Return to Oz

We're on the way to the airport in Port Elizabeth for a connecting flight when we both get the following text message from an Australian number :

Qantas flight QF64 05 JAN from JNB now est to dep at 1430 06 JAN.

The flight we're connecting to is running a day late... Suddenly the whole trip home that we're all packed for, dressed for and are on our way to is thrown to the wind for another day. But we're still headed to Johannesburg... we don't quite know what will greet us when we get there.

We contact our friends David & Dennis who have travelled the opposite direction (and found spectacular weather, in contrast to us). They are landing in Johannesburg a few hours later and promise to save us from a day in an airport / airport hotel. So past the high walled security fenced estates, the shanty towns crammed filled with people and surrounded by more meandering on the streets, past new shopping centres with designer labels, cars patched together with tape and BMW X5's fresh off theproduction line, we make it to the oasis of a suburban home replete with swimming pool, tennis court and our haven from an uncertain city.

Everyone has different views of Johannesburg, but no-one describes it as safe. It's a great add-on day to our holiday. Had we planned it - we'd probably be somewhere else.

But the next day's flight (delayed yet again) finally leaves in the evening and we make it home for a hot sunset and a swim in Coalcliff pool. We're back home, back to work and I've taken so many photos my hard drive can't breathe.