After a week in the UK with some record snow fall, it’s time to carry on our journey to South Africa. We spend most of the morning (re)packing, then its off to Heathrow – an hour and a half drive. Because of traffic delays, we leave early: 11:30 a.m., and our flight’s at 8:05 p.m.
1:30 p.m. We’re at terminal 5, with our 12 large bags and 8 carry-ons. We say goodbye to our hosts, and head to the baggage drop to unload the burden of our large bags. To our complete dismay, we find that British Airways will not allow us to drop our bags until two hours before our flight. We find a place on the arrivals level to set up “camp,” and wait.
6:00 p.m. It’s time to drop our bags. We get everything stacked up on trolleys; each of us has one to drive. We head to BA check-in, and wait in line.
6:10 p.m. It’s just been announced that British Airways has cancelled a number of flights, including our flight to Johannesburg – no reason given. We’re directed to another area of the terminal to rebook flights. We head there, and stand in line….
7:00 p.m. We’re with the rebooking agent, learning that the earliest flight to South Africa is on South African airways the next evening (we are being delayed in London for 24 hours) – also it’s going to Cape Town, not Johannesburg. We book flights to Durban via Cape Town, adding 3 hours of flying time to our journey and a 24 hour layover. Once booked, we’re directed to another area of the terminal to get hotel vouchers. Off we go to another line…
8:30 p.m. We finally get to the front of the line for hotel vouchers. The line moved painfully slow, and when we get to the counter, we find out why – everything is written down by hand, slowly and methodically. The hotel guest list, handwritten, will be faxed to the hotel. We also receive vouchers for bus transport to the hotel, and back the next day.
8:45 p.m. We decide we’re not going anywhere with all that luggage. We head to the Excess Baggage Company to store the majority of our luggage overnight – for an outrageous sum of 8 pounds per bag. We store 9 hockey bags. Once that’s sorted, we’re off to find the hotel bus…
9:00 p.m. There is a massive crowd waiting for hotel buses. We assume buses will be coming quickly. We assume wrong. We wait, and it’s cold, with a biting wind. We wait, and wait, and finally the bus we’re waiting for comes. Once it’s half full, it’s clear we’re not going to get on this one. We head for the taxis.
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9:45 p.m. We’re on a taxi. The cab driver, and the unique design of London cabs turns out to be the highlight of the day. We arrive at the hotel, grateful we won’t be sleeping at the airport.
10:15 p.m. We’re checked in, and heading to the restaurant to get some food into us – we hadn’t had supper. We have a hasty meal, then collapse into our beds in 2 adjacent rooms, grateful for a comfortable bed.
The next day… January 9
A slow morning, a large breakfast, a few emails. Check out time is noon, so we check out at noon, and then wait for the hotel-to-Heathrow bus. We wait an hour.
1:30 p.m. We’re at Terminal 5 to collect our mountain of luggage. We’ve got some time left on the previous day’s Heathrow internet time we bought, so we camp for a bit to catch people up on what’s happening, and then load up once again to descend to the train bound for Terminal 1. We can get the trolleys close to the train, but not actually on the platform or on the train. We unload the trolleys, load the bags on to the train, unload the bags from the train at T1, then shuffle them to where we can use trolleys again.
3:00 p.m. To our delight, we find that we can check ourselves and our bags right away for our 8:05 p.m. flight. It’s such a relief to have them in the hands of an airline! We head off to find some lunch.
6:45 p.m. After a long lunch, some browsing at shops, and some reading, it’s off to our departure gate. Quite a trek to the last gate in T1! We board the plane at 7:30 p.m., grateful to finally be heading out of the UK for South Africa. We settle in for an 11 ½ hr. flight. Hopefully with no interruptions… or so we thought!