Welcome to Crossing Countries first blog from South Africa! We all made it alive, minus Mark, who joins us on Friday. (Good luck for the journey!) The entire travelling process, from Edinburgh to our hotel in Durban, took around 28 hours. It’s taken a few days to recover, but here we are, safe and rested on the 5th day of our trip.
Unfortunately, the journey did not start easily. Jude’s van, our chosen mode of transport from Edinburgh to Glasgow, decided to break down on the morning of our adventure. But as we said at the time, best to get the mishaps out the way early. A borrowed car and a train/bus later, the team made it to the airport on time and got ready for the journey of a lifetime.
We flew with Emirates, Glasgow to Dubai and Dubai to Durban. Though the flights were long, both between 7 and 8 hours each, they flew by. (Pun fully intended). As far as airplane food goes, our inflight meals were wonderful. Mmmmm chocolate mousse fudge brownies… Mmmm….
Moving on.
Finally we reached King Shaka airport in Durban, and were met by some of Jean’s South African friends, as well as her daughter Dani. Jean’s friends are possibly the loveliest guys in the world. We have Lucky with us, who likes to eat 6 plates of breakfast and fall asleep in the back of vans. Then we have our driver for the trip, Ntuthuko, who promises he drives carefully, but so far we’re yet to be convinced. (Of course, we’re joking!)
And there we have it: Episode One of Crossing Countries’ first visit to South Africa, hopefully the first of many more to come.
