Day 32 - Disembark at Praia, Cape Verde
and fly home
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| This looks familiar. It was only a few months
ago (in November 2022) that Geoff and I arrived here at the
end of our lovely island hopping tour of Cape Verde. |
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The gangway was lowered
onto land for the first time in a very long time, which
signalled the end of the voyage. |
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It had been hoped that
we would be dock closer to the exit of the harbour, but
we ended up quite far away from it. This cargo ship was
loading and unloading in front of us and there was no easy
way to get past all of the activities and walk the approx
1.3km to the harbour gates, which is what we were expected
to us. Unlike Noble Caledonia in November last year, there
was no transport laid on for passengers who needed to get
out of the port and on to their next destination. A few
other things exacerbated the situation which left a little
bit of a bad feeling at the end of such an amazing trip.
For one thing, most of the staff were leaving the ship here
and going to the airport to catch the same plane as me.
They were provided with transport from the gangway to the
airport. I walked with all my luggage towards the harbour
gate in the hope of finding a taxi there and was stopped
by a port worker who told me that it wasn't safe to walk
in the port. (I could have told him that!). I went back
to the ship to ask the skeleton staff on board if they could
help me (and several other passengers) to get out of the
port safely and was told that nothing could be done. They
had fulfilled their contract by dumping us off the ship
and that was that. I went back outside again and eventually
found an airport worker that I could bribe to drive me and
a couple of other passengers out of the port. In the end
he took us all the way to airport (for a fee), where I met
the ship's staff once again in the departure lounge, looking
cool, unflustered and rather smug as they were counting
the tips that I had contributed to. Particularly annoying
was the rather brusque deputy expedition leader who had
told us all last night, when asked a question at the daily
briefing about getting transport to the airport, that there
was no transport available and that the staff were all in
the same situation as the passengers. Clearly that was not
the case. Anyway, having got all that off my chest, I do
have some absolutely wonderful memories of the whole trip,
I met some lovely people and I have memories that I will
treasure forever. |
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To compensate for the
rather stressful start to the day, it was a real treat to
find that I would be flying to Lisbon on a widebody Boeing
767. I hadn't expected that! |
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The business
class seats turned into lie-flat seats which was wonderful for this
five hour flight! |
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Furthermore, there were
only three people in business class, including the loud
and pushy woman from the ship who recognised me and tried
to make conversation. After attempting to ignore her for
a month, I wasn't about to give up now! |
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After an excellent meal,
accompanied by lovely service, I was ready for a little
nap! |
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Three
hours later, I woke up and managed to get some superb views as we
go closer to Lisbon. |
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We parked
right next to the plane that would take me on the final leg to London. |
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The onward
journey was on a narrow body plane and I could still see the first
leg plane as we departed. |
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The plane landed at
Heathrow at 10:30pm and by the time I got home it was after
midnight. Geoff had waited up for me and it was good to
be home! |
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