to Victoria Falls, an early one at 8 AM and ours at 4 PM. It turned out that there were mechanical problems with the plane and the pilot cancelled the 8 AM flight after a test flight. The confusion about our flight started as one of the airport staff said they were all cancelled for the day. I asked to clarify and was told that our flight was a different plane, that they just meant that for the folks who were on the 8 AM flight there were no other options that day as our flight was fully booked. We went up to the counter to try to check in and were told that we couldn't check in until 2 PM. No problem, we went and got lunch and killed some time. At 2 PM we returned to a new staff member sitting at the desk and he said we had to wait until representative of FastJet showed up. Again no problem, we stepped out of line and took a seat. Then at approximately 2:00:01 PM everyone jumped into line, including people from the first flight, and were being processed by the same guy who had just told us we couldn't check in. A gentleman who was standing in front of us informed us that everyone in front of him was from the first flight and that they were supposed to wait until everyone with actual tickets for the 4 PM flight had checked in, but they obviously weren't waiting. This added a bit of stress, but soon enough we were checked in and through security again.
This is about the time things started to fall to pieces. Firstly, there was a sliding door at the gate which was broken. And every time someone entered or exited (which was 476 times before we boarded) we enjoyed a 'nails on the chalkboard' screech. Our boarding time came and went with no plane and no information. As people started to get anxious, we finally got an update. The plane scheduled for the 4 PM flight that we were told about this morning was rerouted to another flight and the plane with mechanical issues was reassigned to our flight. They were still working on the plane. At about the time we were supposed to take off, we learned that the pilot was performing another test flight of the plane. After discussing how conflicted we were about if we would rather they clear this particular plane or just take another flight tomorrow with another airline, the plane rolled up to the gate. It sat there for almost another hour before we finally got the all clear to board.
On the other side of the flight, our poor driver had waited for us for our almost two hours to drive us the short twenty minute drive to Ilala Lodge. He gave us some information about the falls itself and about the town. After a short tour, we were checking in and the travel day was done! After a very welcoming greeting we were asked if it was our honeymoon (we actually still get this a fair amount so thought nothing of it). We told them no and that we were actually celebrating our five year anniversary. After arriving to out room we see a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket (more like water bucket as were over two hours late) with a note that said "Congratulations!" Hmmmm.. we began to wonder if the Safari Specialist we had used had maybe fibbed and said it was our honeymoon. But before we had any time to rest we were off to a complimentary three course dinner! Wow-wee! Upon arrival we were greeted by a young woman who appeared to be some sort of manager and immediately asked if it was our honeymoon. By this point we were seriously regretting outing ourselves as non-honeymooners, but were already committed. After a brief and awkward conversation she sat us at our table and moved on. After a delicious dinner of warthog and steak we were off to bed.
Milestone:
18th Country we have been to
