108/137 Days; 29 Days remaining
Transition from Maputo, Mozambique
To Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe (Formerly Rhodesia)
This morning it is up and at it. 07:55 flight out of Maputo International Airport bound for O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. In Johannesburg we will change planes for Victorian Falls. We should arrive in Victoria Falls at 13:20. We are flying Airlink which is a South African Airline. Both planes are Embraer one is a 190 and the other is a 195. Fairly good-sized regional aircraft.
Last night the front desk said there was a shuttle to the airport. We gave him our flight time and asked what time should leave to catch our flight. He suggested the airport was about twenty minutes away and so we should plan on leaving at six. We manage to get ourselves downstairs to the lobby just before to had gone six. We approached the desk and told the man behind the desk we were here for the 06:00 shuttle to the airport. Now many of you are expecting a bus like conveyance, well this is Mozambique not New York City. The man behind the desk said it was $30 US each for the shuttle. Ok, our fault we didn’t ask if it was a free shuttle.
Lesson learned. Hand over the money. One of the bellmen goes and gets his personal car. Mind you it is a nice car. He puts the luggage in the boot, and we are off to the airport. He asks if it is a domestic flight or an international flight? We tell him are are going to South Africa, so international. Honestly, we don’t know what to expect of the Maputo International airport.
The Maputo International Airport, also known as Mavalane International Airport isn’t very far out of town. The driver says that it is the largest airport in Mozambique, which makes since because Maputo is both the largest city and the capital. As we drive up to the airport is looks really new. The driver says it was completed in late 2010. He also points out that there are actually to terminals: the international terminal and the domestic terminal. He proudly announces that can now handle 900,000 passengers a year; that is 400 an hour!
By comparison, SFO, the thirteenth largest US airport handles 50,200,000 passengers a year. At 24 hours a day operations, which it isn’t it would handle 573 passengers an hour. The 400 passengers an hour is probably for an eight or ten hour day? It really doesn’t matter. Pulling up to the curb was a lot easier than SFO, but there are still quite a number of people milling about. It’s going to take a while to find where to check in and get out boarding passes.
Aha! Found it. Once we got out of the central part of the commotion it wasn’t too hard. For all purposed it could have been a Southwest ticket counter, at least before electronic check-in. With boarding passes in hand, we head to the departure gates. Oops, that is for personnel not passengers. Sorry Mr. Policeman. Oh look there is the passenger escalator to the passenger departure lounge. This part of the airport could be anywhere. Starts with getting through security and immigration, past customs and into the duty free shops. One big difference, they actually have a “by-pass” the duty free shop corridor!
The first flight departed on time. The business class seats are very nice. An hour and fifteen minutes later we are in Johannesburg. O.R. Tambo airport is nice, new and modern. Interestingly its last “upgrade” was in 1993. It is the fourth busiest airport in Africa. It handles twenty-two passengers annually.
Getting from one gate to the other was clearly marked and very easy to follow. Although we two hours to the next flight went and found the gate first. Then we look at a few bookshops, but didn’t buy anything. At 11:35 our flight to Victoria Falls was off the ground and on its way.
We landed on time at 13:20. The first step is immigration. We have been told to buy a multi-entry visa, and not a single entry visa. A single-entry visa is $40US, a multiple entry visa is $50US per person. Since we will be going to Zambia and Botswana we need multiple entry visas. The bags took a while. First one, and then about fifteen minutes later the other.
Apparently, they got a $50US loan in 2013 to expand the airport from 500,000 to 1,700,000 people a year, but there is little evidence that any of the money has gone into the design or construction of a new airport. We walk downstairs from the airplane and into a building that could have easily been Eureka or Santa Rosa. With bags in hand we walk out the door and see a young woman with a sign with or name on it. Apparently, we managed to get to the right place.
We get into a Wild Horizons van. It also had the logo of the Elephant Camp, so we are starting this part of the adventure out right. It takes the driver about twenty minutes to travers the highway to the entrance of the Victoria Falls National Park. Elephant camp where we are staying in within the park.
Elephant Camp is part of Wild Horizons, noted by the name on the van. We have been told that Elephant Camp is the top rated luxury lodge in Zimbabwe; not just Victoria’s Falls. We have been told it is close to the bustling tourist town of Victoria Falls. That it overlooks Zambezi Gorges and that you can see the spray from the falls. Look it up on the internet. Maria is afraid that they will be tent cabins, which technically they are.
We pull off the highway onto a dirt parking lot just outside the main gate of the Victoria Falls National Park. You can hear Maria’s head beginning to spin. We continue down a dirt road, maybe a kilometer or two, and get to another gate. We continue down the dir road another kilometer until we arrive at the main building of the camp – yes it is tent. Yes – it is a really nice tent. There is surprise on Maria’s face.
They walk us out to Tent 3, our home for the next four nights. Yes – it’s a tent. But there is a nice tile floor, and it is twice as big as our suite on the Mariner. There is a bathroom is both a tub and shower. There is a plunge pool just in front of the tent overlooking the gorge. No need to share it with anyone, you can’t even see the other tents. There is even an outdoor shower.
OH, its air conditioned! We relax, unpack and get organized. We need to be back at the main lodge at 18:30 to go to the Boma Dinner and Drum Show. Look it up at https://theboma.co.zw It is better to see what they say about it rather than my write about it. It clearly is a tourist attraction.
It is really nice. We pass through the picture opportunities, trinket shop, local artists making trinkets for the tourists and get shown into the large collection of thatched roof open air huts filled with tables. The area is divided into five spaces.
There are three seating areas around a central stage. Then there is a buffet area divided into several subparts. Salads, soups, sides, main dishes, and a BBQ roasting an animal about the size of a pig, but looks more like an antelope than a pig. Various acts come out on the stage an preform. There are two guys playing what would be called a native xylophone. Then a dance troupe. Followed by drummers. They even pass out drums to the tourists.
The plan is to pick us up in two and a half hours. We try as hard as we can to watch the shows and eat slowly. Unfortunately, while the food is very good, we a really aren’t that hungry. An hour and forty-five minutes later we are done. We head out to the car park hoping that our driver is at hand. The guard at the gate wasn’t letting us go beyond the gate.He said he would get our driver and disappeared.
It was five minutes later when he and our driver pulled up in the Elephant Camp van. We were beat. A few minutes later we were back at the camp and in our lovely tent. The bed it Italy designed and thus on the firm side, but zzzzzz
Buonanotte e Ciao, Enrico e Maria.
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