Our travel experience on an Emirates repat flight to Dublin
So, the horrid Covid test which we were serious about avoiding at all costs in South Africa had now crept onto my “Eire to do this” becoming a compulsory travel requirement for RSA citizens transiting through Dubai and onto the beautiful Emerald Isle that we were to call our new home country.
I really didn’t need more admin let alone the stress of now going back into 14 days of self-prescribed isolation pre our covid test but, if that’s the next hurdle thrown in our race to Eire then we will get it done. All the information was uploaded timeously by our formidable admin group #dreammakers so all we had to do was cut down more trees and with our ink loaded modern day quills follow the advice on www.sa2eire.com and the process on the Emirates website.
The nose invasion experience…
For starters we tried to limit our social activities for the pre-14 days, my continuous nightmare was that we tested positive and then had to move our flight at a small fee but might not even get a flight, so it was serious anxiety playing off against logic and the “what ifs we got the covid”. So off we went into our lockdown restriction with conscientious safe social distancing prior to our test. Yes, we went out when necessary as we were both still working but masked up, spray bottles in hand, spritzing our way through Jozi leaving a Hanzel and Gretel alcohol haze along our path.
Our process…
We called up Testara, one of the approved testing companies and booked 24 hours in advance as per their requirements with our street address and phone number. They were a little bit more expensive as you pay for the nurse call out fee. The cost is around R1800-00 per person incl VAT when we did it so check costs, but they do the test at your home which far better than queuing up and waiting as we had time limitations and yes more conscientious social distancing. You pay via credit card which is done at your home with their “goodie magadgety thingy” and state whether you are claiming back from your medical aid, not sure why but we weren’t so it was a quick “No” and moved on to the nose invasion stage.
Much to our elation they offer the nose and throat option, guess which one we went for? Not the nose! Our personal preference was to use the throat swab option, that nose nonsense is enough to make a grown man heave. Down the swab goes into the back of your throat and a small cough as if you are clearing your throat you are ready to go. No drama, no horror stories of swabs breaking through to your skull… nada, zilch, zero. In fact, it was so non-eventfull I wanted the nose test done just so I could be part of the #brainbreakersquad squealing all over Facebook. Damn, maybe next time… nope ???? I am a proper sissie.
Quill in hand we filled out and signed all forms issued by Emirates and our sa2Eire admin family, packed them in our travel pack and did a quick weight training session for arms to make sure we weren’t over the 7kg hand luggage quota. Print out your covid results which you should get back within 24 hours. You will get a sms message but print out your covid certificate, they ask you for this piece of paper when you leave Dubai airport to climb on the plane to Dublin?? 4 hours in Dubai but we only present our covid results when we leave? I am still brainstorming that one. You will get a covid travel pack on the ORT to EK leg, keep it handy, you need to glove up before you enter EK airport (but only hand in the covid negative form when you leave EK) #brainstumped, I can’t figure this out so anyone with some knowledge on this matter please tell me so I can stop shaking my head.
There is an app on the Emirates website that you should download and fill out, scan the Q-code and input all information. No, you don’t scan your covid test onto the app so still shaking my head.
Day of travel…
Pack snacks, snacks, snacks and then some water, don’t forget a biltong packet squeezed into your jean pant just in case you forgot to pack the snacks. The waiting at the hotel, in the bus queue at the airport and your Dubai leg of the trip will make you want to print this part in bold. The covid preparation that the airlines need to jump through extend your trip by a good 4 hours from leaving home to actually getting to the departure lounge at ORT. The buses load you and transport you through to ORT but you queue on the buses at the entrance to ORT (give or take an hour if you are the last bus) as they have the sniffer dogs on the forecourt checking individual passengers and luggage as they disembark. This is due to the limited staff allowed to work in the airport so the conveyer belts don’t operate and standard security checks can’t be done behind the scenes. The baggage handlers physically load the bags onto trolleys and wheel them through to the loading zone.
Waiting is the name of this game we all play today, put your big smile on and just dream of Eire. There is nothing else to do but to chew on your snacks ???? There is only one coffee station open at ORT which has great service and they do their utmost best to keep up with the demands but with limited staff and muffled requests to and fro it’s back to the game we play today… waiting and dreaming of Eire.
BUT!!! The Dubai leg is like flying through a desert in a tin winged camel!! but the camel AIN’T GOT NO WATER!!. For some reason, and logic has yet to hit this “holiday brain” the stewards don’t serve water or anything other for that matter other than a small jammy Danish in the wee hours of the morning and then lunch approx. 2 hours before you land. I am not sure if this is social distancing practices in place, all I am very aware of is that once you wake up from your 4am to 8am snooze in the sky you are HUNGRY and THIRSTY, but we had that crunched up packet of billies in our pockets which saved the morning.
Snacked and lunched up with our sugar levels returning to 30 000ft we sat back and just thought of Eire. Seeing her from our window seats through the clouds and crossing our sea to our own little Isle our smiles came back and we remembered where we were yesterday, just playing a game of dreaming of Eire and now we were here. Goosebumps as I write this as we have been here just 17 days and in our 6 month’s home plonking away at the keyboard in our kitchen saying good moo’ing to the cows in our field feeling like it’s already home...
To everyone starting this flight experience soon, it’s exciting, it’s scary and it’s darn right frustrating but seeing Eire through the window the clouds broke and my smile grew… Travel safe, take pics for your google memories as next year we would of all be here one year!
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