David and Nancy's Botswana Blog: Marathon Journey

What a marathon journey! Seattle to Amsterdam was a short 8 1/2 hours, which flew by thanks to a good selection of movies (although I must say that the in-seat video screens do not rotate far enough upward requiring tall people to crane their necks downward and slouch way down in the seat, which is nevertheless prohibitive due ot the lack of leg room). The first thing I noticed in the Amsterdam airport was the lack of carpet, which deterred us from snoozing during the three hour layover. Amsterdam to Johannesburg was a mere 10 1/2 hour straight shot south over Africa. That uncomfortable "nodding head syndrome" finally caught up with me on this leg but fortunately Willie was comatose for most of this flight. Of course, one of our bags didn't show up at the baggage carousel, so we had to wait until this was obvious to file the missing bag report and were the last to leave the baggage claim area. Fortunately, the missing bag only contained pull-ups, a bike helmet and an old, frayed Inn at Millrace Pond towel (it looks like they found the bag and will have it flown up to the Gabs airport soon). Sunday night was spent at the comfortable Southern Sun Hotel at the Jo'burg airport where we indulged in room service and watched soccer before a well needed sleep. And then we were off to Gaborone at noon on Monday aboard an old and probably pre-owned but trustworthy Air Botswana 737. This final leg of the marathon took 1 hour - a relative blink of the eye - for a total flight time of 20 hours!