Writers’ Block

Queues blues

✍ I started laughing hysterically as I read that there were no bottlenecks at OR Tambo and waiting times were 12 to 14 minutes (In Transit, November 10). Every time I have travelled from ORT, I’ve waited in a queue, international or local, for three to four hours. All they told me was that they were short-staffed and that was it. I wish to hell I never have to go there again. — Melanie Cilliers, Sandton

OMG moment with the GPS

On a recent trip through Mozambique, we relied on the very useful map by Map Studio. Unfortunately, it let us down badly north of the Gorongosa National Park. It gives a “Gorongosa Mountain Inn” with the icon for a lodge and a tented camp, as well as the GPS co-ordinates. The latter led us to a bridge over a dry water-course, with no inn or lodge or tented camp in sight. We asked at the nearby hospital but no one had heard of Gorongosa Mountain Inn. If this was just a GPS malfunction, and the place does indeed exist, I apologise. If not, Map Studio should remove that reference.

We drove to Gorongosa town, where there is a hotel, and while I am grateful that 500 meticais bought us permission to camp in that establishment’s rubbish-strewn back yard, between a car wreck and an insufficiently covered French drain, it is not exactly a place I can recommend.

— Gigi Gottwald

Glad I wrapped

On a recent trip to London, I checked one item of luggage from Cape Town to London and changed planes in Joburg. This suitcase had been locked with a strong padlock. When I retrieved my case in London, the padlock had been removed. Nothing had been taken but the case had been rifled through thoroughly, with toiletries everywhere and clothing crumpled. On my return journey, I personally wrapped my case in Glad wrap, and found this to be a suitable deterrent for thieves. — Debbie Hoyle, Somerset West