Botswana > On the way to Windhoek

It’s just after half past eleven when we drive toward Schiphol Airport. About fifteen minutes later, we step out at a very busy departure hall. We make our way to the British Midland check-in desk. The lady behind the counter is clearly not happy that our luggage needs to be checked through to Windhoek. She also gives her unsolicited opinion on group travel. After many sighs, the luggage is finally labeled to Johannesburg (she can’t manage Windhoek).

Botswana - A giraffe in Etosha NP

She tells us we’ll have to make sure the luggage gets to Windhoek ourselves. When we point out that we won’t have time for this in Johannesburg, she refers us to the South African Airlines counter in London. She also has no idea about the promised lunch voucher and again refers us to South African Airlines. Overall, the service is terrible. The first flight with BMI to London goes smoothly. In London, we go to the South African Airlines counter at Heathrow, where we immediately meet the other five travelers. Strangely, all other luggage has been labeled to Windhoek. Initially, we are advised to collect our luggage in Johannesburg and recheck it. This would require going through customs. Because the layover in Johannesburg is too short to go through customs, retrieve the bags, and recheck them, SAA will try to manually relabel the luggage to Windhoek. The counter staff writes our baggage numbers on a piece of paper. I’m curious whether this will all work out. They have plenty of time to sort it out, as our layover is a full seven hours. We had originally planned to visit central London during this time, but it turns out our luggage would be set aside separately. That doesn’t seem like a good idea, especially since we’ve already lost an hour dealing with arrangements. So, we decide to just wait. We have lunch at the airport, stroll around the shops, and enjoy a beer in the pub. At half past nine in the evening, the Boeing 747-400 departs for Johannesburg. After a good meal, I fall asleep around half past eleven.