Given that we had a long travel period ahead of us we decided to let anyone who wished to do so, to sleep in until 8 am. Not many made it and most were already up by 7:00 am. We then had our hot drink (tea or instant coffee) and a rusk. By 8 am we were pulling down the tents and by 9 am all the bags were packed back into the bus and trailer. By now we are a well oiled machine and this process does not take anyone to give direction….it just gets done.
Because it is going to be a lot of sitting we decided to let everyone have a couple of hours to stretch out here in Skukusa Camp. It is a lot nicer to be here than in the upcoming airports. At 11:00 am we headed out of the Camp. We hadn’t yet seen a cheetah and there had been 4 sightings yesterday along the road to the Phebani Gate to Kruger Park therefore we chose that route to exit. It took us just over an hour to get there but unfortunately there were no cheetahs for us to see. We saw elephants, a giraffe and another 1,000 or so of the always present impala. Two of the elephants in a large water hole was a highlight. The two of them were playing in the water wrestling together. They would submerge their huge bodies totally out of site under the water and the come up pushing one another. After about 5 minutes of watching them they decided they had had enough and exited the water.
Travelling back to Johannesberg was fascinating as we passed through such a variety of ecosystems. Around Skukusa was relatively flat and dry except by the river. As we moved westward hills began to form and the trees were less lush. After we left Kruger Park we then were into hills with banana plantations everywhere. Our bus struggled along climbing the hills and then descending. By mid afternoon we thought that we were back in BC as the countryside reminded us of driving from Osoyoos to Grand Forks. In the late afternoon we were within a couple hundred kilometers and it looked more like Saskatchewan or Alberta…..flat with fields as far as the eye can see and many cows.
The bus that we are travelling in is old and there was a bit of a mechanical problem yesterday. Therefore we decided that it would be prudent to allow ourselves at least 3 extra hours to get to the airport. This was a good plan as the bus overheated climbing the hills. We had to stop, let things cool down and add coolant and water.
Because of the delays and the speed of the bus we decided that we had to push through to the airport and not stop for dinner as originally planned. Arriving at the airport 9 ½ hours after leaving the Park we thought that we could quickly check in, clear security and then get some dinner. Never happened. The checking in was a fiasco as they could not check our bags in all the way to Spokane. They needed amongst other things an address in the US where we would end up. A Canadian address would not work. We decided to use the address of a receipt of someone who made a purchase prior to leaving for South Africa. Should a problem arise an eyeglass shop in Spokane might get a lot of questions. It was nearly 10 pm once we had our boarding passes and checked in bags and approaching 11 pm once we had cleared security and gotten to our gate.
The flight took off at 11:20 pm and virtually everyone of us fell asleep immediately. The meal at 2 am went unnoticed. Those that slept long made the 11 hour flight to Amsterdam seem much better. In Amsterdam Alexandra and Geoff took Derek and Theresa through customs and immigration in order to retrieve their luggage that had been incorrectly booked in Johannesberg the night before. This turned out to be relatively easy and we took a walk outside of the airport so that Theresa and Derek can say that they walked on Dutch soil. Once back inside security Alexandra had to say good bye to all of us as she was flying to Detriot, then Halifax on her way to St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. The rest of us boarded the 10 hour flight to Minneapolis. As this was during the day it seemed much longer than the first flight. We had to retrieve our bags bring them through US customs and then put them back on the conveyor belt to the aircraft. The final 3 hour flight to Spokane was quicker as again many slept.
Our group was greeted in Spokane with clapping and cheering of parents and family. The 40 hours of travel since we left was nearly over.
While picking up the luggage the stories started and there will be many more in the cars on the drives back to Castlegar and in the weeks to come.