More Flight Stress

The only photo I have to show you for the journey home is a view from the aircraft window as we taxied for take-off from Windhoek airport leaving for Johannesburg. I was already stressed.

As you may recall, due to inefficiencies at Johannesburg airport on the way out, I missed the connecting flight, and it looked like it was going wrong again. I had very little time to transfer to my BA flight which would leave Johannesburg at 21:15 with this flight from Windhoek scheduled to arrive at 20:10. Why was I stressed? Because we left Windhoek 20 minutes late, so I decided I'd be stuck in South Africa overnight.

I have no idea how the pilot did it, but we arrived at Johannesburg on time and then ground staff asked for those on the BA flight to meet at the bottom of the stairs to be escorted to our flight. After the previous performance, I was amazed and appreciative of this. But it was still a nightmare. As before, there were about a dozen of us.

The airport is around 1800m altitude, which is about the height of many ski runs, and on discovering this, it explained why running through an airport with a 10kg backpack and a second under-seat bag was so exhausting and I was being left behind in the rush. It was a dreadful experience and, as before, had another passenger not offered assistance, I am certain I would have missed my flight.

In the end, I made it to my seat and dropped into it with a huge amount of relief. Why? Why, BA, do you set a schedule such as this with impossible time scales for the flight transfer?

The flight back to Heathrow was relaxing though, and I managed to sleep for the duration. Not quality sleep, of course, but sleep nevertheless.

There was a wonderful surprise was when I landed, to discover my daughter, Penny, was there to collect me. It was great and we immediately headed for a coffee to revive my soul.

I can't believe it's over - I didn't want it to be, even though my body was weary and craved rest. This adventure has been truly awesome.Read more