Wheelchair-ing in Africa - Day 1

 

Happy to leave, in the airport

We started planning this trip right after our wedding. My life long dream, to visit Africa, was starting taking shape.

We chose month of May, although during this period, in Africa is winter time. Our initial purpose was to see animals in the safari, and May it's a good month for that. Also, we wanted to avoid crowing.

It was perfect!

Winter temperatures during winter in Africa are aprox. 61-68F/ 16-20C max, and 39-45F/ 4-7C min. We usually had around 20C, also because it's May, and just the beginning of winter. The coldest time was in safari. The two games we had were in the evening, right before getting dark, and next morning, at 6.30 AM. Fortunately, they gave us blankets!

Evening safari

Luckily for us, few days rained and was cloudy, and only short showers during the day. Lucky for us but not so good for them, as they are currently confronting with a water crisis. The water consumption is being rationalized everywhere, from domestic use to restaurants and public institutions.
 

We were both freezing on the morning safari

So our adventure started on April 30th, in the airplane. I had chosen two seats on a row of 3, the one in the middle and next to the window. I usually prefer to get the seat next to the corridor, to have space to stretch my legs, but Ionuț loves to look on the window during the flight, so I told myself that probably we won't be back soon to Capetown and it would be nice to see it from above. 

Missed the fact that we will be traveling during the  night. And because my legs started twitching (MS related spasms) we switched places, to make sure I won't hit the guy standing next to me.

Anyway, there was nothing to see for Ionuț on the window. Night. And a lot of ocean. 

The person who sat next to me, on the seat next to the corridor, seemed to me a 40 year old man... not quite sociable. He came, he sat. No "Hi!", no eye contact, nothing.

Later, I got up and made few steps and met him on that part of the plane where there is more space. He was speaking English. I assumed that he was from London, where we had a layoff, so I imagined he just got in the plane. 

But no. We started talking and found out that he flew from San Francisco, with a layoff in London, going to Capetown! No wonder he didn't feel like eye-contact after so many hours of flying!

Later, him and Ionuț were aleady exchanging contacts, he was showing us pictures with his wife and two (gorgeous) kids, we were talking about parenting , psychology and traveling.

I was also wrong about his age. Especially Ionuț, who thought he was about 35. He was actually 51! When we asked him how come he looks much younger, he explained that he always did sports. More than this, his wife finished two Iron Man competitions (sport contest that consists in swimming, running and cycling for long distances). 

We said goodbye with a promise to visit him and his wife in San Francisco.

 

Table Mountain view

After eleven long and uncomfortable hours of flying, we landed. It was morning. Finally, we could enjoy the long-expected landscape: Capetown, seen from above, is spectacular! Table Mountain image, seen from the plane, almost made the eleven hours on the British Airways uncomfortable chairs worthwhile. Almost.

Later on, we got here

Although I had only slept the entire flight one hour, from 8 to 9 AM, when we landed I got so energetic! So I befriended fast with Bernice, a South African woman from the airport disability service, who accompanied us to the rental car company. She said she will look for us on May 15th, when we had our return flight, to tell her how was our vacation. Unfortunately, we never did see her again, seems it was not her shift. But our stay in South Africa confirmed what Bernice transmitted: Africa people are fantastic! 

In this first day, nothing special happened... we were so tired after the flight. We only went to eat in the evening in a near by restaurant, where we befriended Jadene, Cerilia and Philippe, one of the waitresses and the two managers of Roco Mamas (the one in Buitenkant street, where we stayed in Capetown). As they were just next to our accommodation, we visited them in other occasions also.
It's a wings-ribs and burgers restaurant, with very good food and a lovely young team. The fact that they were our first contact with South Africa, young people always smiling, dancing in the restaurant and asking us every two minutes if we are ok, gave us confidence on our South-African experience to come. More than this, because we were a bit insecure when we got back to our accommodation after dark, Philippe, one of the managers (measuring 2 meters I think ha!), accompanied us to our building.
Later, we were more relaxed, especially after we found out that the area is quite secure, with the Police Department near by.

My first conclusion at the beginning of our trip: maybe I am not so unsociable as I thought!
But more important, what I can say now, after two weeks in South Africa, is the fact that my life would definitely be easier in a wheelchair if I moved to Cape Town!

In the following blog posts, more about this and our south african experiences!

Love,

Florența