The Traveling Steve's

Foreward:  This post was done over a period of days due to the busy touring schedule, as well as lack of internet along the way. Hope this gives you an essence of the Zambezi Queen River Boat, as well as the fun (LOL!) of travel along the way.  Enjoy!

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It’s 5:45am as I write this, and we are on our way to the Cape town Airport for our journey to Kasane, Botswana (via Johannesburg).  Our flight leaves at 7:30am, so we had an early 4:30am wake up call thoughtfully arranged for our Waterways Group by our tour guide Deila,  We started the early morning with our pre-ordered breakfast, which was waiting for us in individual paper boxes in the lobby.  We had a quick bite to eat in the lobby of our Cape Grace Hotel before heading on the bus to the airport. 

 Our drive to the airport has been quick at this early hour, so I’ll post more as we have to leave the bus to check in for our flight now.

 Later on . . .We checked in to the South African ticket counter in the economy (yuk) lane along with everyone else.  Believe me we would gladly have paid to upgrade our intra-Africa flights for one comfort, and two for a higher baggage allowance which was very limiting.

As luck or Murphy’s Law would have it, we got the most incompetent and laziest agent of the South African Airlines check-in agents.  We were one of the first couples to check-in, and by far the last to complete the check-in process.   Our entire group who checked in after us, was checked in and stood by waiting for us for from afar thinking there was a problem with our passports!

You would think as we were traveling as a group South African Airlines would realize we are on a multi-flight  itinerary, especially when our tour guide Delia was there assisting us.  Our check in agent wanted to know how we were getting to Victoria Falls since our flight returned from there. Delia told our ticket agent we were traveling from Kahane to Victoria Falls by bus, and then the ticket agent wanted the registration number of the bus!  It was an ridiculous waste of time, and I think the agent wanted to do as little as possible by delaying us so she didn’t have to check any one else in.  No one else had any issues and got checked in very quickly.  We did have to pay an overage charge, actually two – one for each of the two flights, which we expected to pay, but weren’t expecting DOS to have to go to another line to pay.  Delia told us that corruption is common in Africa, and apparently they don’t trust airline checkin staff with money or credit cards. (In fact she said to watch your credit card being scanned everywhere you go, especially in restaurants, although most have a porte-credit card scanner to charge your card in front of you.)   Meanwhile I wait at the checkin line with Ms. Lazy-dazical, while DOS waits in the other line across the terminal to pay the excess luggage charges. She even weighed the bag wrong the first time, causing another delay.  Really frustrating!

After the long delay, our group went thru security together, which was easy – no shoes off, laptops out, and then we went thru departure immigration, as we would  be ending our connecting flight in Botswana.  After immigration, we waited at our gate for the early 7:30am flight to Johannesburg.  

The flight was on a very cramped Airbus 320, and we were in the next to last row for the nearly two hour flight.  I’m quite claustrophobic and normally if I’m not in First or Business Class, at least try to get an exit room with more room; I had forgotten how horrible a regular back row coach set really is.  Actually I think the airlines in general are shrinking the economy seat pitch, while greatly increasing Business and First Class’s seat width and pitch.

After our two hour cramped flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, we had a little over an hour wait for our connecting flight to Kahane, Botswana. Although I didn’t think we could be more crowded than we were on the plane, upon arriving in Johannesburg we had the bus ride from hell getting from the plan to our connecting terminal.  The intra-terminal bus was standing room only, and it was at least 20 minutes before we got to our final terminal stop, and got off the hot and cramped bus.

While in the Johannesburg terminal, we took a few photos and DOS bought some Pringle’s and a Coke Zero, as we didn’t have long enough a connection for lunch.

The flight from Johannesburg to Kahane was on a smaller jet, and fortunately it was only a little over an hour flight on a South African Express flight.  We again had to take the horrible ride on the cramped bus to our plane, while first waiting on some passengers for several agonizing minutes.  I honestly don’t know why they don’t send another bus out to the plane instead of boarding the bus and then making everyone wait for several minutes in the hot cramped bus.

Finally we made it to our connecting fight on this four engine regional jet.

I will say even on the short flight we were served a snack box and drink – you wouldn’t get this back home in the States that’s for sure!

Once in Kahane, we gathered our luggage in the tiny terminal (where it was delivered via a cart to the center of the crowded terminal), and we went thru customs and immigration fairly quickly, with customs checking each bag for fruits/agricultural items.  I would have loved to have taken a photo of the tiny baggage claim/immigration/customs area, but we were told not to take any photos at immigration points, which we didn’t.  Suffice it to say, it made the small terminal at Easter Island look like LAX international.

After everyone was through customs, we took our first Safari bus to the Zambezi Queen, as part of our 4 night/5 day river boat cruise up and down the Chobe River.

We actually took the bus first to a small transfer boat, where we first exited Botswana (hey – we just got here!), and then boated down a short ways to Namibia, where we went thru immigration there.  The Chobe River is where 4 countries meet, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia) and we would go thru immigration at each country several times in the days to come; that’s why AMA Waterways told us to have at least six pages left in our passports prior to the start of the trip.

Here are a couple photos of our tender boat at the Namibia immigration stop on a subsequent day of our commute to land.  I took this photo of the immigration sign (as it was a long walk to the actual immigration office down a dirt path), as well as some of our fellow travelers after completing immigration formalities.

After immigration was complete, we tendered to our house boat for the next four nights on the Zambezi Queen.

The Zambezi Queen is chartered by AMA Waterways, and has only 14 cabins, so it only holds a maximum of 28 passengers; on our voyage there were 25 people in our group. The ship is three levels high, with the cabins located on the first and second levels, and the third level housing the bar and seating area, as well as the restaurant in the rear of the ship. It’s decorated with a casual, yet elegant African decor, and the staff numbers some 20 crew, all of whom are from one of the African countries.

As soon as all the passengers had boarded, we had a welcome toast in the 3rd floor lounge.  After a LONG travel day of two flights, immigration in two different countries, and a long tender boat ride, we arrived at our home away from home.