theDIBB - Cape Town Capers - Day 1 Heathrow to Johannesburg

Day 1 - Thursday 10th January

Cape Town Capers
January 2019

Cast (it’s the usual one!)
Me: Shaun, 50’s, loves travelling, eating and drinking (not necessarily in that order!)
Alison: 50’s, ditto to the above!

Pre trip report Here

Trip Report Index

So, today’s the day! Unusually for us, not only are we flying direct to the end destination from London but we are checking luggage in and also it was no crack of dawn drive to airport for us! So after pottering around at home we left at about 11:15 to drive to the airport and as expected the traffic was light (thank you M25!).

We had decided to park at T3 long stay and slog over to T5. The reason behind this is that the return flight landed at T3 in the early morning so this way round we’d have the shorter transit through the airport on the way back. We didn’t have to wait too long in the cold for the next bus and it was useful to have a dot matrix indicator sign showing when the bus would arrive.

After we arrived at T3 we had the option of tube or HEX for connection to T5 on a free of charge basis. Not much to choose between the two for such a short hop but we decided to go for the HEX option and after picking up a free ticket there was on a small 3 minute wait.

At T5 we made our way across the concourse and into the First Wing to check our bag in and chatted to the lovely desk agent explaining that this was first time in the Concorde Lounge.

Galleries First lounge was all very quiet as we approached and then crossed the foyer to enter the CCR for the first time ever.

First impressions were good and we settled down for a couple of glasses of Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle champagne at the bar – Bliss!

Feeling a bit peckish by now we moved over to the dining booths and checked ourselves for a nice meal. It was a lovely experience in a booth with very attentive service and frequent topping up of the champagne! I had vegetable soup to start followed by cauliflower salad and then cheese board to finish, while Alison had goats cheese, followed by sea bass then a chocolate and caramel cheesecake.

The food was lovely and the presentation and crockery was a bit quirky, I guess in order to lift things out of the ordinary and away from a usual everyday style. We decided to take coffee on the terrace although the soft furnishings appeared to be more useful for snoozing rather than sitting and having conversation.

A while before we left we’d looked into what was available in the spa and we’d both booked an Elemis treatment, a through material back massage for me and Alison opted for her nails to be painted. It was very fortunate for me that I’d had a slight back twinge the day before. I nodded off and chatted in equal measure throughout my massage and left feeling quite relaxed. Alison enjoyed having her nails done with a lovely therapist.

We met back in the CCR and decided to check out the cocktail list, or at in my case, manfully attempt to work my through the entire list. From booze fuddled memory and phone photographs I had a Cosmopolitan, Martini and the famous Tanqueray BA175. Afterwards I found it to be 25ml grapefruit juice, 25ml apricot liqueur, 25ml Tanqueray No. Ten gin and topped with Champagne. Alison had a couple of espresso martinis and then moved to non alcoholic cocktails!

I have to say at this point I’ve always been a bit of a lightweight as far as drink is concerned and since going on a diet, all I’ve had is two pints of beer a week maximum – the effects of all this drink were by now beginning to take their toll.

However our gate was now up on the board and we moved very slowly and steadily through the utilidors towards the C gates (or in my case not so steadily!) The photo of me on the floor was staged by the way!

We boarded the plane and took up our seats, had some more champagne and received our pyjamas and amenity kits and chatted to the crew.

I’m afraid after this it’s all a bit of a blur (unsurprisingly) so I’ll have to hand over to Alison for further details here.

We were on an A380 for this leg on the trip and the seats were so comfortable! Service was very friendly, and we enjoyed drinks with Shaun moving to the 'buddy' seat opposite me before moving back to his own seat to eat.

We were served a pre-appetiser, before moving on to the real menu.

I had linguine to start, followed by wild boar tortellini, then apricot sponge. All accompanied by fizzy water and sprite (I’d had way more to drink than I usually would and I wanted to remember the first class experience unlike Shaun!) I know Shaun also had tortellini for his main course, followed by cheese. From the photos he had the terrine to start! Who knows what else he had to eat – or drink!

After dinner we had our beds made up while we changed into pyjamas before relaxing, watching films and then falling asleep.