Off to Africa
My regular readers might remember that we have not traveled since our visit to see my brother and Jamie in California for a week last December. Since then, I have gone through radiation treatment for prostate cancer (the prognosis is good), we got a dog (whom we love dearly), and I have taken 178 days of photos (as of this writing).
Now! It’s finally here! It’s time to REALLY travel again!
And we are going somewhere we have never been before—Africa.
On Wednesday of this week, we will get up very early (we leave for the airport at 3:30 am) to catch a United Airlines flight from Seattle to Newark (I know…but we had the tickets months before Newark had any problems). And then, after about a five-hour layover, we board a 15-hour nonstop flight from Newark to Cape Town, South Africa. The rest of the trip looks like the map you see above.
First up is four nights in Cape Town. I know the map has a little three on it, but we are going in a day early. After Cape Town, we fly north to Kasane in Botswana, and then we take a cruise.
Sounds strange to say that we are taking a cruise in the middle of Southern Africa, but our entire trip is planned, coordinated and carried out by AmaWaterways—a European river cruise company. So, in the middle of this trip, we get a four-night river cruise on the Chobe River that is the border between Botswana and Namibia.
After our four nights on the Chobe, we will drive about 90 minutes on a “luxury motor coach” to Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. We will spend two nights there, which will include a train ride (with dinner and drinks) across the falls, a boat ride at the bottom of the falls (with drinks and appetizers), and finally (yes, I actually booked it) a helicopter ride above the falls.
The next morning, we are off on another flight to Johannesburg (back in South Africa), where we will spend two nights. During the second day, we will tour one of the townships north of the city. That should be very interesting.
We finish up the trip with three nights at the Tintswalo Lodge in Kruger National Park, where we hope to see even more of Africa’s diverse wildlife. After our time there, we board a plane to fly back to Johannesburg, change planes and fly home. Everyone who has done this trip tells us it will be “the trip of a lifetime!” I just want it to be the equal of our current “trip of a lifetime,” to the Galapagos. I think it will measure up.
My first post from the trip should go live on Wednesday, either from SeaTac before we depart or from Newark while we layover before our 15-hour plane ride down to Cape Town. See you then.
I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself. —Nelson Mandela