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02/28/2014 – Departure 2 stops
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Total travel time: 19 h 50 m
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Price Summary
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Total: US $1,437.40
ZAR $15,305
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In order to begin the above flight for our trip to Marrakesh, Morocco on February 28th, we must also fly from Kruger/Nelspruit Airport to Johannesburg Tambo Airport in South Africa at another cost of ZAR $2036, US $191.21 which we booked yesterday. We’d booked the longer leg of the journey in early December.
Our combined cost for all four flights is ZAR $17,341, US $1,628.60.
With the airport in Nelspruit quite a distance, we plan to have Okee Dokee pick us up at 2:30 pm (14:30). With road construction and Friday afternoon traffic, an early start is necessary. Plus, there’s a two hour time change from South Africa to Morocco. Our arrival will feel as if it is 5:35 pm (17:35) to us when we finally arrive.
Including picking up our baggage in Marrakesh, going through immigration and customs, and the drive to our rental home, we’re estimating an additional two hours. In total, we’ll be traveling for 29 hours. That is if there are no delays and/or missed flights due to delays. There have been substantial delays on most of our flights thus far. We shall see how it goes.
You may ask, “Why are we going to Cairo, Egypt in order to get to Morocco?”
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| As you can see, Morocco borders Algeria in the upper left, and yet Egypt is located in the upper right of Africa. |
In a perfect world, we’d fly from South Africa at the southern tip of the map, directly to Morocco. Nope. Not possible, unless one charters a private plane, an option definitely out of our budget.
When we began the planning of spending almost a year in Africa, we knew getting to Morocco was challenging. In every case in our planning, we’ve checked flights in advance of committing to the rental of a property.
The key to making this lengthy travel time bearable will be our ability to sleep for a few hours on the flight during the night, on the eight-hour leg from Johannesburg to Cairo.
Neither of us is good at sleeping sitting up. Neither of us naps during the day, naps in the car, or doze while watching a show or movie. When we’re tired, we go to bed. We can only hope that the flight isn’t crowded (we expect it will be) and we can find a way to sleep. If we don’t, we’ll have a tough next day. But, in the realm of things, a day after we arrive, we’ll be rested and it will all be behind us.
Two and a half months later, when we leave Morocco for Madeira, we’ll have a much shorter flight, under three hours. Madeira is located off the coast of Portugal which is shown on the above map as above and, to the left of Morocco.
On the flights to Morocco, we’ll have to collect our baggage up to four times, going through customs twice. This is a daunting task even with our greatly reduced load. With everything we own in two large suitcases, two medium bags, two laptop bags, and one duffel bag, this isn’t easy.
Tom does most of the hard work due to my bad shoulder, especially when none of the airports have the “tubes” in which to gain access both on and off the planes. As a result, he ends up hauling a huge amount of the carry on load up the long and steep flights of steps from the tarmac to the plane. He dreads this part. I dread this part for him.
There it is, folks. This nomadic life we live is not always easy. However, once we get through the hard parts, we relax, making a concerted effort not to worry or anticipate problems. Instead, we do everything we possibly can do, over which we have do have control.
The rest, over which we have no control? We have to leave it to chance, hoping and praying for a safe transition, choosing not to worry while we revel in our remaining 29 days in Marloth Park.
The inconveniences? Well, they go with the territory.
Note: Check back tomorrow for photos and stories of the new digs we’re moving into for the weekend, a luxury vacation home! Can’t wait!