Off To New Country, New Adventure Madagascarrrr !

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Geo: -26.1538, 28.0389

Flying with Air Mauritius

There are several airlines that fly to Madagascar from South Africa, South African Airlines, Kenyan Airlines and Air Mauritius and Air Madagascar. We did not want to fly with Air Madagascar because they had been on strike and had a bad record for on time departures. The price for South African Airlines and Air Mauritius were about the same and with Air Mauritius you were allowed a free stop over which would allow us to visit Mauritius after Madagascar.

After a night of having too much fun and laughter with Rob and Tabitha, got to the airport at 7:30 only to find our flight time had been delayed until around 2:30 in the afternoon! Since we had not book our tickets directly through Air Mauritius, we were not aware until we got to the airport. Lesson learned--always check your flight information in advance!

Things you learn when it is too late to change where you are going or how you will get there. Arrived at the JNB airport in not the best condition only to find when flying Air Mauritius you are only allowed 60 kilo of luggage and we sadly were over. The gentleman working behind the counter decided give us a discount but still had to go and pay for baggage excess charge. This is not the first time but we have had this happen it is what it is. One plus is the Air Mauritius rep gave us a big break on the price.

So we fly to Mauritius, have a layover and collect our luggage, come back next day pay overweight charge again.

We have a two week stopover in Mauritius after Madagascar, and when we fly back to Mauritius we may have to pay again.

So part of our plan all along has been donate our camping equipment, and ditch an entire bag and its contents. This will be our tent camping rolling duffle which we will donate to Mitsinjo Community Forest Reserve, complete with the new tent acquired, our old thermarests and chairs. Hopefully this will cut down on our cost.

Since we purchased our tickets Air Mauritius has changed its baggage rules. Tickets purchased after July are on 'piece concept' more in line with what we are used to in US.

We should have done a little more research and called Air Mauritius, and that way we would not have been surprised.

Lesson learned ?

Hahahahahaha

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Photos

Robert, Laura and Rob
beginning of the evening. Please notice Robert's new headdress!

Tabitha and Laura
further on in the evening

Jacqueline
she had just arrived back from visit to grandmother in England and was still tired from the journey so taking it easy