We set off on our journey at 5:30 AM on Saturday, Aug 17. My sister, Hilary, is house-, cat-, and garden-sitting for us while we’re away, and she kindly drove us down to catch the SB Airbus. We said goodbye and the bus whisked us off. At that hour and on Saturday, there was little traffic and we arrived at LAX at 7:45. As we’re flying Delta’s Premium Economy, we avoided the scrum and used a much shorter line and were through Security and heading to the gates at 8:15. We had a relaxing breakfast at the Barney’s Beanery and waited at our gate for our noon flight.
We boarded our 777 at 11, found our spacious seats, and were greeted with a glass of champagne - almost as good as First Class! Good movie selection, good meals, except that Bob’s movie screen wouldn’t work which would have driven me nuts, but he was a good sport about it. At one point we both plugged our headsets into my two-hole plug and watched a movie together. There was a call for a doctor as we neared Toronto and we were afraid that we might have to stop and let off a passenger, but apparently the illness wasn’t too severe as we continued on. We only have 2.5 hours to transfer in Paris so any delay would have been a disaster. The plane took a southernly route, over 1000 miles longer than the usual polar great circle route, but with strong tail winds, we made it to rainy gray Paris by 7:30 AM on Saturday.
Charles de Gaulle Airport isn’t very fancy, but quite straight forward and well designed. We took the train one stop from M to L and found our gate easily enough. We soon were joined by Dave and Nancy, our birding friends from Bhutan 3.5 years ago, and got re-acquainted. We boarded our Air France 777, the four of us in the same row, on opposite sides. This was an older plane with a tiny barely-functioning entertainment screen. We were served a good lunch, got great views of the alps in Switzerland, and napped. Just when I thought I couldn’t stand being on a plane a second longer, the steward came by with raspberry-covered vanilla ice cream pops which cheered me up immensely!
The plane crossed the sandy deserts of Africa, and as it grew dark, we passed by Uganda where we were last summer, over the Mozambique Channel, and into mostly-dark Madagascar. At 10:00 we touched down and staggered down the steps of the gangway into the cool air of the high central plateau, at 6000’. As we entered the terminal, our foreheads were swiped and our temperatures taken!! Back to Paris if we had a fever!!?? We received our visa forms and had to fill them out as we shuffled along in line, scribbling down our passport and flight numbers, and other details, hopefully correctly. We paid our fees, got stamped and questioned at various booths, and finally got to the large luggage room.
A long convoluted luggage carousel was creaking along, crammed with suitcases. Dave and Nancy’s came out and so did mine, but Bob’s and our one other bag wasn’t there. We waited and waited. A set of green bags went past us 17 times!! We weren’t too worried as there were at least 100 people standing there waiting. The problem was the carousel was full and lots of people hadn’t yet finished with immigration, so their bags went round and round, and only a few could be added to each revolution. Midnight came and went. Finally bags started to be taken away....at 12:30 ours arrived, almost the very last to come off the plane!
We found Dave and Nancy, patiently waiting and walked outside to meet Fano, our Malagasy guide, who led us to a spacious van. We drove a short ways through a closed market place and into a walled compound and Hotel Au Bois Vert!! Reeling after 30 hours of travel, we were taken through a leafy garden to our very attractive rooms.
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