Southern Africa travel routes

Intercape Sux

Intercape Buslines is absolute Cr@p.  Windhoek to Livingstone should be 15 hours and this trip took around 21.  I should have known that something was going to be wrong after leaving Windhoek with the smell of burning rubber filling the cabin. Needless to say someone was sent out to fix it but that takes time so +1 hour so far.   At 5am after a stop in a filling station a "ball bearing" broke which I would find to be mechanically quite hard but either way add yourself another +5.  Oddly enough the town we were stuck in had a unusually high amount of funeral homes for a small little village.  I counted 3 in 20 minutes within 1km of where the bus broke down.  Maybe the locals knew more about the Intercape bus than I did.  Lastly upon fixing a ball bearing, do you know where they could get that part from? the AC broke and let me tell you.  Thats just not cool + 1 hour.

Here is the Intercape Corporate video shown on the bus about 20 times.   I'm pretty sure that its all about things that they want to do with the service but are not actually in effect at this time.  I also missed the praises to Jesus thankfully.

Zambia Ho

Zambia Ho with stops in Livingston to See Vic Falls and Lusaka where there are a few operators with some nice aircraft and multi engine opportunities.

Now leaving Namibia with no real luck has been hard as its a great country.  Windhoek is a modern city, clean, safe and diversified and Swakopmund has its own charm an ocean ( the atlantic ) and sand dunes which are fun to jump off of ... both places that would be great to live and work.

Though Namibia at the time I left, was just issuing Visa's to primarily all pilots old and new who were waiting some for months but does not change the statement from company's that they are not hiring which still begs the question  "Well when are you exactly?"  

In all fairness the tourism industry for southern Africa has been at its lowest for the past 3 years and is no real surprise that hiring is down.  Its not like the idea of a global economic collapse doesn't include the 3rd world.  

Anyways lets go do some overland travel to Zambia.

Maun to Windhoek

Step 1. Maun to Windhoek, should be easy enough, there has to be a direct bus route or at least 1 connection?

not exactly

Step 2. Hmm, hey how does this happen?

well its a bus from Maun to Ghanzi to Charles Hill to Manuno and then you hitchhike to Gobbabis and Windhoek.

Nice lets go see some country!

Now yes there is a plane from Maun to Windhoek thats only an hour but where is the adventure in that, plus a 12 hour's 830km trip is a steal at 20$!

Though uneventful there is a funny stop in the middle of the road between Maun and Ghanzi where a checkpoint is setup for foot and mouth disease, where everyone is watched by a police officer and you step on a grate of no doubt some powerful agents to destroy any bacteria you may have on your boot.

Pulling up in Ghanzi I could see that the 20 person combi for the 4 hour ride to Charles hill and then on the Manuno was already essentially full but with some persistence and a real intent not to stay the night I got on the last seat. Nice because even though there seemed to be people waiting for the next combi... who knows when that was coming.

8 hours later and at the border in Namibia and the Trans-Kalahari-Highway

which for 50 NAD (7$)  via taxi will take you to Gobabis where 100NAD gave me a ride in a guys golf gti from 1990 to Windhoek.

All in all 12 hours or so and mission accomplished quite well. Now on to the elusive pilot job in Namibia.

Namibia here we go

Well time to move on to Namibia. Through all the competition of forty other pilots and fighting the government for the allowance of foreign visa's I did manage to get on the top of the list with two separate companies which is great but still a little short at the moment.. Thats aviation though so oh well time to move on as was part of the original plan anyways.

Cheers though in particular to all the good guys who are staying and left Maun as well as the guys over at Delta! Keep the Brai's going boys!

As the Mau-oon shines

Days without power, the internet, running water or a job and yet no posts. shame shame on me but here we go.

I am currently in Maun a small transit town in the Okavango delta in Botswana where a daily Fokker F28 and Air Botswana ATR42s and 72s unload passengers who later fly out to local bush strips hosting 3-5 star lodges on Cessna 206, 210s and 208s. During the cruise to the camps which average around 25mins its quite possible that you will see hippos in lagoons, elephants and giraffes banking around a 150ft tree on short final so certainly for the tourist looking to go on safari they are no doubt getting their moneys worth already and so is the pilot.

Unfortunately as of yet there are no jobs flying pax to be had for myself as well as the other 30+ pilots looking for work who have been rotating in and out their origins including Spain, UK, India, Canada, France, New Zealand, Portugal, Norway, Holland, S.Africa, Australia, Germany and Belgium to date.

For all of us the daily routine of getting a job is to get onto extra seats with companies so they can see how you fly and consequently get to know you to see if they could get along with you in the company. On a flight with one of the operators I was able take my hand at the controls of the 208 above which was landed into Seranga north of Maun with 1 pax and a handbag then loaded with 11 pax and heavy bags on the way out. Cool stuff really as the climb-out barely clears trees at the end of the runway!!

The hunt continues and well see what happens. There are many more places to go to in Southern Africa to look for a job and to explore as well. Ill be contemplating the next move over some Hansa beer tonight.