Welcome to South Africa

"Welcome to South Africa" the sign says when you get off the flight in Johannesburg. And gee it's great to be here!

About halfway through the flight from Sydney it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't have any clue if we needed visas to enter South Africa. Funny how after nearly 10 years working in student exchanges you can end up on a plane going somewhere and suddenly have that sinking feeling that you haven't covered all the bases!

Fortunately, Marine was the prepared one and had checked that in advance (despite those few moments of mild panic where one is suddenly not sure if they actually did do it or not!) and when we got off the plane in Jo'burg we were pleasantly surprised by just how painless immigration was: no landing card to fill out, no photo taken, no worries at all!

We overnighted at the Southern Sun OR Tambo airport hotel and it got full marks from both of us - 2 minutes from the terminals in a shuttle bus, great rooms, free wine and cheese in the evenings (woo hoooo!), and really great buffet meals in the restaurant. And at way less than half the cost of the Intercontinental hotel (the only other hotel at the airport itself), there is no reason to stay anywhere else if you're transiting here.

We're now back at the airport waiting for our flight to Nairobi as we go on with our 4 day odyssey to reach Mt Kilimanjaro's lower slopes.
Sydney-Jo'burg
Overnight stay
Jo'burg-Nairobi
Overnight stay
6 hour bus to Arusha, Tanzania
2 hour car to Marangu
Overnight
Then finally driving out to start the climb.

There were seating dramas with our flight today: despite having made a seating request with our travel agent, and having Gold Star Alliance frequent flyer status, we were seated apart, in crap seats, for a 5 hour trip.

Not happy Jan.

South African Airways were very nice (after telling a little white lie about it being our honeymoon :) and managed to move our seats so we were together.

I always say that there are 3 places where people don't act in their normal way: in supermarket queues, in heavy traffic, and at airports. Law of the jungle applies - do whatever you must to survive!

Seriously though, we're stoked to be here - our first real time off in 6 very busy months and a seriously cool holiday.