February 14, 2000: From San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, we are flying in a special 747 to Jo'burg, South Africa. This is the fourth stage of our journey and the first time the plane has been big enough to carry all of the group plus gear. Our charter plane is a Arabic plane, piloted by a sheik, who also happens to own the company. I hope he is as smart as he is wealthy!
We have a "situation", the runway is short and we are very heavy. Sitting at the end of the runway, the pilot stoked the engines up until we could smell the brakes. I could feel the power of the engines being held back. It almost felt as though the plane was ready to shoot into the air like a stone from a sling shot. The pilot let go of the brakes and we zoomed down the runway. The pilot was so good, we were in the air before we absolutely had to be...the group cheered. It was an exciting moment.
Our road from the plane, the bumps are the Andes!
We flew over the Andes, from the air I could see the road we cycled in on just yesterday morning. The magnitude of what we are doing, once again struck me. This trip is awesome.
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| Our plane is the big one in the rear | Larry looks skeptical... |
We landed in Buenos Aires to get some more fuel. It took 3 hours! During that time we were not allowed to leave the plane, nor use the bathrooms on the plane. Talk about torture!
We have been on the plane since 5 p.m. The flight is supposed to be about 11 hours, plus the 3 extra hours to gas up. By the time we arrive in South Africa we will have crossed 5 time zones. The local time will be around 11 a.m. We will be expected to clear customs, get our bikes, put them back together and ride to the hotel. Since we are still making up time from the last airplane screw up (oops) we have lost our "layover" day in Jo'burg. By that I mean we will have one night before we have to get up and ride again. (We have no time for stinking' jet lag!)
I overheard on the plane today someone saying Mussolini was a better tour director than TK & A. It was a joke, I think.
to be continued....go to the Hooker section first...
