Ukuhamba Kukubona

Ukuhamba Kukubona – Travelling opens a window to the world (Xhosa)

This phrase is printed on the paper cups that South African Airways give out (Proud to take the world to South Africa, and South Africa to the world!).  Can you tell I’ve spent rather a long time on an aeroplane in the last 2 days?

My window opening started with a lift to the airport from my brother, Dave.  It was a hot day – the first one for a while – and I felt a bit overdressed.  We went by a somewhat interesting route (typical Dave) and I was only slightly unnerved by him asking me every so often which way I thought we should go – after all he had started the journey by asking if I had a route in mind, and I had said no!  The traffic was quite heavy, and one or two roads were blocked off, so we ended up doing a tour of places I found it a bit hard to believe were on the route from Carshalton to Heathrow, but we got there bang on time.  As agreed, he dropped me off and didn’t stop – apart from a big hug to send me on my way.

I walked into arrivals and immediately phoned Lin, who greeted me with the good news that, after all, the SAA people had agreed to change her ticket and we were travelling together to Johannesburg.  That made us both very happy, as the prospect of 12 hours on an overnight flight on our own was not very appealing.  I was going to say 12 hours on an overnight flight without a familiar face, but actually we didn’t know each other before this trip – although we met briefly about 10 years ago at a do at my sister’s work.  But I immediately felt very easy with her, and the journey was a lot less stressful for her company.

I had forgotten how uncomfortable long haul flights can be – particularly overnight, when the low level lighting makes you feel like you’re the only one awake, apart from where the flickering of a screen in the back of a seat, or a little pool of light over one seat lets you know that someone else is watching a film or reading.  My inflight screen packed up half way through “Nowhere Man” a film about John Lennon which I didn’t even know existed.  So I amused myself trying to find a comfortable position for my legs – I’m sure there’s probably already something called “Chair Yoga” but I’ve now invented “Economy class yoga”.  I’ve also decided that if I’m ever rich, I will always fly first class!

After about 3 a.m. I did manage to get a bit of sleep, until they woke us up to serve us mushroom pancakes and tiny sausages at about 5 a.m.  We arrived at Johannesburg Oliver Tambo airport on time, and made our way along what felt like miles of corridors following the “International Transfers” signs.  Lin was happy because we got a stamp in our passports.  We had checked in right through from Heathrow, so didn’t have to queue up, except to have our bags checked.  The security man rummaged asked me about the bottle of hand sanitiser in my rucksack, and I thought he would ask me about all the electronic equipment I was carrying, but he just said “So many chocolate bars! – can I have one?”  I agreed and he chose a Slimming World cranberry healthy extra bar – I hope he wasn’t too disappointed!

 Then we were suddenly surrounded by gift shops with names like “Out of Africa” and duty free shops.  We were somewhat freaked out (in our sleep-deprived state) by a 9 foot likeness of Nelson Mandela made entirely out of beads.  It was recognizable, but rather like something out of a horror movie because you could see into the void inside his head through the beadwork.

We didn’t have much time, in fact we just made it to the gateway in time to jump on the bus.  The flight to Blantyre was only 2 hours, and by this time I was getting really excited about seeing my sister again, and about being in Africa.  I had an aisle seat, so I couldn’t see much out of the window, but I just caught a glimpse of the Zambezi river – pointed out by the pilot as we flew over. 

The touch down was quite a white-knuckle ride – Chileka is one of those airports where just when you think you’re about to land on someone’s house the runway appears, and then you’re on it – in our case screaming along at a great rate of knots!  Welcome to Malawi!  As soon as I turned my phone on I got a text from Mari saying she was on the balcony.  As we got off the plane we looked up at the airport building but I couldn’t actually spot her, even though there were only 2 or 3 possibilities in a sea of black faces.

There was quite a queue to go through immigration, and a wait for Lin’s bag, but then we went round the corner past the customs table, and there was Mari. 

The drive from Chileka airport to Mitsidi was what really made me feel I had arrived in Africa.  Everywhere people walking, bicycles piled high with pieces of wood, and precariously balanced packages – they reminded me of the mules in Spain when I first went there.  The journey took us over tarmac and dirt roads, past big rich brick houses, and little roadside cardboard shacks.  Salons and coffin makers were frequent sights, and there were many signposts to different churches, including at least one which I’m sure I’ve seen a branch of in Croydon!  We stopped at the cash and carry and left Lin to guard the suitcases in the back of the pick-up, while Mari and I fetched some bottled water.  We managed to avoid buying “very good brooms and mops” or signing a little boy’s form – I never quite worked out what the form was, or how us signing it would have helped. 

We drove through Chilomoni, where Mari pointed out the Liquor Garden, where she and her colleagues drink regularly.  Finally we reached Banana Corner, (not it’s real name, but there’s always a man selling bananas there), and turned down the road to Mitsidi, past two sets of children who always wave as Mari drives past,  and right again down a stony track, over a VERY narrow bridge with no sides and a long drop to a stream, and up the hill the other side.  The gates opened and we had arrived safely at our destination.  Zikomo Kwambiri!