May 30th, 2007 I flew out of Bangalore, India into Johannesburg, South Africa on South African Airways and took my connecting flight to George, Western Cape, SA. I absolutely had no clue of how things worked in this part of the world; this was my first time in Africa. I was in George to do my Commercial Pilot's Licence course. The flight school's instructor picked me up from the airport and dropped me at the crew house. It was a pretty small place about 8km outside the airport in a valley next to a lake. I know it sounds really nice, but wasn't the best place to start life in Africa. It was totally isolated from the world; for a person like me, coming from one of the busiest countries in the world, this was a little too difficult to adjust living without neighbors, satellite television and internet in the beginning. As days passed by, I adopted to the life in George. I only learnt later that George was laid back town and people all over South Africa usually consider retiring in that town; get beachfront house and play golf all day long (that was more or less the attitude of most people there). Well, after 6 months I got tired of living in a town with just one main road, two restaurants and two night clubs! I then moved to Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa and decided to continue my course with another flight school there. This city is one of my favorite cities in the world I have seen at least. It was filled with people who got along very well regardless of color, religion and whatever it is that usually keeps people from not mingling. Apartheid, I'm sure you all have heard of that term before; I had too, but had never understood until recently. South Africa, like India has a wide range of people with different cultures; this country has a wide European influence like the British and Dutch. Generations of this influence gave way to another culture; its a mixture of African culture and European skin; they are called Afrikaaners. They are mostly animal farmers and refer to themselves as "boor". And then there are the native Africans belonging to multiple tribes who constitute to majority of the population with respect to color of their skin. There is often tension and differences among all these people; the government currently favors the native Africans and the program is called "Black Empowerment Era (BEE)"; this has created favoritism in the government, thus affecting all the people of this country. Let me not get into details of that!!
Later in 2009 I moved to Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa and finished my course. This is the biggest town in the North Eastern side of the country; connecting Johannesburg and Maputo in Mozambique. It is a quite place; the streets aren't busy, handful of restaurants and couple of small malls; unfortunately the night life here is pathetic! By then I'd gotten used to not living in a city and had adjusted to laid back African towns. Don't get me wrong here; cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa are very well developed and extremely busy.
Well, in Nelspruit I did a lot of free-lance jobs in aviation; Taught quite a few students at the flight school and some highly experience pilots too for their Airline Transport Pilot's Licence examinations. I then managed to get a job from a guy who was willing to start a charter company; this helped me sustain financially in SA.
Later in April, 2011, I traveled to Nampula, Northern Mozambique to meet a few people and then continued to Arusha in Tanzania via Dar Es Salaam. I was there to verify an aircraft and its documents that the company was willing to buy. Arusha is a border town filled with tourist all over the place. It's one of the starting points for the legendary Serengeti safari trials and just a few kilometers away from Africa's tallest single standing mountain, Mt. Kilimanjaro. This airstrip was busy like Dubai/ Heathrow airports (slightly exaggerated)!!! Every other minute you could see a small passenger aircraft carrying about 10 people landing and taking off one after the other! The aircraft we had to buy looked amazing as we approached it! It was painted white, green and red! Looked like it was taken good care off. After verifying the logbooks of the engines, propellers and the airframe we discovered that the aircraft had engines that had done its life, the propellers had no history recorded and after a thorough search we discovered a couple of bullet holes that were patched up on the airframe!! Apparently those were the bullet holes from the time they flew in Sudan! This happens only in Africa!!
I then drove to Kilimanjaro Airport to catch a flight to Nairobi, Kenya. I decided to meet a couple of Kenyan friends I made in Port Elizabeth. Nairobi is one city that made me feel at home!! The busy streets, local markets, the friendly people and the weather made me feel like Bangalore in Africa! My pals showed me around and got me nice Indian food the first day. The next day we went to Nairobi National Park and had my best safari so far!! Lions and lionesses walking just next to the roads, we later spotted a couple of Rhinos, Buffalo, Giraffes and so on! We then went to a restaurant that sold exotic meat; CARNIVORE! I had a 3 quarters of a kilogram platter filled with Crocodile, Camel, Ostrich and Ox meat! The next morning I took a flight back to South Africa.
Today is the last day of 2011 and I have decided to move out of South Africa and go to Northern Mozambique to explore and analyze the aviation market in and around the region. I have decided to travel about 2500 km on three buses for a duration of 2 days. Things in Mozambique are going to be much harder than in South Africa; especially cause of the language and lack of developed infrastructure. I have loved Africa from the first day I entered it and have gradually gotten used to living in this place! I'm quite prepared for this adventure up North mentally and physically with my Malaria prevention medication, Mosquito repellent sprays, Yellow fever vaccination and so on!
Soon I will be posting about my Northern Mozambique experiences...thanks for your patience!
Later in 2009 I moved to Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa and finished my course. This is the biggest town in the North Eastern side of the country; connecting Johannesburg and Maputo in Mozambique. It is a quite place; the streets aren't busy, handful of restaurants and couple of small malls; unfortunately the night life here is pathetic! By then I'd gotten used to not living in a city and had adjusted to laid back African towns. Don't get me wrong here; cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa are very well developed and extremely busy.
Well, in Nelspruit I did a lot of free-lance jobs in aviation; Taught quite a few students at the flight school and some highly experience pilots too for their Airline Transport Pilot's Licence examinations. I then managed to get a job from a guy who was willing to start a charter company; this helped me sustain financially in SA.
Later in April, 2011, I traveled to Nampula, Northern Mozambique to meet a few people and then continued to Arusha in Tanzania via Dar Es Salaam. I was there to verify an aircraft and its documents that the company was willing to buy. Arusha is a border town filled with tourist all over the place. It's one of the starting points for the legendary Serengeti safari trials and just a few kilometers away from Africa's tallest single standing mountain, Mt. Kilimanjaro. This airstrip was busy like Dubai/ Heathrow airports (slightly exaggerated)!!! Every other minute you could see a small passenger aircraft carrying about 10 people landing and taking off one after the other! The aircraft we had to buy looked amazing as we approached it! It was painted white, green and red! Looked like it was taken good care off. After verifying the logbooks of the engines, propellers and the airframe we discovered that the aircraft had engines that had done its life, the propellers had no history recorded and after a thorough search we discovered a couple of bullet holes that were patched up on the airframe!! Apparently those were the bullet holes from the time they flew in Sudan! This happens only in Africa!!
I then drove to Kilimanjaro Airport to catch a flight to Nairobi, Kenya. I decided to meet a couple of Kenyan friends I made in Port Elizabeth. Nairobi is one city that made me feel at home!! The busy streets, local markets, the friendly people and the weather made me feel like Bangalore in Africa! My pals showed me around and got me nice Indian food the first day. The next day we went to Nairobi National Park and had my best safari so far!! Lions and lionesses walking just next to the roads, we later spotted a couple of Rhinos, Buffalo, Giraffes and so on! We then went to a restaurant that sold exotic meat; CARNIVORE! I had a 3 quarters of a kilogram platter filled with Crocodile, Camel, Ostrich and Ox meat! The next morning I took a flight back to South Africa.
Today is the last day of 2011 and I have decided to move out of South Africa and go to Northern Mozambique to explore and analyze the aviation market in and around the region. I have decided to travel about 2500 km on three buses for a duration of 2 days. Things in Mozambique are going to be much harder than in South Africa; especially cause of the language and lack of developed infrastructure. I have loved Africa from the first day I entered it and have gradually gotten used to living in this place! I'm quite prepared for this adventure up North mentally and physically with my Malaria prevention medication, Mosquito repellent sprays, Yellow fever vaccination and so on!
Soon I will be posting about my Northern Mozambique experiences...thanks for your patience!
