Where did I leave off? I was asleep on the Virgin Atlantic flight! Right! Well, all I can say is, at least they know how to feed a person well, because the food was pretty good on the flight. We landed in Johannesburg a little late, but safe and sound. We walked through the airport to reach the departure gate for our connecting flight to Maseru. When we got there, it was delayed for 30 minutes, so I went and looking in the gift shop, naturally. I saw some cool stuff there that I might pick up on the way back through. But more importantly, I saw my new friend.
I named him Packie. Partly because elephants are pachyderms and because it was because of a packing problem that I had to ship Teddy back (literally, they are sending it on a cargo ship back to Canada). He was so cute and only 160 Rand! What a steal! LOL, that means it was about $20. I love him.Once we got on the plane at 10am we felt much better. It was a small plane, about 20 people, the kind that has 2 seats on one side of the aisle and only 1 on the other side. It was an hour long flight, and we got beverages and snacks. Once we got to Maseru in the air, we had to turn around because they were saying there were too many clouds to do a visual landing, and the radar thing at this INTERNATIONAL airport was broken. So we had to go back to Johannesburg Airport and we waited around forever for someone to tell us what to do. There was one other flight from J'burg to Maseru that day, but no guarantee that THAT one would be able to land either, and it was full regardless. We could have gotten a hotel room and tried the next day, but that would have wasted an entire day of work. So finally someone suggested we fly to another city/town closer to Lesotho and get someone to pick us up there. We needed to hike clear across the airport to Security and go through Customs where the woman just seemed confused, and we went and picked up our bags. Except Shamus noticed that one of his little outside pockets was open. The one that (for some reason, in the rush to repack, I guess) his 2 Leathermans were in. Umm.. AND his head lamp and the only rain jacket he brought, which were in another pocket. Oops. Now we are pissed off but we need to run to catch our connecting flight so we take off. A porter pushed the trolley for us, which cost me 10 Rand as a tip, and I am still not sure if that was enough. We went to the ticket counter and they changed our tickets to the other flight. People here really take their time. They don't rush, no sense of urgency when we are trying to catch a flight that leaves in an hour. We got the tickets and then we checked our bags again. We got to the gate just as they were finishing loading the bus that would take us to it. The plane was a little bigger than the last one, thankfully. It was a short flight and they gave us these snack bags, with a bag of chips and a little bag of beef jerky. Except it wasn't like any beef jerky I've ever tasted. I actually spat it back out.
And so we ended up flying to a town called Bloemfontein,
where Klaus, the other BC Hydro employee working on the project came and picked us up. The town is located in South Africa, on this map just below where it says Free State, beside the country of Lesotho. It was about a 1.5 hour drive back to Lesotho through rolling hills and grasslands. The drive reminded me of the drive to Osoyoos.My first impression of South Africa is of course, the minority of white people. Obviously, in Africa, there are going to be a lot of blacks, but I guess I have just never been somewhere where I was in the minority as a white person. It's sobering. Another thing I noticed - the number of people walking along the side of the road. Goes hand in hand with the poverty, I guess. We drove past many shanty towns, with TINY brick buildings and tin roofs held down with rocks and bricks. In the towns with nicer looking houses, the street lights are waaaay high up, apparently to keep the gangs from smashing them (it's easier to commit crime in the dark).
To get over the border, you first get out on the South Africa side and go inside the building and line up with the mostly pedestrians who walk back and forth across. The agent there stamps the passport "out". Get back in the truck, go through a check point, then back out of the truck on the Lesotho side to fill out a form and get your passport stamped "in". Back in the truck, another check point and pay a fee of 5 rand (less than $1). Then you are over.
Once we got to the hotel, called Lancer's Inn, it was already 7pm. Remember we had boarded a flight from England about 24 hours ago, we both smelled bad, wearing the same clothes, and we were exhausted. So we grabbed our bags, got to the room (quite large, actually with a kitchenette, bathroom, living area, and a double bed in the bedroom) and had a shower before joining the other men in the dining room. Oh, it felt so good to get clean. And brushing my teeth! It was like heaven.
The food here is good, but the menu is limited and the servers are not quite what I am used to. Apparently (according to my guide book of the area) the restaurant here at the Lancer’s Inn, called the Rendezvous, is the fanciest and most expensive in town! I don’t see it. They speak very good English, but seem confused when we talk to them. That first night I had the lamb chops. They were very good, maybe little tough. But it’s kind of strange, every time we eat there with Klaus or with the other guy, Harve (he is the project leader from a Swedish company working on the project) they mess up the room charge! One time the charge went on Klaus’ bill, another time things were switched around. Seriously, so far we have had 4 meals here so far, and they messed it up each time. They don’t always confirm before doing the bill, they just go ahead and do it and then have to change it later.
So that night, Monday, we were so exhausted after dinner, we came back, checked our email and we both fell asleep at 10pm.
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