This was my second day spent almost entirely travelling. Today’s trip really began a little before midnight last night when my flight to Addis Ababa (ET858) pushed back from the terminal in Johannesburg right on time at 11:00pm.
The flight was on an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-8, registration ET-AOQ, and was scheduled to take five and a half hours. This was not a flight for admiring views from the window as the entire flight was in darkness. Rather it was a flight to catch as much sleep as possible after the previous day’s long flight and to prepare for the connecting flight I would be taking soon after landing in Addis Ababa. I even decided not to eat the beautiful dinner (grilled salmon) that was offered to maximise my sleep.
The flight was faster than scheduled, and we landed almost half an hour early at 4:48am – under five hours for the trip. Like most flights into Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport, our plane parked away from the terminal and we were bussed into the terminal. I think ours may have been the first international arrival for the day as the airport was completely devoid of international planes apart from a Saudia Airbus A330 which was parked at an airbridge into the terminal (meaning there were 10 vacant airbridges).
Arriving at the very quiet, almost deserted terminal building, the security check was admirably fast, easy and friendly (it’s really pleasant when security staff smile), and I was soon in the main part of the terminal. I had lounge access for my transit stop of almost fours, and it was fabulous. I had forgotten just how good Ethiopian coffee is, and the range of fresh fruits, salads and vegetables was a joy to behold, especially when supplemented by hot local Ethiopian specialties such as injera, tibs firfir and ful medames (okay, strictly speaking that last one is Egyptian, but Egypt is in the same region and joined intravenously by the waters of the Nile River).
Although almost deserted when I arrived in the lounge, it was fairly crowded (though not to capacity) when I left at a little after 8:00am to go to my gate for boarding.
My flight from Addis Ababa to Libreville (ET955) involved two sectors, both on the same aircraft. Ethiopian Airlines does a triangle routing on three days each week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) from Addis Ababa to Yaounde (Cameroon) to Libreville (Gabon) and back to Addis Ababa. Therefore today’s flight (on a Tuesday) involved a scheduled one hour stop en route in Yaounde, but my return flight (this Saturday) will fly direct from Libreville to Addis Ababa.
The routing of the flight from Addis Ababa to Yaounde took me over exotic territory I have never visited – South Sudan, the Central African Republic and of course Cameroon, the destination. The flight to Yaounde took off five minutes late at 9:05am and landed ten minutes late at 11:15am, making the 3,229 kilometre flight 4 hours and 15 minutes duration on an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 787-8 (registration ET-AOS).
I had some great window views of Addis Ababa after take off and of Yaounde on the approach to landing, but otherwise the smoky, cloudy or hazy air beneath the plane obscured any views of the land beneath. Therefore I could concentrate on the superb in-flight food that featured an array of Ethiopian specialties – doro wot, tibs firfir, shiro wot, key minchet and gomen wot. Absolutely superb!
The short second sector from Yaounde to Libreville – a direct distance of just 432 kilometres – was scheduled to last one hour, and also involved flying over the unfamiliar (to me) countries of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and then Gabon (my destination). The flight pushed back at 12:15pm and landed 55 minutes later.
Unlike Addis Ababa Airport (which is truly world class), Libreville Airport is a fairly basic, simple airport in the typical African style – slow, relaxed, friendly and easy-going. I had made sure I had the all the necessary documentation to obtain my visa-on-arrival, including a printout of my online visa application and a letter from the hotel in French (as required) confirming my reservation and the purpose of my travels.
I walked up to the e-visa-on-arrival desk, presented my passport and printout, and answered a few questions about the intended duration of my stay, which hotel I was using and the purpose of my visit, and was told to sit down and wait. After a little while the attendant walked over to another office with my documents, and then returned a few minutes later. After confirming that I would not be staying for more than seven days, she told me that (contrary to everything I had read online, including official Gabonese and Australian Government websites) I didn’t need to get a visa and I should simply proceed to the Immigration counter to get my passport stamped – which I did, saving myself the €70 visa fee I had budgeted.
Although my hotel (the Park Inn) operates a free shuttle service to cover the 3.2 kilometres between the airport, I faced a wait of an hour and a half before the next arrival. I considered walking, but quickly decided not to do so in the 29°C heat and humidity of Libreville’s equatorial location (Libreville being situated just 43 kilometres north of the equator). I negotiated a fare for the trip with a taxi driver and enjoyed my first ride in a typical local taxi, by which I mean it looked like an escapee from a car wrecker’s yard. I was really pleased with my decision not to walk as I noticed during the drive that there was no pavement beside the road nor many places where crossing would have been safe or easy.
I arrived at my hotel at about 2:30pm, immediately appreciating the air conditioning. I spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and arranging my travels for the next couple of days through the concierge in the hotel next door to mine. An early evening was needed after the long trip to get to Libreville, and I managed to get to bed at about 8:00pm, precisely 48 hours and 30 minutes after my alarm had woken me in Sydney to begin my journey.
