Day 1- The Trip Over

Our journey began with the usual packing of gear for a nearly 2-week international adventure: two carry-on suitcases, a backpack, and Bridget’s purse/satchel. In addition to not wanting to risk our luggage not making it to South Africa (a real bummer since our scheduled didn’t include a few days for our luggage to catch up), our economy light tickets didn’t include the ability to check bags, so carry-on it was. And it really wasn’t a problem – stick with the “bear necessities” (Jungle Book reference anyone?).

Anyway, we rolled into SFO around 4:30pm with our e-tickets on our phones and carry-ons in tow, so we just had to get through security in less than 2.5hrs. Security was basically deserted, so we were through in more like 2.5 minutes. Good way to start.

Our first 11hr flight only got us to London at 1pm where we had a 5h layover before catching our next flight to Johannesburg, or Joburg for short, at 6pm with an arrival on Day 3 at 7am. Back-to-Back Red-Eyes. Sweet. So, since we’re the planning type, our plan was to stay up late on our first flight so we would be tired enough to get a full nights’ sleep on our second flight. That kind of happened… for Bridget. We did end up getting two seats next to each other with a window seat, which was great. After a few movies, dinner, and a smidge of work (in my defense, it was relaxing – nothing like a good ‘ole spreadsheet to unwind on the plane), sleep was sought but not really found. In fact, my new Withings watch that tracks steps and sleep didn’t even register any sleep at all. Lol. Bridget did get some sleep though so at least one of us wasn’t a zombie once we got to London Heathrow.

Before I didn't sleep at all...

After getting off the plane and not taking a wrong turn (like we did in Beijing…), we grabbed some lunch, perused the duty free stores, and waited for our gate to be assigned. Oh, and there was free WiFi. ☺ Since we were running on less than half of our normal amount of sleep, we found a bench without armrests and took turns catching a quick catnap to keep the oppressive exhaustion at bay for a few more hours. That part worked out beautifully – the nap was great and I was felt more like a human being.

The second flight was even more comfortable than the first – we had a window seat, the next seat over, and a free seat next to that. So we could really spread out and sleep. My watch still gave me the worst sleep score I’ve ever gotten, but at least it could verify that I slept! ☺

So, after 27 hours of travel, we made it safe and sound to Joburg! And with no checked bags to lose or wait for hours to be pulled off the plane, we walked out and caught our ride to our hotel. We have both officially been to all 6 inhabited continents (one of Bridget’s life-bucket list items is also to go to Antarctica).