Stephen Codrington

 

Africa and Yemen Travel Diary 2008

Unlike yesterday morning, a sleep-in was not possible, as this was a big day of travel and it was important not to miss our flight. The alarm sounded at 4:45 am, and I sprang out of bed, showered, and then at 5:10 am began the long process of coaxing Andrew out of bed. He is not always as easy to get out of bed in the pre-dawn darkness as one might hope.

We left the guesthouse a few minutes after our anticipated departure time of 5:45 am and took the long 55 kilometre drive to Windhoek Airport. Needless to say, there was not much traffic to slow down our journey. Everything went smoothly at the airport – we farewelled our driver (who had warmed up and become much more affable and chatty in the last couple of days) and boarded our short one-and-a-half Air Namibia flight to Johannesburg.

We had a two hour transit at Johannesburg, which was easily enough time to access the internet (for the first time in a week), clear just over 60 work-related e-mails, and board our Ethiopian Airlines flight (five and a half hours) to Addis Ababa.

Our accommodation for this evening was the only night of our entire trip that I had not arranged before leaving Hong Kong. Because our stop in Addis Ababa was an enforced overnight transit en route to Yemen, the Ethiopian Airlines office in Hong Kong had told me that the airline would provide accommodation free of charge. All I had to do was approach the interline desk at Addis Ababa Airport; there was no need, I was assured, to make any prior arrangements.

So, after landing at 9:30 pm, it was with some trepidation that I approached the interline desk at Addis Ababa Airport. I need not have worried; the system worked perfectly. We were allocated a room at the Hilton Hotel no less, including transfers, dinner and breakfast, all paid for by Ethiopian Airlines. It was, however, not a quick process, and it was 11:45 pm before we finally reached the hotel to check in.

However, the late night didn’t really matter, because the next day was scheduled to be our biggest sleep in for the entire trip. The alarm is set for a 7:00 am wake up, and both Andy and I are ready for that buffet breakfast that awaits us.

(Please note that I wasn’t able to get a photo of my Ethiopian Airlines plane because it was too dar, so these photos are reproduced courtesy of Airliners.net.