I love flying. I've been to almost as many places as my luggage.
Bob Hope
I was hoping to be home by Christmas – but that did not work out as planned. Karanta dropped me at the airport in the wee hours of the morning. My ticket read like a grand tour of Africa: Banjul to Monrovia in Liberia; then to Accra in Ghana; from Accra to Lome in Togo, and then to Libreville in Gabon. Finally, my flight plan stated that I would arrive in Johannesburg at nine ‘o clock on Christmas morning – just in time for the festive lunch with the family. Things started going haywire from the very start. The departure was delayed by two hours and I just managed to make the connecting flight from Monrovia. The flight to Accra in Ghana was uneventful (I know this is hard to believe) – but my flight to Lome in Togo was delayed due to mechanical problems. As we landed at the airport in Lome my flight to Libreville departed – without me and my last hope to be home by Christmas. The local airport authorities put me up in a crummy hotel in the centre of town. Some scary individuals slept on the concrete roof outside my room while others worked hard on their Christmas cheer. I wedged a chair under the door handle and spent my Christmas Eve wishing I was elsewhere.
Christmas Day was mostly spent reading and catching up with admin in my hotel. The streets in this part of Lome town were quite intimidating – not a place where you could safely walk with a pair of bins around your neck. I did, however, spot some Pied Crows and Northern Grey-headed Sparrows from my room.
My flight, via a layover in Libreville Gabon, left late in the afternoon and arrived at 3 ‘o clock in the morning in Johannesburg – only a delay of one hour. I spent nearly 45 minutes at the carousel watching other passenger’s luggage go round and round and round before I came to the reluctant conclusion that my bags had not arrived – again! It took another hour to fill in the paperwork at the baggage claims department, and another 24 hours for me and my luggage to be reunited. I am starting to become a believer – I believe that there is a blackhole in space composed entirely of lost airline luggage…