Day 1

What’s up everybody, Jazz reporting from room 632 of the Royal Hotel here in Durban, South Africa and I’ll be giving you a quick run down of our trip so far!

After we met at Adelaide airport at 5am it all went down hill from there. Our first stop was Sydney. Our following flight to Johanessburg was delayed by 6 hours which sucked hard but it just meant we got to hang out as a group and get to know each other better.

The time came for us to embark upon the 14hr flight to Johannesburg and we were pumped just to be making progress but also…14hrs…

The highlight of this flight was that we discovered a stash of Tim Tams at the back of the plane and…well, we made the most of that situation.

We finally touched down in Jo’burg as us locals call it, where we were greeted with ANOTHER 8 hour delay for our final flight to Durban.

We were thrilled, ecstatic, overjoyed. We went on to spend the night at a nearby hotel where we could get a couple hours of sleep but more importantly…SHOWERS, I’ll be gentle and say they were sorely needed.

It seemed I had just shut my eyes when the alarm went off to get to our final flight to Durban.

So after 33 freaking hours, we had finally made it to the World Championships and even though sleep deprivation made it difficult, we were excited!!!

Next up you’ll be hearing from Emily and her experiences so far so stay tuned!

P.S. My biggest regret was not bringing enough lip balm for the trip.

Day 2

4:55 My alarm went off and Bethan and I got up. ⏰
5:06 We went downstairs to meet the team and we were the last ones there…apparently the rest of the team became punctual overnight!
5:19 We got the shuttle bus from the hotel to the airport. 🚌
5:22 Jazz fell down stairs getting off shuttle bus, everyone reminded me that I should include this in my diary.
5:29 Amy tried to check in for the flight and got hit on by check in guy…passport and cellphone number please! 🤭
5:49 Jazz got caught sniffing trees in the airport, it hasn’t been a great start for him. 🌿
5:54 While we waited to board, we enjoyed a breakfast of lollies, potato chips, snickers bars, vegan jerky, krispy kremes and a stolen muesli bars from our earlier flight. 🍫
6:09 We boarded our plane. ✈️
6:17 Bethan confused the plane safety card for a menu and was very disappointed. 😢
6:28 Our flight to Durban took off! 🛫
6:30 The food service was announced and Bethan was very excited! 🙌
6:40 We got served our breakfast of salad sandwiches and mini fruit salads. 🥪🍍
7:17 We arrived at King Shaka 🤙🏻 Airport in Durban. 🛬
8:26 We got on our mini bus to head to the hotel. 🚌
9:06 We arrived at our hotel. 🏨
9:11 We saw the Dutch team sitting in lobby…fan girl moment number 1 for the trip! 🇳🇱
9:17 We went to hotel check in and tournament registration where we met Jeffrey for the first time. Dutch greetings all round! 😗
9:34 We climbed 5 flights of stairs with our suitcases because the elevators in the hotel are way too slow. 🧳
9:37 We found Tamika and she met the rest of the team. 🤝
9:39 We got to our room to find out that we have the best room of the lot…did someone say mini suite?👌
9:47 We went downstairs to the buffet breakfast complete with an omelette station. My standard order is 2 eggs sunny side up…rookies take note! 🍳
10:28 We went back to our rooms for showers. It had been nearly 2 days in the same clothes so we didn’t smell that great. 🛁
10:52 The boys went to check out the roof top pool. 🏊‍♂️
11:14 We unpacked and got settled into our glorious room…did I mention that it’s the best room out of everyone’s? 😆
11:30 The girls explored the roof top pool and terrace. 🏊‍♀️
11:47 Nap time!! 😴
13:00 We went downstairs for a lunch of a very portion controlled serve of pasta and salad.🍝🥗
13:45 Greg got in the lift with the Czech team and managed to lean on most of the floor buttons.🤦‍♂️
13:58 Andrew cut his leg shaving. His reaction suggested that he was possibly dying so needed medical attention immediately. Lucky his caring and generous sister offered a bandaid! 🙄
14:06 Nik and Sharyn shared elevators with the Dutch team. 😍
14:07 We met downstairs to walk to beach.🚶‍♂️
14:10 We started our not so leisurely walk to the beach. Apparently large groups of foreigners attract a lot of unwanted attention. 😬
14:25 We got to beach and wandered along the foreshore for a while. 🏖
15:00 We decided to walk home via the beachfront markets. 🛍
15:22 We stopped at SuperSpar to get snacks and bottled water. 126L of water to be precise!💧
15:57 We got back to hotel with very sore arms from carrying the water. 💪
16:21 Nap time again! 😴
17:54 Amy woke me up for dinner.
18:04 We got in the lift with Dutch players (fangirl moment number 2). Jeffrey put in a good word for us! 👍
18:06 Dinner time! Rice, chicken, beef, salad, ice cream and trifle were on the menu and no portion controls this time! 🍚🍰
18:50 We realise we have left our only key inside our room. We blamed Amy for being last out and not picking it up. 🗝
18:55 Security let us in to our room and I find the key on the table next to my phone. Sorry Amy! 🙋‍♀️
19:02 Team meeting in Tim’s room. ✍️
19:10 Tim said goodnight to everyone. 😴
19:15 We got into our pyjamas and brushed our teeth.🦷
19:20 We packed our bags for tomorrow ready for our early morning training session.🎒
19:27 Bed time!! 🛏