Running through CDG and getting a nickname – Explore Southern Africa – Day 01

Travel Journal – Explore Southern Africa with Intrepid Travel- Day 01

After all the stress making the decision and booking everything, in no time, the day to leave had arrived. Many months of not having proper holidays had passed, and now, the day was finally there!

Back then, it was Thursday and since my flight was departing at 8.30pm, I went to work. Initially, my plan was to leave work at 5pm, go home to pick up my backpack and then go to the airport. Usually, I prefer to arrive to the airport with plenty of time so, a couple of hours extra was not too much.

Then, life happened and one of my colleagues decided to have a small soiree by the station to say goodbye to the group before starting her maternity leave. Because of that, I took a detour and spent a bit less than an hour with them. Funny thing, many of them made a joke about never having seen me without makeup before. You see, I am a different person at work than on the road. At about 7pm I started to stress and decided to leave for the airport. That thankfully, is about 10 minutes away from where we were having the drinks.

Airport stories

I obviously made it with enough time to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to relax by the door before boarding. Even though I know that there’s no need to queue to be the first one boarding the plane, I do it every single time. Yes, most of you will think that I am one of the annoying ones. Truth be told, I do it, specially when I carry my big backpack (AKA Rex), because it is bigger than the allowed luggage. In small planes, I can fit it as if it were a normal bag in the overhead compartment. It only exceeds the limit size by a couple of centimeters. But in planes with the line of seats in the middle, it does not fit. That means that if I am one of the last ones boarding, likely, my backpack will be moved to the cargo compartment. On the opposite hand, if I am one of the first ones, once the backpack is in, they don’t complain anymore. Most of the time.

So, my trip was Amsterdam Schiphol – Paris CDG – Johannesburg Tombo. It was all booked via Air France and so I did not pay any extra attention to transfer times. It was only when I boarded the first plane that I realized that between landing and boarding there were only 25 minutes. And, in case you don’t know it, Charles de Gaulle, is one of the biggest airports in Europe. I have had some transfers in CDG before, when I have needed over 45min to get from point A to point B. Anyways, because I love stressing over everything, I asked the flight attendant whether she knew if I would make it. She looked at me with worried eyes and said she wasn’t sure. Great.

Knowing your row neighbors

After hearing me talking to the flight attendant, the couple sitting next to me decided to do the same. They just came from visiting a few destinations in Europe and they also had a connection in CDG to Buenos Aires. We started talking and they told me they try to do month-long trips a couple of times a year. In this occasion, they had visited six countries in Europe. They were looking for ideas for their next destination and when I told them about my upcoming holidays, they decided to check on the Intrepid Travel website themselves.

The trip from Amsterdam to Paris is not even an hour long, and shortly we were landing. The couple, while they were also on a rush, had a plane leaving about 30 minutes after mine. So, they helped me by getting me my luggage as fast as they could and then letting me pass in front of them. Very nice people, let me tell you.

Racing through Charles de Gaulle Airport

For some miracle, I made it on time. I had the planned 25 minutes to reach my second gate. Because I was leaving the Schengen Area, I did have to pass a passport control. Thankfully, this airport is automated and that was easy. Then the running started.

I had to change terminals and the transfer from my landing to my departing terminals was under construction.

I got my 13kg of backpack and run with everything in me. Other people would pass me running too, also trying to make it to their gates. Air France, please, give more time for transfers. We beg you. After 20 minutes, I was sweating like a pig, red and catching my breath when I made it to the gate. With five minutes to spare, I decided to treat myself and go to the bathroom to freshen up a bit before start queuing.

Unexpected problems

I was on the queue waiting for the boarding to start with other 100+ people. And then we kept on waiting. Forty minutes after the official boarding time, someone finally told us that the departing time was postponed one full hour. But we did not have any official information.

Because my backpack weighted 3kg more than it should and it was larger than the allowed measures, I decided to keep it on to make it look smaller. Let’s just say that the following day I had bruises in my shoulders the size of the handles. It happens to me every single time.

Surprise, surprise

Even though we were supposed to leave at 11.15h, we made it to the plane at 11.30pm. Then, they finally told us what was the problem. Turns out there was a faulty piece on the plane and they had to change it. Then, for safety reasons, they were running the necessary safety checks to allow us to board.

To be honest, it felt as if they first lock you in the plane so that you cannot leave. Then, they tell you that there is a broken piece that they need to fix.

As I mentioned in the previous entry of the journal, I booked a transfer to take me from the Airport to the Hotel in Jo’burg. While I was reading the travel information from Intrepid, I read that if you know that your plane is going to arrive more than one hour late, you should call the transfer company and let them know.  

Because of that, I did. Unfortunately, I did not think that in South Africa it was also midnight. The poor guy on the other end told me not to worry, that they always check the arrival of the plane before going to pick up someone. And that I had woken him and his wife up. Ouch.

The long haul

A bit past midnight, we finally left. And the plane did not fall off the sky, so I guess that the safety check was worth the extra hour.

I had paid extra to get an aisle sit with no one behind me to avoid feeling guilty about leaning the seat back. And I tried to sleep throughout the trip. Every time I would fall asleep someone would pass by the aisle, hit me and wake me up. If not, the very (not) nice flight attendants would start screaming next to my ear to speak to the guy sitting next to me. Imagine how loud they were, that with earplugs that later would not let me hear a buffalo next to my tent (come back in a couple of weeks to read about this), they woke me up scared.

Transfer and chatting about the local culture

What felt like a week after we departed, I finally made it to Johannesburg. First impression: Wow, it is hot in here. To be completely honest, because I am always very very cold during international flights, I was wearing 3 shirts, 2 pants and my jacket. But it was very warm regardless.

Right after leaving the airport terminal I found the information desk and there, my transfer. She asked me if I needed anything before leaving the airport and I asked her to take me to an ATM. There, I got some money and then we went to her car in the parking.

The transfer to the hotel took about 45 minutes where my driver told me about her country. She was as white as they come and marginally racist, but I kept my mouth shut about my thoughts. We discussed about Jo’burg being considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world. And about other cultural differences between Europe and South Africa. She also explained to me, from her perspective, the political climate of her country.

After a very informative drive, she dropped me at the hotel at around noon. I tried to do the check-in to get a room and feel like a human being again. But it was too early. So, I decided to go to the terrace and have some lunch under the sun. The weather in the NLs the past summer had been terrible, so I really wanted to enjoy the sun and the heat. Poor naïve me.

Meeting people

While waiting, I sat down in the terrace, under an umbrella, and ordered some food. Except for a couple of girls sitting next to me, I was mostly alone. And then these girls came by and told me if I was also on the intrepid group. Turns out that they told them in the reception, that I was one member of the tour. Then, they introduced themselves as K and C, two very nice ladies from Ireland. For a while, we chatted about our background and our expectations of the trip. Soon after lunch, they left to explore the Rosebank.

After such a long day, I, too tired to do much more, decided to just sit by the reception and enjoy the AC with my kindle. It was a very comfortable area and there was a number of people chilling there. For example, a couple were sitting by the reception, another more “experienced” lady was walking around, and a young woman was going through what seemed like a terrible case of jetlag, was asleep in one of the sofas. She would later introduce herself as A. She was part of the group too.

In one of my trips to the reception to ask for a room, I met the “couple” from the lobby. Turns out they were Scottish and also part of the group. They described themselves as “mates”, which ended up being friends and not partners in life. Although that, I discovered a few days later when someone else just plainly asked.

Got a room!

At around 3pm I finally got the room, and let me tell you, I was pretty tired. Because of that, I decided to take a nap to recover. One hour to power up and continue through the day. It was heaven.

Right after that, I took a shower and then realized that the bathroom door was made out of glass and completely transparent. I did not think twice about it. It was only when I was halfway through my shower that I saw through that door someone coming into the room. I cleared the soap on my body as fast as possible and then went in fast to check on my new roomie.

While I introduced myself while wearing nothing more than a towel, she told me that her name was S and she was also Scottish. She was actually the “more experienced” woman that I had seen before by the reception. She was doing the full trip, starting and ending at Johannesburg too. I think that that was the reason why we were initially paired.

Later on, she showered too and then we went to the attached shopping mall to buy some things to have dinner and snacks for the following days. After coming back, we agreed on going for a drink at the hotel terrace before the meeting to officially start our trip.

S got a beer and I went for one of the local white wines. It was delicious but the size of that glass was impressive. Because of that, one hour later I was still carrying half of it to our meeting. And that’s how I got the nickname of “the wine lady”.

Introduction and meeting the group

Finally at 6pm we made it to the conference room. Glass of wine in hand. After we all arrived, we sat down in a big circle of chairs and we introduced ourselves. We were a total of 22 people in the group, most of us women, and a few couples. We had a few Brits, some Scottish, two kiwis, three Americans, four Aussies, two Italians… In summary, a very colorful array of people. Our guides introduced themselves as G, Ir and E. G was our guide/provider of information, E was our driver and Ir our chef.

They told us about safety tips to consider, such as do not take pictures during a border crossing, and other similar peculiarities regarding our destinations. G also gave us other tips about cash, tipping, water and some advice about general safety. Then, during the question round, N (one of the very nice Kiwis) made a question about dealing with her period that got G completely confused. Then G assured N that there was going to be enough bathroom stops so that we wouldn’t have to worry about anything of the sort. And then I made another question, in this case about cash: I did not want to carry lots of money on me or have money on my bank account, so I decided that I would be passing money into a specific account open for the exclusive purpose of this trip every couple of days. Obviously, this would be determined by the access to WiFi, so… where we going to have access to internet? Of course, G said. Every day, or every other day we would have access to the net for sure.

Spoiler alert. It was a lie.

A surprise to finish the meeting

Two things occurred right before we concluded the meeting. First, we had to provide and confirm our insurance and contact person details. Second, they told us at what time we would be leaving the next day: 4.15am. Yay.

After seeing our shocked faces, G agreed on delaying the departure time to 4.30 and so we left. Some people headed out to have dinner. I decided that the day had been long enough and went straight to bed. It was going to be the last night on a proper bed and in a bedroom with proper walls in three weeks. I had to enjoy it.

An interesting fact

As I arrived to the room, I went to close the curtains and then I saw a magnificent full moon hovering over Jo’burg. Even though I have seen plenty of full moons before, something made me look in more detail. Turns out that the usual “moon face” that we see in the Northern hemisphere cannot be seen from the Southern. Kinda happy for having realized that, I got my camera, took a couple of shots of the full moon, and called it a day.

If you are enjoying these Travel Journals, click here to see the full series. The page will be updated as I include the different days.

If you want to read about the previous entry, click here.

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