If You Delay One Flight: A Domino Effect Story

So far this year, we have been extremely fortunate with pretty seamless travel days. They may be long days, but they have gone smoothly. Well, our travel luck ran out as we got ready to leave Sri Lanka. What was supposed to be one long day of travel, turned into three. Have you ever read the children’s book “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie”? It goes like this… “If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for milk. If you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask you for a straw. When he finishes the milk, he’ll ask you for a napkin…” Our flight out of Sri Lanka was delayed by 4 hours and the domino effect that followed reminded me so much of that book.

When Travel Plans Unravel

We got an email Thursday evening that our flight out of Sri Lanka was delayed. Because the flight was delayed, we would miss our connecting flight in Seychelles and they re-booked it to the next day. With the flight being the next day, we had to spend the night in Seychelles. Because we were spending the night in Seychelles we had to complete a Travel Authorization to enter the country (this isn’t needed if you’re only transiting through). Staying the night in Seychelles made us miss our connecting flight in South Africa.

We were doing a self transfer in Johannesburg so it was a different airline and our responsibility to reschedule. They had no connecting flights for the day we were arriving, so we had to spend one night in Johannesburg and fly to our final destination the next day. It was A LOT, and we had about 6 hours to figure it all out and book accommodations. Katie, if you’re wondering – there were spreadsheets involved!

An Unplanned Stop in Paradise

If you’re forced to spend a night somewhere, an island nation in the Indian Ocean is a pretty great place! Seychelles is a series of islands off the eastern coast of Africa, and it was stunning! Alexis took the picture below of one of the smaller islands (not where we stayed) as we were descending. We only spent about 21 hours there, and it was 21 hours well spent!

We stayed in an adorable guest house called Lovers Nest. The host greeted us when we arrived and had fresh lemonade waiting in the refrigerator.

Turquoise Water, Granite Rocks, and Hillside Jungles

After getting settled into our Airbnb we walked to the closest store to get some water and snacks. In the area we were in, everything is built into the hillside so it was some steep walking. There were beautiful retaining walls and vegetation everywhere!

The host offered to drop us off at the closest beach, told us about a great restaurant to try, and picked us up when we were done. We enjoyed walking along the beach and soaking up the fresh air and beauty around us. What a stark contrast to the bustling city of Colombo.

The restaurant our host recommended did not disappoint. It was open air, had great music and the food was delicious!

Back To The Airport – We’re Almost There

We had to wake up bright and early to go back to the airport for our flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. We boarded the plane outside with the ocean behind us. Seychelles is a truly beautiful place, but also very expensive. We will likely never go back, so I’m glad we got to experience it.

Our flight to Johannesburg was a bumpy one. We stayed at a hotel for the night and fly the last leg of our trip this morning. Our hotel has felt amazing. They had a delicious buffet of fresh and yummy food for dinner, with lots of not spicy options. We all enjoyed a long hot shower (the showers were cold in Sri Lanka) and tried to catch up on sleep. Our flight today is just two hours long and then we have an hour drive to our Aribnb. We will be renting a car and driving on the left side of the road for the first time. We’re almost there!