Africa - Part 1

As many of you know, we took a trip to southern Africa over a 23 day period spanning July and August. I can say the planning rivaled the China trip we took 3 years ago in terms of difficulty! Actually, it was more difficult in several respects. One was booking places to stay. Hotel, lodge, guesthouse, bed and breakfast - it didn't matter. You had to make sure your schedule was set and wouldn't change, because there are no refunds. You cannot "reserve" accommodation at most places. Some allow for 24 hours, but after that you have to make payment or lose it. So, our schedule had to be set first, then our flights which there were 4 of within Africa, before I could commit to the places we would stay overnight. Another problem was logistics - driving from one place to another. What were the road conditions? How long does it really take? We did no driving ourselves in China, but that was not possible in Botswana, Namibia, or even South Africa due to the places we were visiting. Public transportation is not an option. Can't take a bus into Chobe National Park nor a ferry across the Okavango Delta! The trip was centered around my 2nd cousin Jennifer's week-long stint in Namibia where she was doing field work for her degree, and her return from the US before the Africa trip and her return to work teaching at the ISA in Amsterdam. We knew the beginning and ending dates, as well as where she needed to be between August 1st and the 9th. Everything else was built around this information.

So I sent requests for information from the tourist agencies of the countries we would visit. Namibia sent useful information quite quickly, but what Botswana sent was very lacking and came late. It was virtually of no use. The local sources in Amsterdam had limited information and it was all in Dutch, as well. The internet was my main source for information and tool for booking. Days and days were spent researching where to go, when to go, how to get there. I spoke to friends who had gone to Africa. Jyoti and Rajat in India had a great trip to the continent several years ago, but it turns out they went to central eastern countries, so I couldn't use their information. Right here in Amsterdam Brad and Natalia went just last year, but they went mainly east once they hit Johannesburg. I was able to use the agency they did for our time in Cape Town. Ultimately that wasn't as smooth as I had hoped for. More about that later. Justina, a friend in Amsterdam, had visited the areas we were scoping out, but it was so long ago that her memory was weak and probably so much had changed anyway. So I was basically starting from scratch.

Research, blogs, trip advisor, Google - site to site gathering and recording information day after day. Three weeks and a couple of days may sound like a lot of time fro a holiday, but there's no such thing as "enough" time for 99% of the places we have visited. Once I had a comprehensive list of places to visit, the hard task of editing that list down began. Of course many of those places that were removed from the list during the editing process due to time limitations were mentioned later once we were in the area by locals or other visitors who said you "can't miss" it. Well, we're just going to have to "miss it" as there's not enough time in 23 days to see everything you want in places such as these. Many articles I read indicated a need to book places a year in advance due to popularity and scarcity. Once I got into the "meat" of planning this adventure, I barely had a month. As a matter-of-fact, one flight (between Cape Town and Johannesburg on the back end of the trip), the last detail of the entire journey, was finalized AFTER we landed in Johannesburg! I had a hell of a time booking 4X4's. Reply after reply came back from my inquiry indicating "sold out". The 4X4 we initially had in Botswana from Budget wasn't even a 4X4, though I was told it was!! We drove a Honda CRV for 3 1/2 days before turning it in and getting a Toyota Hilux. That CRV would NEVER have handled the sand and water we would later encounter in Moremi Wildlife Game Reserve!! Namibia was the same - out of the dozen or more car hire companies I contacted only 2 came back with one vehicle left. It didn't help that we were going during their high season, so rooms and vehicles were hot property. Responses for many came slow because many don't have internet access on their premises, or services were down for 5 days I was told in one case. So I played the waiting game a couple of times trying to get the place to stay that I favored over others. Once I committed to my second choice when time was getting short only to have the first choice respond several days later when it was too late. Suffice to say it was a lot of work, many details, a little tense at times trying to make the right decision for everyone, keeping the budget low while providing nice places to stay, and keeping unpleasant surprises from ruining the experience. It's good to know that some places had no grocery stores, or that gas stations are spotty, at best, and in Namibia they only accept "gas cards" or cash. ATM's? Apparently Visa IS NOT everywhere you want to be! ATM's love the taste of plastic in Namibia. You need to go to several places in Maun to get access to Chobe or Moremi. You are told you cannot buy a pass at the gate - and then you get to the gate after jumping through hoops of fire earlier to buy passes and they tell you "Sure, you can buy passes here at the gate." WTF?!?!?!?!!!! You had to keep telling yourself "It's a developing country...relax".

So as you can tell, as much as I tried we still had surprises in store for us. Like reading time and again online that it takes 6 hours to drive through the parks (Moremi and Chobe) to go between Maun and Kasane. In reality, it's a 24 hour ordeal. Details about this later, too. I just wanted to drop a little info on the planning process. The three of us met at least twice to discuss the trip beforehand. The first time we pulled the trigger and Jen bought our round trip tickets, as the price for them was just getting higher. I'll start on the actual trip in the next post. But know that this was a trip for all trips! More different than any other trip we have ever taken in many ways. I will include an album of images that cover the area I talk about in the post. None for the planning stages (could've taken a pic of me sitting at the laptop, but really, who wants to see that?). Africa was terrific in so many ways. Not a trip for the pampered. You're going to get a little dirt under the fingernails. You have to be okay with that. You may get a little cold for a while, and sweat the next day. May get a bug bite, sleep on an uncomfortable mattress. But the experience will blow you away.