*That's 'slowly slowly' in Swahili, a rough equivalent of 'Manana, manana'.

As you can see from the map, we're still in Africa when we should be in London. Sometimes, an extra day of holiday is a great thing, others it's less than ideal.

We had been warned by Damo & Claire that the flights from Zanzibar to Nairobi sometimes take off early so we should get to the airport in plenty of time. We did just that, but it didn't really pay off. Our scheduled flight time (6.30pm) came and went with out any information. The Precision Air representatives here openly admitted that they had no idea where our plane was, but assured us it would be here soon - 10 minutes, Andrew was told.

At this point, we should explain that Zanzibar Airport is rather unusual in having no information screens, apart from one whiteboard at the check-in desks, not visible from airside. Nor does it have a PA system - it has one microphone directly attached to a feeble speaker that serves to distort rather than amplify a voice.

Anyway, the 10 minutes came and went.... then we were told it would be here at 7.30.

Then 8pm. Definitely 8pm.

Then "We think the plane might be in Dar es Salaam. But we don't really know. We've tried phoning them but they won't pick up."

Seriously?

Our transfer time to make our London connection at Nairobi was three and a half hours so for quite a long time, we weren't worried - we could afford quite a long delay.

Then a man arrived on another PA flight, wearing a PA waistcoat, and told us that our flight would take off at 10pm and we'd all probably miss our connnections and have to get a flight in the morning.

Sigh.

But hope springs eternal, and we took off just before 10pm, stewards telling us that they were calling ahead and that we'd probably make the transfer, though our luggage wouldn't (fine - keep our smelly socks). So we landed in Nairobi 10 minutes before the scheduled departure of the connection, dashed out as soon as the doors opened, ran downstairs, upstairs and along a corridor, looked in horror as we faced a padlocked door that cost us a good 30 seconds and ran to the gate.

"Final Call" the screen said, as we led group of exhausted Europeans through Nairobi departures. And we got to the gate two minutes before departure.

"London?" said the woman. "No, that's finished, gone."

"No it isn't - it's THERE (fifteen people point wildly out of a window)!"

"Yes but it's finished. Paperwork done, baggage done."

"Keep the baggage..."

And so it went on for many minutes, as the plane stubbornly stood, taunting us with its shiny red tail, meant to bound for London but not actually going anywhere at all.

So here we are the next day, having been processed relatively efficiently (it's almost as if they do this a lot...) onto a bus and to a hotel which appears specially designed to receive the victims of Precision Air and Kenya Airways. Seriously, all the staff know the ins and outs of the conditions of our stay, how many drinks we're allowed at which hour, how many minutes of allocated phone time we can swap for internet time (it's amazing how strong a negotiating position you're in with just 3 minutes of international call credit up your sleeve - we got 2 hours of internet time. EACH!)

And the food's pretty good too. Now we just really, really hope that tonight's flight goes as planned...