Miraculous clearings...
So I've been quiet as I've been in Johannesburg all week at various meetings.
But now I'm back.
The thing about Air travel in this country is that it gets SO affected by the weather. When we arrived on Monday at Pietermaritzburg airport (the smallest yet cleanest and most chilled out airport I've been in) the news was that because of heavy rains we might not take off, the plane might not even arrive, and that Durban airport was closed due to weather... But we did eventually leave and made it with a fairly smooth flight only 5 minutes late into Jo'burg. There, it was chaos, with the 2 words no traveller wants ever to read on an information board -'INDEFINITE DELAY' - next to the majority of flights...
And thus the usual Friday afternoon chaos reigned at the domestic terminal of JHB yesterday, with delays being announced left right and centre. Our flight had no announcements, but on inspection I did see the infamous 'indefinite delay' next to it.... (but that was just before we boarded so I wasn't too worried) . Flights from all over were not arriving due to 'weather' and not leaving due to 'operational problems'. And yet at Johannesburg it was beautifully sunny. Funny how quick the weather can change.
Anyway, we eventually set off in our little tiny propeller jet that only seats 30 people (great for turbulence! not!) and the word going round was that almost definitely we'd end up landing in Durban as Pietermaritzburg was in the middle of a major storm (as happens almost daily this time of year). All was ok turbulence-wise until we started our descent through a black storm with lightening all around us, which was really quite exciting!
The pilot announced that we would make one attempt at PMB and then go to Durban if it was unsuccessful. As I was supposed to be heading to youth group in church in PMB I was not too keen to have to travel a couple of extra hours by bus to get there, so I started praying bigtime for God to do something about the weather. And by some amazing miracle we went through the storm and suddenly came out into a clear patch over Pietermaritzburg and landed without problems. Everyone was incredibly relieved and we managed to run across the runway to the terminal before the storm resumed with a vengeance!
The pilot announced that they'd had a lucky break in being able to land.
But I know otherwise ;-) Big up to God who controls even the storms!
But now I'm back.
The thing about Air travel in this country is that it gets SO affected by the weather. When we arrived on Monday at Pietermaritzburg airport (the smallest yet cleanest and most chilled out airport I've been in) the news was that because of heavy rains we might not take off, the plane might not even arrive, and that Durban airport was closed due to weather... But we did eventually leave and made it with a fairly smooth flight only 5 minutes late into Jo'burg. There, it was chaos, with the 2 words no traveller wants ever to read on an information board -'INDEFINITE DELAY' - next to the majority of flights...
And thus the usual Friday afternoon chaos reigned at the domestic terminal of JHB yesterday, with delays being announced left right and centre. Our flight had no announcements, but on inspection I did see the infamous 'indefinite delay' next to it.... (but that was just before we boarded so I wasn't too worried) . Flights from all over were not arriving due to 'weather' and not leaving due to 'operational problems'. And yet at Johannesburg it was beautifully sunny. Funny how quick the weather can change.
Anyway, we eventually set off in our little tiny propeller jet that only seats 30 people (great for turbulence! not!) and the word going round was that almost definitely we'd end up landing in Durban as Pietermaritzburg was in the middle of a major storm (as happens almost daily this time of year). All was ok turbulence-wise until we started our descent through a black storm with lightening all around us, which was really quite exciting!
The pilot announced that we would make one attempt at PMB and then go to Durban if it was unsuccessful. As I was supposed to be heading to youth group in church in PMB I was not too keen to have to travel a couple of extra hours by bus to get there, so I started praying bigtime for God to do something about the weather. And by some amazing miracle we went through the storm and suddenly came out into a clear patch over Pietermaritzburg and landed without problems. Everyone was incredibly relieved and we managed to run across the runway to the terminal before the storm resumed with a vengeance!
The pilot announced that they'd had a lucky break in being able to land.
But I know otherwise ;-) Big up to God who controls even the storms!
posted by Caroline @ 7:15 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home