Rwanda TravelogueDay 13 - July 22, 2022Left Sabyinyo immediately after breakfast. The trip to the outskirts of Kigali was fairly uneventful, though punctuated with getting stuck behind incredibly slow trucks on the steep inclines - Rwanda is very mountainous. Kigali was a different matter. A major road was apparently closed for maintenance and so we ended up stuck in a traffic jam for around an hour. Good job we left early... Actually arrived in good time to check into the airport - security and border control were no problem. Waited in a near-deserted club lounge before heading for the gate. Good flight. Arrived at a rather more crowded Nairobi airport, but fortunately the fact that we only had hand baggage meant we could remain airside and avoid border control and security. The gate for the British Airways flight was already posted, so we headed there to get our boarding cards. BA were now using a different gate from the one they had always used previously and this one had no facility to print boarding cards without going through security to get to the gate itself. So we left our bags at the door, went through security, picked up our boarding passes and then came back out through security. Rather frustrating. Off to the "Pride" lounge which was very, very busy and with a very limited food offering. Went back to the gate with about 30 minutes left before take off to discover that the seating available was essentially insufficient for the passenger numbers and there was quite a large crowd standing near the gate itself. That would have been OK except this was also where everyone coming into the gate from security came through and there was a great deal of difficulty with accommodating both the standing passengers and the new arrivals. Eventually got let on the plane to discover BA had changed the flight to use an old-style of cabin. I assumed I would be in an aisle seat next to Mavis and so sat in 4G by mistake, rather than 4F where I should have been. A little later a probably late teens passenger sat in 4F. I was then told that 4G was non-functional so I shouldn't remain there. The passenger in my seat refused to move, saying she had cleared sitting there with cabin crew. In the end she organised a vast shuffle of her family and Mavis and I ended up sitting on seats near each other. Food wasn't very good, but plane arrived on time (early morning) after a decent sleep. Collected by our driver and got home around 9am, with just the photos to check and the washing to be done. Rwandan reflections |