Sigh.
It was never going to be the Perfect duPlessis Holiday without something rather drastic and expensive happening.
Look. If you take a brief look at our history, you’ll know what I mean.
It’s 2009. Anton, Alex and I drive to Cape Town for a long weekend for hubby to participate in the Two Oceans Marathon. At one point on that 12 hour car journey, I encountered a small bokkie (antelope) flying across the black strip of tarmac, and as she does so, she stares into my wide eyes before glancing off our radiator and ending up in the Karoo shrub, her sad demise in contrast to the sad demise of our VW’s radiator. This, a longer more expensive holiday was (happily) endured, albeit with further catastrophe when our car was driven into while on the mechanics floor, and more panel bearing was required.
Or, in 2011 when Famille duPlessis borrowed a double cab ‘bakkie’ (utility truck) from Pappa duP while we holidayed around Umfolozi Hluhluwe enjoying wildlife from a higher vantage point (IYKYK). This little trip ended in dirty diesel being pumped in at a refuel station, and totally effed up component of Pappa duP’s believes bakkie. Our trip entailed struggling through Swaziland at 20’s an hour, and eventually crawling in to Malelane Town much later than anticipated. We left the bakkie there for repairs. It cost us a pretty penny.
Then, mere months before we moved to France in 2013, we drove to see my folks for a weekend in our VW and while on the way back home – 45 minutes from the farm, the cam belt snapped off and we came to a slow halt on a highway off-ramp. Pappa Carr came in his trusty Landie to tow us and the car to Maritzburg, where all sorts of work needed to be done. We had to borrow a vehicle from my brother, needed to tow the car back to Centurion, and the cost of the repairs was enormous and only paid off when we sold the car after our departure.
Subsequently we’ve had 9 years of hassle free travel (although we never had to endure COVID travel) until this seemingly event free trip back home this month.
Sadly, this one has been another drain on our finances, and wholly due to complete carelessness.
The horror of standing in a queue at ORT for an hour, (whatever flight we were queuing to check in for was scheduled to depart 8 hours later than it should have, and we were discussing what our connection would be like) and finally handing over our passports to check in, only to discover the check-in attendant disappear with our paperwork. He returned 5 minutes later, informing us that we had actually missed our flights the day before.
Yes. Laugh if you must.
And yes. We were those people that had mixed up dates and arrived at the airport an entire day too late.
Jeez, it’s a soul crushing error. As it is, we had taken a train to the airport and had zero contact with parents nor a South African telephone (and we’re a little schnoep with our data roaming) from 3 hours earlier. And then we’re having to rebook our flights for a day later, find somewhere to sleep for the night and then go back to the airport.
We were really lucky to find seats on the flight for today (we’re due back at work on Tuesday) and although all 4 of us are sitting in different rows for the first journey, we are grateful also to have funds in our savings for these tickets. It has set us back a little so we’re in for a tough couple of months ahead and zero opportunity for me to decrease my working hours immediately.
Following up with gratefulness, I was able to phone my sister who lives in Joburg (20 minutes from the airport), who was available to pick us up from a train station close to her house and we were able to sleep there, albeit with a very early departure due to city road closures and half-marathon runs.
6 hours of airport time, and we finally boarded our flight bound for Dubai, and by some happy little miracle, they had found a row of 4 open seats so we could sit <en famille>>, a much needed light for us on this very long journey.
And as I load this up and click ‘post’, I want to say thank you to our Thandi sitters, especially the last minute guy who deserves a stash of South African chocolate I smuggled on last minute. Thandi ma belle, we’re coming. Soon soon we will see you.
Do you have any holiday horror expenses?
G
Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals 
Dear Gaenor, I’ve been following your wonderful holiday, so many magical memories for your memory bank! Thank you for sharing so generously across the social platforms. So happy that you have managed to resolve the unexpected mishap, I’d say it could happen to anyone. (I’ll be double checking our flight, lol!) Hoping you all had a good flight and are strengthened by your time at ‘home’! xxx
Christeen, thank you for your kind comment. We have definitely managed to fill up our memory banks with many happy memories.
I’m certain you won’t miss your flight! You must be quite excited for upcoming adventures and to see your family more regularly, even though you’ll be missed in Boston!
Thank you Gaenor, yes we will miss Boston, the special places in SA including the Berg and family and friends! xxx
Gaenor! I’m SO sorry to hear about this dampener!!! It’s the thing of travel nightmares! We had a similar experience, on a much smaller scale, when we booked internal flights in ZA, from NL during our winter & thus an hour time difference… needles to say, we arrived for our flight only to be told that it was already at the end of the runway!!! An annoying extra expense but thankfully still an awesome ZA holiday in the sunshine! Safe home again & here’s to better working hours with light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for your “exit strategy”!
Oooh, and I feel it’s such a shameful mistake. I can’t believe that I did not once actually look at the tickets and relied on hubbys booking skills, especially because I found it unusual that we were flying a Saturday night- hubby prefers to spend a full day at home before starting work again.
Oh well, alls well that ends well. We did thoroughly enjoy our holiday and saw so many exciting places that the girls won’t forget soon! And am 2 hours away from home, our own beds and Thandi. 🥰
And the next hurdle will be tackling my job. Eeeek.