1 step forward, 2 steps back
Well, forget our 18:50pm departure, I'm still in London and it's 2:55am !! I've just got BACK HOME in fact..... ahhhhh.
Due to a small storm happening at JUST the time we were due to check-in about 15 flights coming into LHR were delayed... they had queues to find a gate, queues to take off again... It took Iberia 4 hours to dare tell us they'd have to cancel our flight altogether. But then it took us over one hour to get our luggage back and then TWO HOURS to get a new ticket (many people needed hotels to stay overnight so they'd spend up to 20 mins per person and we were about number 30 in the queue, etc).
We left for LHR at 3pm today and as I said, I've just got back and it's almost 3am... 12 hours totally wasted. I've never had such bad luck in my travelling life... my sister is the one who usually has no end of problems. If I were supertitious I'd said she's brought me bad luck.... (mother had warned me !!! 'Very brave of you flying with your sister considering her track record of disastrous holidays').
Considering we only had 5 full days at the lodge, it's cutting it fine to make it worthwhile but we're still determined to go. Though if things go wrong again tomorrow (perish the thought) I really am not sure what we will do then. We may need to call our travel insurance to discuss options. It will have taken us 48 hours to get there (with a deja vu feeling) and 24 H to get back (door-to-door... well, she says hopeful !!). NOT brilliant for a 6 night holiday, I give you that.
We are now booked on the South African Airways flight (SA 235) that leaves Heathrow @ 7pm and arrives into Jo'burg at 07:10am. This direct connection will *hopefully* give us 3 more chances to catch our 3rd flight to the lodge. FedAir only have departures at 9:30am, 11:30am and 1:30pm. But they can only seat 10 people at a time... so I'd say it's 50/50.
I've just spent the last 20 mins emailing the lodge to say we still want the room, emailing FedAir to beg them to hold 2 seats for us, and emailed our travel agent to ask her to keep a driver on standby in case we are stranded on arrival.
We will have missed on 2 beautiful game drives already. I tell ya, the weather'd better be good when we get there and the leopards' d better be on their best behaviour, posing nicely for our cameras....
We were too stunned to burst into tears... we felt tired on & off... frustrated on & off... then we went through phases of thinking 'some people are going through SO much worse, this is just a trip, we're still healthy enough to come back tomorrow and it's all that matters'... Thankfully we were brought up with an attitude of gratitude as often as possible. So the Macle sisters used it full whack ! Today was one of these 'character building' days alright !
Anyway... I'd better have a bath and try and sleep at least 8 hours until we do it all over again tomorrow... The black cab back from the airport to where we live was £72.... We are banking on the fact that Iberia will refund it at some stage... if not, that's another bill for our travel insurance (and the snacks we had to buy, and the tube tickets we wasted, etc). Soon adds up actually.
I shall go to bed and dream of Africa... it's the only way I can get there 'on time' now ! :)
Well, forget our 18:50pm departure, I'm still in London and it's 2:55am !! I've just got BACK HOME in fact..... ahhhhh.
Due to a small storm happening at JUST the time we were due to check-in about 15 flights coming into LHR were delayed... they had queues to find a gate, queues to take off again... It took Iberia 4 hours to dare tell us they'd have to cancel our flight altogether. But then it took us over one hour to get our luggage back and then TWO HOURS to get a new ticket (many people needed hotels to stay overnight so they'd spend up to 20 mins per person and we were about number 30 in the queue, etc).
We left for LHR at 3pm today and as I said, I've just got back and it's almost 3am... 12 hours totally wasted. I've never had such bad luck in my travelling life... my sister is the one who usually has no end of problems. If I were supertitious I'd said she's brought me bad luck.... (mother had warned me !!! 'Very brave of you flying with your sister considering her track record of disastrous holidays').
Considering we only had 5 full days at the lodge, it's cutting it fine to make it worthwhile but we're still determined to go. Though if things go wrong again tomorrow (perish the thought) I really am not sure what we will do then. We may need to call our travel insurance to discuss options. It will have taken us 48 hours to get there (with a deja vu feeling) and 24 H to get back (door-to-door... well, she says hopeful !!). NOT brilliant for a 6 night holiday, I give you that.
We are now booked on the South African Airways flight (SA 235) that leaves Heathrow @ 7pm and arrives into Jo'burg at 07:10am. This direct connection will *hopefully* give us 3 more chances to catch our 3rd flight to the lodge. FedAir only have departures at 9:30am, 11:30am and 1:30pm. But they can only seat 10 people at a time... so I'd say it's 50/50.
I've just spent the last 20 mins emailing the lodge to say we still want the room, emailing FedAir to beg them to hold 2 seats for us, and emailed our travel agent to ask her to keep a driver on standby in case we are stranded on arrival.
We will have missed on 2 beautiful game drives already. I tell ya, the weather'd better be good when we get there and the leopards' d better be on their best behaviour, posing nicely for our cameras....
We were too stunned to burst into tears... we felt tired on & off... frustrated on & off... then we went through phases of thinking 'some people are going through SO much worse, this is just a trip, we're still healthy enough to come back tomorrow and it's all that matters'... Thankfully we were brought up with an attitude of gratitude as often as possible. So the Macle sisters used it full whack ! Today was one of these 'character building' days alright !
Anyway... I'd better have a bath and try and sleep at least 8 hours until we do it all over again tomorrow... The black cab back from the airport to where we live was £72.... We are banking on the fact that Iberia will refund it at some stage... if not, that's another bill for our travel insurance (and the snacks we had to buy, and the tube tickets we wasted, etc). Soon adds up actually.
I shall go to bed and dream of Africa... it's the only way I can get there 'on time' now ! :)
posted by Sylvie at 1:47 AM
<< Home