aka "dodging strikes, weather and IRROPS"

Background

Having not left Australia at all in 2018, and not having been to the UK since 2015 and Africa since 2014, and with the plan to take advantage of the BA Biltong flash sale, a plan was hatched for one of the most bizarre routings for a holiday anyone has ever imagined


Planning
Biltong fare
12th October 2018
Booked JNB-LHR-BCN-LHR-JNB F ZAR12611.68 for July 2019

December 2018
Took advantage of a less generous Qantas flash sale to obtain
DRW-SYD-JNB-SYD-CBR J AUD4519.95 July-August 2019

Shorthauls a random mish mash of cash bookings, will discuss any interesting points within the flights themselves
(Booking the Comair intra-African flights was a real nightmare, discussed in this thread Comair Confusion; the Helity helicopter flights to Ceuta were also "interesting" to book, I have added some discussion to the relevant post on this report)

Bucket list Europe items
My intention was to cross a few things off the bucket list. Making the focus the UK and Spain meant that this included
-Spanish North African territories- Melilla and Ceuta (not for any particularly good reason and not with a lot of expectation- primarily because they are often brought up in conjunction with “Gibraltar” and I fancied visiting to see what went on there. A previous Ceuta/Melilla trip in 2012 was cancelled due to being hospitalised with a spinal cord injury)
-Gibraltar (for aviation reasons and for similar reasons to Ceuta/Melilla, as above)
-Valencia and Bilbao (primarily for architecture)
-Barra- beach landing and take off
-Westray-Papa Westray “world’s shortest flight”

Africa
Ended up being quite a last minute plan
My initial intention was to do a grand trip taking in all of South Africa. However it rapidly became apparent this was a stupid idea and there was insufficient time
Subsequently the plan changed to be an ex-JNB circuit through Eswatini into Mozambique and back to JNB- this was shot down by the inability to take a car across the Mozambique border, and was thus modified to a simpler JNB-Eswatini-JNB circuit
The latter half was initially intended as a Namibia trip, possibly a tour. Then pants decided he would come for 2 weeks of it, which meant any idea of a tour was out, and given he is not in any way adventurous I decided that the best was for those 2 weeks to essentially focus on the Western Cape only. This left me with a free week, with which I intended to visit the Zambia/Zimbabwe/Botswana triangle around Victoria falls


Intended routing:
MCV-DRW
DRW-MEL-CBR-BNE (which became DRW-MEL-BNE)
BNE-DRW
DRW-SYD, SYD-JNB
2 nights in Eswatini (1, Piggs Peak, 2 Malalotja and Mlilwane reserves, 3 Sibebe rock to JNB)
JNB-LHR
LHR-BCN
BCN-MAD-MLN
MLN-AGP
AGP-JCU
JCU-AGP//AGP-BIO
BIO-LGW
LGW-GLA-BRR (which became LGW-GLA-BEB-Barra by ground transport)
BRR-GLA-KOI-WRY (became BRR-GLA // EDI-KOI // to Westray by ground transport)
WRY-PPW-KOI (CANCELLED! Boo!!)
KOI-ABZ-LHR
LHR-GIB
GIB-LHR-MAD-VLC (24 hours in Valencia)
VLC-MAD-BCN (delayed by tech) (I have messed up and reported the BCN-LHR flight in this post also)
BCN-LHR-JNB
JNB-LVI (Chobe National Park; Livingstone Island to Zimbabwe; a few days chilling in Victoria Falls)
VFA-JNB-CPT
(period of time spent razzing around the Western Cape 1) 3 days in Cape Town, 2) Greater Cape Town and winelands, 3) Winelands to Swellendam via Hermanus, 4) 3 days on the Garden Route, 5) Garden route to Oudtschoorn via Prince Alfred's pass, 6) Swartberg circle route, 7) Oudtschoorn to Stellenbosch, 8) Stellenbosch to Cederberg)
CPT-DUR
DUR-JNB-SYD-CBR
CBR-BNE-DRW-GOV-GTE
GTE-NUB