Africa-Entry 15
This morning we left Dar pretty early and headed to the airport, all 20 people and 99 cases of gear. When we got there, the authorities and check-in staff were understandably overwhelmed by all the stuff. Mike Kasic took bets on how much our gear weighed and it came in at a total of over 1000 kilograms, that is over 2000 pounds, we literally had a ton of stuff!!!
Our flight took us to Johannesburg airport were we had an hour, and enough of an internet connection that I could send a few video blogs. Then we had a charter flight to Inhambane airport in Mozambique. Now, the trick of it was that we had to arrive before dark because the airport doesn’t have any lights. Well, at the last minute we found out that we would have to land at Maputo (the capitol) airport to clear customs. This put our producer Daniel into a very serious sweat because it meant that we might not make it to Inhambane before dark. As it turns out, we made it as the sun was going down, the pilot decided to go for it and by the time we made the approach it was dark and someone on the ground had the foresight to lay out two lanterns to signal the beginning of the runway. Let’s just say I am glad that the wind wasn’t blowing too strongly.
After the craziest landing I have ever done, and I have had some whoppers, we pulled up to the terminal, a small building where baggage claim was the backyard and had to wait for someone to go get the customs officer to clear us…again. Apparently, no one had told him we were coming, though we had contacted all the authorities, and he had gone home for the day.
He did finally clear us and we headed off to Tofo about 40 minutes away. A crazy day to say the least, but tomorrow is our second day off so we are all very excited. In fact, I am headed off to the local bar with some of the crew to celebrate a job well done and taste a few local beers.
