Safe arrival

We had a bit of a stressful time at the airport this morning. We’d received confirmation from the event that our names were registered with customs for visas but that they couldn’t email the papers to us because this is a national holiday period. I’d printed off the letter from the event, in case we needed to present some kind of proof. Good thing I did as the email also has the telephone numbers for our event contact.

The airline wouldn’t let us check-in without the papers so after a phone call to the event and a few text messages, the email arrived and we checked in with an hour to go before boarding. The lady from the airline who checked our passports before letting us check-in cast a bit of doom and gloom when she saw Alex’s temp passport: “They may not let you in,” she said. “A guy flew on Friday with one and they turned him back.” My reply was, “Well, we’ll give it a try – safety in numbers”. Needless to say, Alex and I were looking forward to getting him on to the other side of the Abu Dhabi airport. Flights are not quite like Swazi Xtreme were one or two racers get into Swaziland burried under luggage and coolerboxes.

At the airport I bumped into Bradley Weinand – he used to organise adventure races in the KZN Province. He was on his way to Uganda on business.



On the plane we settled in. The flight was only half-full so we had plenty of space. The movies on Etihad are excellent – no shortage of good movies for the trip to Abu Dhabi and home. And as for the food… There were three main meal choices and they all looked good. Christo went for a chicken dish, Francois has ravioli and Alex and I went for a lamb thing. All excellent. We each got through anywhere from 2.5 to 2.9 movies; I’ve got 20 minutes of ‘District 9’ to finish on the way home.

At the airport all our luggage arrived quickly and we also went swiftly through customs. The other thing Alex and I were holding our breath about is that the passport number on Alex’s visa was for his lost passport, not the temp. We had all the police letters and old passport scans on hand, but didn’t need it. We almost ran away from the counter in glee!

A dude was waiting right outside arrivals with my name on a board. We’d booked a mini-van shuttle through our hotel, the Park Rotana, to transport us and our crates to the hotel. Last year we’d battled with taxis because traveling with big crates means that regular sedans just don’t cut it; we’d need three of them! The van was perfect and our trip to the hotel was smooth.

These Arabs build and irrigate and create like you can’t believe and I didn’t recognize a thing on the way from the airport. I look forward to seeing this place during the day. They’ve terraformed a lot of this area in the 12 months since last year’s race. Unbelievable.

Our hotel, and the event hotel, is the brand-spanking new Park Rotana. The hotel opened only 15 days ago and we could possibly be the first people to sleep in our rooms! This is a very nice modern and well designed hotel – not gold and kitch for this place. Lovely colours and a clean and open design. Our rooms are near each other – separated by one room – and they’re super. We’ve got the fluffiest white towels, gowns (too hot to wear but fun to try on) and puffy slippers. The tv is a Sony Bravia flat screen and the bathroom… divine shower! It is one of those flat-floor showers and the spray comes either from a normal (high, side wall) head of a rosette off the ceiling. And there’s no bath, which makes so much sense. I don’t think I’ve ever bathed in a hotel bath and you usually have to step into them to shower; putting baths in hotels is really silly. I’ll take some photos tomorrow to show you how cool this place is.

SA time is two hours behind Abu Dhabi. It is almost 3am now and we’re meeting for breakfast at 09h30. Then we’ll go play. Till later...