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After a 14.5 hour flight, we landed in Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight was LONG and boring! Our seat location was pretty good (window and isle) but the seats were rather narrow. The plane temperature was very warm--I longed for my battery operated fan that I used in Slovakia! I slept about 15 minutes and Mom slept about 30 minutes tops. After about 30 minutes in flight, the captain told us that the video/audio system was down and they were restarting it. "It should be back up and running in about 10 minutes." Then, "It's 60% reloaded, so it should be up and running in another 5 minutes or so." The next time the captain mentioned it was when we landed, "Yeah, sorry about the video issue." Hopefully on our return flight the system will work because 14.5 hours without music or movies makes the flight seem even longer.
At the Johannesburg airport, we went through customs (customs people are usually always very unfriendly and this was no different) and then went to pick up our baggage to recheck it for our next flight. After 2 hours, we were told by the airline that they had lost a container of luggage (about 80 people were missing luggage). At the lost baggage area there was a huge line and we were anxious because we did not want to leave the country without baggage but neither did we want to miss our next flight. Amazingly, we found the other 6 people on our tour and together filed a lost baggage claim handing it to the airline staff without having to wait in the long line of people. Then we left the secured area to meet our tour guide, Peter. He helped us check in for our next flight (easily done since we had on baggage) and walked us to the security area and gate. The airport was huge and we did a lot of walking! The next flight was under 2 hours and we landed in Zimbabwe near Victoria Falls. We waited in line outside for customs--passport check and to pay for visa. The organization or lack there of was extremely inefficient....quite a cluster! Our carrons were xrayed and we met our travel guide, Reaso, who ushered us to to the airline to once again file a claim for our lost luggage. We then boarded a van to our lodge in Victoria Falls. South Africa and Zimbabwe are very dry and actually resemble many area of California due to the dryness. It is "winter" here but it is not the rainy season, nor is it cold. The temperature is in the 70's during the day and cooler at night. The sun is bright! On our way to the lodge, we saw baboons and deer. It was so strange seeing baboons on the side of the road (including a cute baby) that they looked fake! At the lodge, we saw a giraffe and warthogs. Once again, we had to do a double take! The animals are wild and seeing them in person makes for a totally surreal experience!- comments