In mentioning Buzzy’s and my trip to South Africa (yesterday’s post) I was reminded how this was the longest trip flight distance-wise that we ever took. At the time that we made the trip, it was the longest non-stop flight in the world.
That longest flight record has been broken several times since the 90’s and today the JFK to Johannesburg flight comes in at 15th on the list of longest flights (click here.)
The other longest factor about our trip to South Africa was that it marked the longest time we were ever away on a trip – 21 days. I remember when I turned my leave slip in at work to my then boss, he laughed and informed me of something his old school boss had once told him when he wanted off for an extended period of time: “If we can do without you for more than two weeks, then we don’t need you.”
South Africa is slightly less than twice the size of Texas and our tour was mostly a bus tour. We flew into Johanessburg and once on the bus traveled northeast to Kruger Park and Swaziland before heading down the coast line to Capetown. We did fly from Durban to Port Elizabeth where we re boarded a bus to motor down their famed Garden Coast to Capetown. The portion of our visit to South Africa encompassed 17 days.
However, we also signed up for a pre-extention trip where we arrived three days before the bus tour began in order to take in a trip up to Zimbabwe and visit Victoria Falls. Once we landed in Johanessburg we then flew from there to Zimbabwe to spend a couple days there checking out the Falls. We then flew back to Johannesburg to begin our 17 day bus tour.
All in all it was a great trip. However, on our way home we both agreed – no more trips away over 2 weeks.
One more song from Billy seems appropriate here. Upbeat tune about a boy very much in love with a girl. (For an interesting story about the black janitor and how he got the role in the video (click here.))
P.S. Just now when I typed in the word janitor, the spell check bubbas dropped this on me.
Non-inclusive language? Sister Gregory never taught us anything about that in her English classes. And here I’ve been using the word janitor for – well for the longest time!