Safaris and many more adventures in South Africa

[kermatu]

Great stuff Matt and Phil. Enjoying the report.

 

[JohnM]

I tried a large eisbein (like a pork hock) with veges, which was delicious and it came to a grand total of 115 rand, or about $12.

View attachment 52035

Hey, Kermatu, isn't there something familiar-looking about that !

 

[Flying mermaid]

Good response to a sometimes emotive subject. History often gets a big blur from the political glasses we wear. Soweto is an abbreviation for just the point you are making and that is quite acceptable to refer to.

If you are interested in ANC history, they camped in Lusaka during their struggle. A city not forgotten by the majority.

And history is often sanitised by time. Politics is something that Abbott and Shorten do - it doesn't cut it when referring to huge human rights violations that took place in countries like South Africa. I once was walking through Joubert park in Joburg in the early 70s and an old black man was on his knees gardening while his supervisor stood over yelling at him. I stopped and told him not to talk to him like that he was a man not an animal. The supervisor turned round and kicked the man in the back and sent him sprawling. He turned to me and grinned and said - see he is just an animal. I walked on, as I was just making things worse.

Steve Biko was an architect of the Black Consciousness movement (and was murdered for it). One of the planks was to use the term "black" rather than "non-white" to describe all persons of colour. It generated pride that they were people and not a "non" anything.

The thing that I like most about going back to South Africa, is that people look me in the face - no more averted eyes or dropped heads or fear. Anyway - sorry Phil and Matt - no blame to you and I will stop ruining your terrific report.

 

[kermatu]

Hey, Kermatu, isn't there something familiar-looking about that !

Yes indeed. Though I find the lack of suitable accompanying beverage rather disturbing.

 

[JohnM]

Yes indeed. Though I find the lack of suitable accompanying beverage rather disturbing.

You mean a LARGE suitable bevvy... or two .

 

[Sprucegoose]

I seem to recall the pilot saying that we would fly as far as 65 degrees south.

On my 32 trips, we rarely went past 65 deg although hugged it on a few occasions. surreal in many ways.

 

[Mattg]

We finished the drive to Port Elizabeth yesterday morning before dropping the car off at the airport.

Port Elizabeth is a fairly small airport, though despite what it says on the Qantas/oneworld website there is in fact a lounge that business class customers/frequent flyers can use.

Some pics of the airport - BA check-in:



The departure gates:



We headed upstairs to the Bidvest lounge which was very quiet at first but had just about reached capacity by the time our flight was ready to board. There was a reasonable range of food and drinks, though no toilets (or announcements!) in the lounge.

 

[Mattg]

Our flight was about an hour late due to the late arrival of the operating aircraft. When the plane finally arrived, they seemed to be hurrying everyone onto the plane in order to get away ASAP.

Flight 3: BA6321 Port Elizabeth - Durban
Boeing 737-400 | ZS-OAA
Departure time: 12:15
Arrival time: 13:30



We booked business class (aka. "Club") for this sector as it wasn't that much more expensive than economy.

The business class configuration was a little weird. There was a 2-3 configuration with 3 seats on the right. There were also kind of 3 seats on the left but the middle seats weren't being used. We were seated in row 2 on the left, and the middle seat was missing. Literally.



The plane did seem quite old and worn out. Which is not surprising as it was 22 years old.

We were offered a rushed pre-takeoff drink, which was swiftly cleared the second I consumed the last drop.

After take-off we were offered hot towels that weren't hot, followed by a choice of drink and lunch. There were four different wines to choose from and I enjoyed the one I chose.

There were two choices for lunch - both cold. One was a cous cous salad, and another was a chicken dish. We both had the chicken, which was tasty but IMHO slightly underwhelming for a business class meal.



The service was friendly, but I wasn't blown away. There were no personal greetings or anything beyond what was required from the crew.

Before we even began our descent the seat belt sign came on and it remained on until we reached the gate in Durban.

As you've probably picked up by now, I found the whole "Club" experience slightly underwhelming. It wasn't bad by any means, but the seat wasn't the best (as well as the strange gap between the seats, my headrest was broken) and the service was just good - nothing more.

There wasn't really anything to separate the experience from that of a good economy flight. And there should have been.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad flight. I would fly them again in business, but only if the price was right.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Having travelled previously on BA/Comair on 8 occasions in the last two years, I would have to say that the gloss is starting to wear off from BA/comair , particularly reflecting back on previous sectors flown in J.
Normally a third meal choice is offered for those in J on BA/Comair, which I noticed on this occasion wasn't offered.
I would certainly concur with Matt's comments that Comair have some very old aircraft on the BA branded aircraft these days ( unlike their LCC subsidiary Kulula which has newer aircraft) .
I would differ from Matt's comments on the service on BA/Comair & would still find them offering a far better soft product than their larger competitor South African Airways.
I felt the FA's were engaging, although certainly not to the extent of Qantas FA's back home.

The BA/Comair lounge offering known as the "slow lounge" in the ports of JNB/CPT/DUR are certainly of a very good standard and I would say beat pretty much any domestic Qantas J lounge and a great reason to choose BA/Comair over that of its larger competitor.

Despite some slight Criticism of ageing aircraft, I would have no problem booking & flying BA/Comair again & often some quite reasonable status credit earn v $ spent can be had if one does their research ( although certainly nothing like the runs that can be had in the LOTFAP)

But needless to say that, Both BA/Comair & South African do suffer from having a domestic fleet of some very old aircraft & that was certainly noted on our last sector.

 

[Imw]

Enjoying report and pics

 

[Imw]

If course kulula is the most entertaining flight we have ever been on! Renowned for their humour!

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

If course kulula is the most entertaining flight we have ever been on! Renowned for their humour! View attachment 52112View attachment 52113

Love the pictures!

Kulula are certainly very creative with the aircraft livery!

 

[RooFlyer]

We have now left Cape Town and begun driving the Garden Route. We'll eventually arrive in Port Elizabeth, where we'll drop off our hire car and fly on to Durban.

<snip>

Just some observations about driving in South Africa. Firstly, there are a lot of speed cameras. Secondly, the drivers seem quite polite. Slow vehicles will usually pull off to the side of the road to let you pass. And if you do that for another vehicle it will usually flash its hazard lights as a way of saying "thank you".

Just caught up with this TR and am enjoying it very much.

I visited SA a number of times during the apartheid era and hired a car several times. Vividly remember the instructions from the Avis guy - "When you pull up behind a car at the r-r-robots (traffic lights), leave a car length in front of you, so if some-one tries to car-jack you, you can pull out and speed off. " :shock:

 

[Imw]

Love the pictures!

Kulula are certainly very creative with the aircraft livery!

The FA are also hilarious in their routine, could be professional comedians!!!!

 

[Flying mermaid]

Just caught up with this TR and am enjoying it very much.

I visited SA a number of times during the apartheid era and hired a car several times. Vividly remember the instructions from the Avis guy - "When you pull up behind a car at the r-r-robots (traffic lights), leave a car length in front of you, so if some-one tries to car-jack you, you can pull out and speed off. " :shock:

It is also OK to drive through a red robot if concerned about a car jacking.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Our flight was about an hour late due to the late arrival of the operating aircraft. When the plane finally arrived, they seemed to be hurrying everyone onto the plane in order to get away ASAP.

Flight 3: BA6321 Port Elizabeth - Durban
Boeing 737-400 | ZS-OAA
Departure time: 12:15
Arrival time: 13:30

View attachment 52110

We booked business class (aka. "Club") for this sector as it wasn't that much more expensive than economy.

The business class configuration was a little weird. There was a 2-3 configuration with 3 seats on the right. There were also kind of 3 seats on the left but the middle seats weren't being used. We were seated in row 2 on the left, and the middle seat was missing. Literally.

View attachment 52109

The plane did seem quite old and worn out. Which is not surprising as it was 22 years old.

We were offered a rushed pre-takeoff drink, which was swiftly cleared the second I consumed the last drop.

After take-off we were offered hot towels that weren't hot, followed by a choice of drink and lunch. There were four different wines to choose from and I enjoyed the one I chose.

There were two choices for lunch - both cold. One was a cous cous salad, and another was a chicken dish. We both had the chicken, which was tasty but IMHO slightly underwhelming for a business class meal.

View attachment 52111

The service was friendly, but I wasn't blown away. There were no personal greetings or anything beyond what was required from the crew.

Before we even began our descent the seat belt sign came on and it remained on until we reached the gate in Durban.

As you've probably picked up by now, I found the whole "Club" experience slightly underwhelming. It wasn't bad by any means, but the seat wasn't the best (as well as the strange gap between the seats, my headrest was broken) and the service was just good - nothing more.

There wasn't really anything to separate the experience from that of a good economy flight. And there should have been.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad flight. I would fly them again in business, but only if the price was right.

The Comair planes are old, but that is the worst I have seen! Generally the 2 x 3 config, is just a real 2 on the left! I find service on Comair way better than SAA and their SLOW lounges are excellent - SAA J lounges left me very underwhelmed.

PS - be careful in Durban - lovely people but less safe than the Cape. Florida Road has some nice restaurants.

 

[flightobserver]

Just caught up to this TR, and really enjoying it so far - looking forward to the next installment. Hope you're having a blast Mattg and Cool Cat Phil!

 

[Mattg]

Just backtracking a little, I think I forgot to talk about Jeffreys Bay. Unfortunately we didn't get much time there as we arrived just after sunset and left the next morning. But it just so happens that there was a major surfing competition taking place there, with some of the world's biggest surfing names in town.

We were very happy with our accommodation. We stayed at a B&B called A1 Kynaston which was very nice and not expensive.

This was one of the beaches at Jeffreys Bay early in the morning:

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Also worth observing that we experienced No problems with the booking here in Jeffrey's Bay & was booked the exact same method via Qantas Hotels.
I believe Santos Express in Mossel Bay was a rogue operator.

 

[Mattg]

Moving on, and from Durban's airport we drove straight to the Drakensberg Mountains, about 3 hours to the north.

The airport carpark and roads going in & out seemed to be new - which is good, except they were so new that our map was out of date and we took a number of wrong turns. But once we worked out where we were going it was a reasonably pleasant and uneventful drive.

It was Phil's idea to visit the Drakensberg mountains. Neither of us had been there before but we'd seen some pretty spectacular footage of the mountains.

We stayed two nights at a lodge called the Inkosana Lodge. This was quite remote, at the foot of the Drakensberg mountains and close to the border with Lesotho.

This doesn't seem to be a destination that many, if any Australians visit. We did not see any other Aussies there, and everyone we spoke to said that they don't often get Australian tourists. There were however a lot of Dutch people and mountaineering enthusiasts from various other places in Europe.

We had one full day there. The plan was to do a bit of hiking, but it didn't quite go to plan. Unfortunately Phil injured his foot last week. He's still able to walk, and is recovering well, but a long hike was out of the question. The weather was also an issue. Visibility was very poor at times and it rained on and off.

Nonetheless we braved the rain and walked around the foot of the mountains for about an hour.

Some of the scenery:





We had to park at Monk's Cowl, at the foot of the mountains, then pay a few dollars each to enter on foot. Many of the other tourists were going on much longer hikes, but not us.

After our tough hike (not) we had lunch, which was delayed a bit as the local supermarket was experiencing a random blackout.

The local shops:



After that we decided to go for a drive through the nearest village and out to another part of the mountains. The scenery was fantastic once was the weather cleared. The mountainous terrain, combined with the atmospheric climate, reminded Phil of the Scottish Highlands of all things.