We're not going to make it
on Rose Hardman (Rwanda), 21/Dec/2010 08:48, 34 days ago
Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-GBX-NONEX-NONEMicrosoftInternetExplorer4/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}Today and yesterday were a little stressful as Pete and I tried to work out what to do. His airline rang him yesterday to tell him that his flight was departing Heathrow and that he should go to the airport. This was brilliant news as most flights were delayed or cancelled due to the snow and people were being told to not even bother going to the airport. However, this was less brilliant news when hours later Pete’s flight departed without him. The previous two flights had been cancelled and so, although Pete’s flight was departing, it was with the previous two days worth of passengers and not the ones who were supposed to be flying on the 20th. They were told that a plane would be arriving for them this morning at 4am. When Pete asked if they were guaranteed to get on this plane he was told it was‘survival of the fittest’. Given that we are supposed to be seeing the gorillas at 7am tomorrow morning this was not good news. I phoned the tourist office but they said that they only way we could cancel the tickets and get a full refund is if we were both ill and provided them with doctors notes.Pete spent all night sleeping in the check in queue at Heathrow but when this morning the check in computers were down and nothing was happening we admitted defeat and I headed into Kigali to try and plead with the tourist office for some form of refund. However, someone was on our side because half way to Kigali I get a phone call from Pete to say he’d been checked into the 8am flight and all things going to plan he should be able to make a connection in Addis Ababa and be here at 2am tomorrow morning. That would give us 5 hours to get to Ruhengeri to go see the gorillas. We’ll be knackered but better than not going at all!As I was already on the bus to Kigali I decided to go and eat an avocado croissant and organise someone to pick us up from Kigali airport to take us to Ruhengeri at 2am tomorrow morning. I then went back to Gitarama to pack. Unfortunately the heavens opened as I arrived and kept me trapped in the house for most of the rest of the day (I’m turning into a Rwandan refusing to go out in the rain!). Luckily as Pete wasn’t arriving until 2am, it didn’t really matter that I was trapped. Once the rain had finally cleared I headed to Kigali airport, praying that Pete would make the connection and there would be no more problems!