TR: Namibia, South Africa and Israel - A lengthy journey

[Daver6]

I had the pumpkin tortellini for dinner with sage and butter. Pretty good

Coming in to land at JNB

 

[Daver6]

We spent the night at hthe Tsogo Sun by the airport. Part of the Southern Sun group. While you can walk to the hotel from the airport, it seemed a little convoluted and they provide a free shuttle bus that runs every 20 minutes. Line of site, its probably only 500 metres from the arrivals hall. Bus trip was less than 5 minutes.

The place is clean and room is decent size. Probably a 4 star hotel. Room rate is about $150/night. If you do stay here, sign up for free to the loyalty program as you get a slightly better rate. We had a casual dinner at the bar downstairs. Dinner for two including a couple of large beers came in at under $25. Room service rates seemed pretty cheap too.

Next it's the BA flight to Windhoek with a night there in the Hilton.

 

[Daver6]

View of Sydney Harbour departing yesterday morning
[video=youtube;7JX0hkb5NCw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JX0hkb5NCw&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[love_the_life]

Dave was it a full dinner service or the silly supper (choice of one small plate)? Interested as we are on 63 in a few months.

 

[Daver6]

Dave was it a full dinner service or the silly supper (choice of one small plate)? Interested as we are on 63 in a few months.

Was choice of one main plate plus dessert. The tortellini pictured earlier was my supper. There was also a salad. There is no way you'll go hungry. Midway (about 4 hours after lunch) we were feeling hungry so ordered a couple of the small plates from the lunch menu. Crew were the best I've had I have to say. Nothing was too much trouble.

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>
On a tangent, I bought myself some new headphones prior to this trip. I previously used Audio Technica ATH-ANC7b noise cancelling headphones. These are over the ear, closed domes. I've had them about 5 years and been really happy with them. Excellent value for money. Pretty comfortable, excellent sound quality and should the AAA battery run down, still work. The downside for me was their bulk. They come in a carry case but they don't fold up. I decided I wanted something smaller.

I eventually decided on the Sennheiser CXC-700 in ear noise cancelling headphones. They retail for about $300 in Australia. Luckily my brother happened to be heading to the US for work and managed to buy some, delivered to his hotel for just over US$100. Add on another US$12 to post to me, I had a bargain.

I love how small the little pouch is. They are comfortable to wear and do pretty good effort at noise cancellation. Sound quality is pretty good too. Overall, the Audio Technica ones probably provide slightly better noise isolation and sound, I'm likely to stick with these due to how compact they are.

Just catching up - liking it . I used to carry Bose over-ear version until I got the in-ear jobs a year or so ago. I reckon they do 75-80% of the over-ear ones and are sooooo much more convenient to carry around.

Also, how do you embed your videos here? I guess you have to upload them some where, then link via the tools along the top?

 

[love_the_life]

Was choice of one main plate plus dessert. The tortellini pictured earlier was my supper. There was also a salad. There is no way you'll go hungry. Midway (about 4 hours after lunch) we were feeling hungry so ordered a couple of the small plates from the lunch menu. Crew were the best I've had I have to say. Nothing was too much trouble.

We've done the same flight before but there has been a bit of a shift in the meals on QF flights and our last flight out of SIN was totally underwhelming so thought I would check on your experience. Thanks.

 

[Daver6]

Just catching up - liking it . I used to carry Bose over-ear version until I got the in-ear jobs a year or so ago. I reckon they do 75-80% of the over-ear ones and are sooooo much more convenient to carry around.

Also, how do you embed your videos here? I guess you have to upload them some where, then link via the tools along the top?

Video is uploaded to youtube. Then use the video embed tool and just stick in the youtube URL.

 

[Daver6]

Sitting in the SLOW lounge awaiting my flight to Windhoek. A few words on the lounge shortly.

The flight is operated by by BA (Comair). I was slightly confused when all my ticketing suggested terminal B (the domestic terminal). Turns out you check-in at terminal B but depart from terminal A. The two terminals are connected and the walk isn't far at all. At terminal B you go through the security check and immigration.

I was directed at check-in to use the SLOW lounge. I'm unclear if this is the general OW lounge or not though. I suspect not given I think QF use some other lounge and Qatar the Bidvest lounge. Either way, reviews seemed to suggest this is the best and I can see why. It isnt a large lounge, but not tiny either. It has a bit of an African feel to it. Barista coffee available. Plenty of fresh food, a selection of wines via Enomatic wine dispenser. There is also a small menu with various options available to order too.

 

[Imw]

We used the SLOW lounge when connecting domestic and the shogolo ? Lounge when connection jnternational(also flew Syd jnb then flew comair return to capetown

 

[Daver6]

Some pics of the SLOW lounge

 

[Daver6]

The food was of excellent quality

 

[Daver6]

There were a couple of little private rooms available with a bed and large TV. Brilliant idea! Apologies for the poor quality of the photos.

 

[love_the_life]

Doh! On first look I thought SLOW lounge had something to do with speed

 

[Flying mermaid]

Was choice of one main plate plus dessert. The tortellini pictured earlier was my supper. There was also a salad. There is no way you'll go hungry. Midway (about 4 hours after lunch) we were feeling hungry so ordered a couple of the small plates from the lunch menu. Crew were the best I've had I have to say. Nothing was too much trouble.

I thought I had a small plate, large plate and then dessert when we went over in February. Maybe I was being greedy and they just let me have it, or maybe I am confusing with another flight - been a lot this year!

 

[Flying mermaid]

We used the SLOW lounge when connecting domestic and the shogolo ? Lounge when connection jnternational(also flew Syd jnb then flew comair return to capetown

There are SLOW lounges for both the domestic services and the international ( regional). The domestic are pretty much one world as you can access them via status when flying BA/Comair. Not sure about access to the one in the International terminal - we used it as we were flying J on Comair/BA to Zambia so didn't need status to access it. Shongololo is OK, but I think the SLOW lounge is better and so is BA F lounge which is what we tend to use when flying on QF64.

 

[Daver6]

A few words on Comair (BA).

I was rather surprised that boarding commences 45 minutes prior to departure. This seemed ages given the aircraft is only a 737. As it turns out, the flight doesn't use an air-bridge and a bus to the aircraft is required. J pax are asked to board first (from the gate) but this just means you get to spend a little longer waiting on the bus. No big deal. I'm happy watching the comings and goings of an airport.

J on the 737 is five rows in a 2 3 layout, except for row one which is 2 2 (only middle and window seat. As a result 2D has no seat in front an all the legroom you could ask for. We were seated in 1A and 1C. A bulkhead room with restricted legroom. I'm 5'10 and this impacted on me. J only had 11 pax so moved to row two. Much better. Slightly wider seat due to no tray table in the arm rest. Also row one doesn’t have the little drinks table. The folder out table is quite small too. I intend to modify our seat selection to row two for the remainder of the Comair flights.

Four cabin crew operate on this flight with two for J and two for Y. I've never seen such speedy service! Pre-departure drinks were offered plus a newspaper. Right after the seat belt sign went off, drinks were offered. There were two whites and two reds plus the usual. No trolley service either. Five minutes late a tray is presented with a salad and cutlery. Shortly after a choice of three mains are offered. They bring all three out plated so you can see exactly what it is you are getting. The options were baked hake (fish), vegetarian tortellini and a steak. I went the fish which was pretty tasty. Washed down with a coffee after.

 

[Daver6]

[video=youtube;_po-eBR9LNA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_po-eBR9LNA[/video]

 

[Imw]

Enjoying the journey! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Daver6]

Some picture from the flight to Windhoek