When I’m not actually doing my job I am usually travelling to another location to do my job. The ninth day of my trip was spent flying from Kampala, Uganda to Dar Es Salaam (or DAR) via Kilimanjaro (or KILI) with Precision Airlines.
As the bird, or the Embrarer flies, this is a two hour flight. But when you are flying in sub-Saharan Africa things take time (vast understatement there). The flight plan was easy enough…
Depart Kampala (11am)
Stop in Kili (for 45 minutes)
Arrive in DAR (2:00pm)
This was a liberal interpretation thanks to the ground staff at Kili, one of the smallest airports I have ever visited. Small yet has the efficiency of O’Hare. At first we were told to stay on the plane, then we were told to get off, we got off. We received a laminated “Transit ticket” and sat in a very hot waiting room in Kili. With no view of the actual mountain. After the promised 45 minutes, we got back on, then were told we had to get back off. Then the pilot left the plane. So we started off the plane again. Then the pilot came back from the terminal, he seemed mad with his employer, he got on and we took off. Apparently the company wanted us to stay on the tarmac for 3 hours waiting for a delayed flight that had actually landed a few hours before and the passengers were waiting in the terminal, had already boarded our plane, yet the ground staff hadn’t noticed.
My point is this. If you are travelling in Africa by plane just go with it and enjoy!
Where is CJ? 