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We landed in Durban on Monday evening at 19h55 after a smooth trip all the way from Washington! We were very fortunate to not have had even one adverse incident throughout our travels! The worst thing that happened to us on our return trip was that there were 9 children aged between 3 and 11 on the same flight! When we arrived at the boarding gate, there was chaos! The children were occupying several seats around the boarding gate and their stuff was EVERYWHERE! They were running around screaming at each other, running up and down to the bathroom and generally striking fear in the hearts of all the other passengers on the flight. Everyone was dreading having to sit in the vicinity of these children for the next 14 hours. The only adult traveling with these children was a middle aged man in a suit and tie, who seemed completely incapable of controlling them. In fact he wasn't actually trying to keep them in line at all. He just sat there and watched them running amok. He occasionally had a few harsh words with his only potential ally: a teenage girl who was part of the group. When he got to the front of the line to board the plane, he was missing a few boarding passes! He held up the line for a while before being told to move to the side and sort it out. Eventually all 11 of them got on the plane: 9 children, a teenager and a middle aged man in a suit and tie. There was chaos on the plane trying to seat all of them. Their seats were scattered and there were many unhappy faces and people asking to change seats. Eventually everyone got settled and the plane was ready for take off. Surprisingly, I didn't hear much from the children throughout the 7 hour flight to Dakar. Occasionally one would tell another to "shoosh!" but that was about it, and they were sitting about 5 rows behind me. Everyone seated nearby heaved a sigh of relief when they got off in Dakar.
Other than that, we landed about 15 min ahead of schedule in Jo'burg and about 15 min ahead of schedule in Durban as well! We didn't have any lost or tampered with baggage and we're home in one piece. Still a bit confused about what time zone we're in, but trying to get as much sleep as possible.

I must say: Holidays are wonderful, but it's also wonderful to come back home and put an end to living out of a suitcase!