Day 44

Day forty four
Saturday - 29th February 2020

Current position
1322 Backpackers International
1322 Arcadia Sreet
Hatfield
Pretoria
0028
South Africa
S 25°44.80884'
E 28°14.74806'

We were up and out by ten fifteen and were pleased to see Raphael waiting outside to take us to the airport. To make life easy Ros had already done a deal with him on Thursday so we could sit back relax and enjoy the journey . He was a happy chappy and probably had had a good few days ferrying us about as I'm sure business is normally few and far between with so many taxis operating in such a small town.
We were the first customers at the airport and we had to wait as they switched on the scanners etc. Once on we flew through all the checks and made our way to the lounge where much to Ros' consternation we were told it was closed. We were directed to a deserted café where we were told that there were no cakes or pastries and ended up sharing a full English Breakfast. With no WiFi Ros' bad morning was complete.
While Ros settled down to read her Kindle the café slowly filled with fellow travellers.
Our flight was called early and actually took off twenty minutes ahead of schedule. There were more passengers on this flight than the last one but the plane was still only half full.
I asked one of stewardesses if I could have twenty disposable plastic cups as they were just right for keeping the cut up ingredients while cooking on our next Grand Tour of Europe. Although I'd asked for used ones she very kindly gave me brand new ones.
On arrival at Johannesburg Airport we had a coffee and a biscuit as I swapped SIM cards in my phone. Once done we were ready to call an Uber to Rhodesfield Gautrain Station from where we caught the train to Hatfield Pretoria. While we were on the train there was a punk garage band travelling for a gig in Pretoria. The name of the band 'The Dumpies' was printed on the side of the keyboard case of one of the musicians. I looked up the name on Google and then said oh you're the band from Austin Texas. They were amazed that I'd heard of them I then came clean saying that I'd looked them up on Google. They got off at our station as their gig was only two kilometres from our hostel. We decided to give the gig a miss as garage punk is not our scene.
At the Hatfield Gautrain Station we had a problem getting to the Uber as they are not allowed to pick up at the station. The first one cancelled on us as we couldn't fathom out where he wanted to pick us up but the second was more articulate over the phone and we managed to walk the short distance to the pickup point near the robots or traffic lights as we know them.
He dropped us right outside our hostel where our friendly hosts gave us far too much information on the places to visit when all we wanted to do was settle into our room.
In the evening we got another Uber to the Shopping Mall where we had a great meal at a Restaurant called Wood and Fire.