Homeward bound

The end of the morning steam at Sandstone on Monday heralded the beginning of a long and bumpy drive back to Johannesburg, followed by a flight home on the Tuesday.

The section of the R26 to Bethlehem was not in the greatest of shape with substantial potholes forcing cars and lorries to weave their way around them. Further on works are underway to re-lay the roads so this should bring quite an improvement for the future, but for now this meant that the road had been reduced to little more than dirt tracks at each side. It was a relief to escape that long stretch after a thorough shaking and rattling!

After a five-ish hour drive we reached the urban sprawl on the outskirts of Johannesburg and pulled into the airport at bang on 4pm. I had booked a hotel for the night ahead of a flight home the next day. It was probably a little unnecessary, but I did appreciate the chance to unwind and recharge in slightly more luxurious surroundings. After a week of pre-dawn wake up calls it was hard to shake the habit, so I ended up with a swim with a view of the sunrise breaking over the airport.

TAAG Angola Airlines Boeing 777-300ER (D2-TEI) seen at Johannesburg airport

In the run up to my flight I enjoyed the opportunity to admire the many different airlines visible from the galleries here, including Air Botswana, Proflight Zambia, TAAG Angola Airlines and Malawi Airlines.

Boarding for the early evening BA flight was pretty smooth. Unfortunately, it was not going to be an on-time departure. The Captain explained that they had been working through a number of technical issues on the flight deck and a passenger had also been taken unwell. Sadly, the decision was taken that it would not be in the interests of the passenger to fly as there are not many places an A380 can land on this route in the event of a medical emergency. In the end we took off at 8.48pm rather than the scheduled 7.20pm.

Once we landed (6.38am – just over an hour late) I grabbed a shower, took the Elizabeth line into Moorgate and was sitting at my desk at work by 9.30am!