I had forgotten how long the flight from Perth to South Africa was. 11 hours give or take, depending on the winds at 32000 feet. Luckily the aircraft was not at capacity and I ended up sitting in a right rear window seat with the seat next to me vacant. This gave me a little more room than usual and enabled me the opportunity to put the centre arm rest up and spread out a little. At one stage I lied down in a contorted manner across the 2 small seats and tried to get a little sleep. This must have lasted for about 15 minutes in total before the pain and cramping became overbearing.
The plane departed Perth Airport at around 10.30am local time on Sunday the 26th of February and by 11.20 a light lunch was being served. I opted for a chicken and tomato sauce with olives mashed potatoes and peas meal. Very nice indeed. Around this time the captain recommended that we set our watches to South African time of 5.20 am. This started to put the length of the journey into perspective.
The cabin crew were excellent, apart from the 1 female African attendant who seemed to be responsible for the section that I was in. Everything seemed like a real effort to her and she clearly didn't want to be there. She was abrupt in her comments and her body language displayed a clear lack of enthusiasm.
The in flight entertainment was exceptional with inbuilt monitors on the back of each chair and an overwhelming selection of cinema, TV shows, games and other entertainment on demand. I watched the recent movie "J Edgar Hoover" staring Leonardo DeCaprio and although quite slow, found it very entertaining.
I was met by my mother and father at the airport and taken to their lovely house in a private estate of Boksburg near Johannesburg . I remember when the place was being built around 6 years ago and recall standing in an area where the first floor was and looking over onto some rough wetlands that my father had plans of transforming into a type of bird sanctuary.
The place is now stunning, the building itself is exceptional and the wetland area has been transformed into an outdoor sanctuary what is home to several varieties of wild birds including black swans, Egyptian geese, ducks, peacocks, guinea fowl and others. The birds are fed daily by my parents and have become quite tame. The swans are very territorial though and it is entertaining watching them chasing around the other species
This photo has been taken from half way into the wetlands looking back toward the house.
Shortly after arriving at their house I had a cold Windhoak beer in my hand. After a couple of these my sister Jenny and her husband Dennis arrived. Not long after a few more friends arrived and we settled into a lovely evening of cold beer, braaied boerewors, chicken wings, steaks and salad. All accompanied by great conversation and discussion around the impending Durban to Johannesburg (DJ) classic motorcycle rally.
By the time I eventually ended up in bed it was about 4.00am Perth time on Monday 27th of February. A long day indeed!
