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The best stories are never those that are straight forward. After 150 or so life time flights, the chances of missing one must double. Up until the summer of 2019 I had carefully managed to avoid this dilemma. ( mainly by being at the airport on time and allowing for bumps such as traffic and weather along the way) However, in saying this I knew when I booked an indirect flight to Victoria Falls that this may finally be my comeuppance. The best stories are never those that are straight forward. After 150 or so life time flights, the chances of missing one must double. Up until the summer of 2019 I had carefully managed to avoid this dilemma. ( mainly by being at the airport on time and allowing for bumps such as traffic and weather along the way) However, in saying this I knew when I booked an indirect flight to Victoria Falls that this may finally be my comeuppance. I mean it was half the price, was I really going to pay double to have a little less time in a floating tin can? 6pm departure. 6pm and no sign of boarding. 7pm and I’ve got my phone out several times and sighed loudly. Noting to my travel companion that we only have a short connection and at this rate we’ll miss it. Finally 7:30pm and we board the plane. 7hrs and 45 mins of wondering if the plane will wait. There must have been more than a few people not stopping over in Addis Ababa, surely they will wait for us. We land at the time our second plane is supposed to take off, and for the first time in the history of aviation, it’s only gone and done just that. Right, now what. tentatively I look at flight times and there’s not another one for 24 hours. Great, this is not ideal. We hadn’t planned on spending any time in Ethiopia, so naturally we hadn’t taken certain precautions. Turns out, for six hours we needn’t have worried because as time lapsed we were still at the airport. Listening to disgruntled passengers, complaining about their missed connections, pleading that immigration didn’t stamp our passports and arguing that yes, we are here for 24 hours- I would like my suitcase to come out of transit. We left the airport, 50% of us vaccinated against yellow fever and 0% of us with the documentation to prove it, wandering if every after all of this we would even be allowed into Zimbabwe. Travelling through Addis Ababa, my first time on the continent of Africa in our airport hotel shuttle was not what I had expected. With its half constructed towers and people selling food on the side of the street, children playing in mud and goats wandering wild it reminded me of La Paz in Bolivia. We checked in to our room, shut the door and were dead to the world. Probably dreaming of the sunny balcony in Victoria Falls we would have been on by now. Hazzy we woke up and ventured downstairs for our included lunch and dinner. Both were buffet style with an over arching element of mystery meat so naturally that was avoided, ( we didn’t need any more upset , emotional or physical ... ) The meal was served with bottled water but we decided to drown our sorrows with an overpriced bottle of red wine whilst the dining room gently played Christmas songs at the start of August. The alarm was set early for the next day, but unneeded and the low hum of the call the prayer awoke every single animal in Ethiopia to join in with its call. Back at our favourite airport we boarded, now onto the next worry of ‘ will my suitcase be there when I arrive’ It was, I’ll save that problem till next time.