Hi Stephen,

I do want to write some things down!  The trip was amazing and I know I'll start to forget things if I don't write them down. In short, everything went great, we had no mishaps, no illnesses, not one missed connection (air, land, boat, bus.) in Africa or anywhere else.

Your planning really enabled us to relax and enjoy the Africa part of our trip. The advice you gave us was right on and everything was exactly as you described. Working with you was a pleasure.

Everyone who met us in Africa was on time and knew what they were doing.

So here's the travelogue part:

Joberg - the hotel was great, and it was nice to be able to walk to the Nelson Mandela mall, as we were pretty jet lagged.

The tour the next day of Soweto was amazing and it was definitely worth going to the museum there and Mandela's house. It's a weird feeling, you want to take pictures, but you know it's someone's life, not a tourist attraction.

 

The day we went to the museum, the water was out, and that seems to be a pretty normal occurrence. The history of the uprising there was interesting and it was a very good museum. Recent history can be tough, but I think they did a good job. I've been to the Civil Rights museum in Memphis, and it was similar (obviously not a much money put into it, but that's not all the counts). Someone who knew what they were doing designed it. The restaurant you sent us to was amazing (Moyo) and it was a very nice introduction to Africa.

National airlines was fine, nothing out of the ordinary for a domestic airline.

Capetown - We got to Capetown late afternoon and got picked up (really nice guy once again, in a van so there was plenty of room) and went to Stellenbosch, so we really didn't see the city until days later.

 

After that we stayed there for about 5 days, and I ended up renting a car because it was just so expensive to get around and we had lots of time during the conference where we just wanted to go places.

 

We stayed out of town in a large place with kitchen and a bedroom, and although the large living space was nice, I think we should have picked someplace in town. Don't know though. Anyway, the car was great, even though it was nerve racking driving a stick shift on the wrong side. And of the three of us (all drivers), I'm the only one who knew how to drive a manual. Yvonne got as far as driving around the parking lot but never got good enough to go on the road.

 

One day she and I drove into Capetown and parked at the Clock Tower at the Waterfront and took the open bus around town. That was a pretty good tour, we never got off the bus because it was foggy and windy and really cold. It's a beautiful town, and we got some quick history. We didn't do the cable car either, because it was so cold and the fog was making the view not that great.

The craft tour was good too, but I get the feeling that it was impromptu. The tour guide asked us at the beginning of the day what we wanted to do and seemed surprised that we wanted to do things. He knew it was something about crafts.

 

But it worked out great, we went to a beading factory called Streetwires that is a coop, and we did some beading. I think the people there thought we were weird, but they were nice about it. We also went to a weaving factory that also acts as a neighborhood day care for the women. That was in Kayalisha, the township outside of Capetown and that was amazing as well. We went to see a guy who makes flowers out of trash, and that was great too. He had a dream that his father spoke to him and said that he should go out in his yard and there would be a garden that would feed his family. So he went outside and all he saw was trash, and thought up the idea of making flowers out of the cans. He then gave us some flowers and refused to take any money for them. So of course we had to buy a ton of these flowers, but it wasn't guilt, they are really nice looking and I'm looking at a very cool arrangement we made from them.

 

The tour guide was really good and gave us a tour of the city that was perfect since we'd already gotten the big picture on the bus, but he went into a lot of detail about District 6 and the what happened when Mandela was released, stuff like that. He also took us to a bunch of craft markets. So that day was perfect, just like I was hoping.

After Capetown we flew back through Joburg up to Livingstone. That was a tight connection, we checked our luggage and ran to the other terminal and just made it. If we'd been 10 minutes late leaving Capetown, or if our bags hadn't come off the plane first (really!) we wouldn't have made it. It was about an hour connection, just not enough time. But we made it!

That was a long day. The transfer from Livingstone to Kasane was several transfers, bus, boat, jeep, then to the small airport. I didn't realize that we needed $40 per person to get into the country, and it's cash only, American dollars only. I had some money tucked away, but I'd left other money in my bag and couldn't get to it. So they let me out of the airport and went to the bank in the waiting area and changed some Rand, then went back and paid up and they stamped our passports and said, "good news! you have a 3 year visa for Zambia!"

We were amazed that there were so many people devoted to us. I did make one mistake, when the Bushtracks bus picked us up, they handed us a packet of information that I didn't look at, and just put away (and lost). It had some important stuff about visas and how much money we needed to get back out of the country, and I wasn't prepared for that when we left, but it all worked out.

So, on to Nxabega. The plane flight was long, yes, but pretty cool, too. It was cold and cramped, but the view was cool and I kind of liked it.

 

 We got there just as the sun was setting and the jeep driver asked us if we'd like to go on a drive or rest. We went on the drive, after dropping our bags and hearing the warnings about not walking around at night so you don't get eaten. We started to drive around the swamp and over these Indiana Jones bridges and immediately got stuck in the water. The driver and spotter were hilarious and another car came by and pulled us out. It was actually kind of exciting.

 

They got wet, but not us! We untethered and drove 50 yards and then got a call that our rescue car was now stuck and we went back to pull them out. Our drivers now got to make fun of the other guys who had been giving it out to them 5 minutes ago. It was pretty funny. After that we didn't get stuck again the whole time.

We drove around, offroading and crashing around the bushes, driving over trees and stuff until it was pitch dark. The stars were amazing and we had no idea where we were. No roads, no signs, but the driver knew! Amazing. At one point he stopped the car and got out and turned his flashlight to the ground and showed us lion tracks, and then 2 minutes up the road, there was a family of lions lying in the dirt.

 

 We nearly ran over them, and the spotter jumped up out of his forward seat and hopped back into the car, as the driver put it into reverse really quickly to back up. When those lions stood up I think that's when Yvonne realized she was in Africa!

The place was great, luxury but not over the top. Dinner was good too, I enjoyed it, but since there was only one selection, Gary and Yvonne sort of pouted through the sea bream with some sort of green sauce. But we went to bed really happy! (the rest of the meals had more selections so everyone was happy the rest of the time)

The next day was just as expected, morning safari, we saw lots of animals, mostly impalas and baboons. Saw a few elephants and giraffes. We saw an elephant tearing a tree down. The driver and spotter were amazing sources of information, and it became a running joke because he not only knew everything about every bird we saw, but also which page it was on in the bird book he had. He gave Yvonne the book and her job was to check that the page number he was calling out was right. He was right every time. Pretty soon, we were doing it too, "look, hornbill, page 264!". Going through the water was pretty fun.

I really liked the dugout ride at sunset.

We went on to the second safari camp and it was great too. A little less luxurious, but actually more what I was expecting. And Gary and Yvonne liked the more buffet-type food choices. they moved us to a bigger room so we had a lot of space. They said they weren't sure how old our "child" was, and when they saw she was practically an adult, they moved us. The camp was fun, lots of interesting people and the owners were cool.

The ride to the national park was long, it was more regulated than the first private camp. No driving off road allowed. One day we had a flat on the way out and the driver got very nervous because they don't let people in the park after dark. I'm not sure what was going to happen, but we made it out in time.

The animals here were amazing, we saw so many elephants and hippos it was overwhelming. We had tons of time and they were very good about letting everyone take pictures. It was just the best.

Then we went to the Falls. The falls were great, but it seemed very touristy and contrived after the safari experience. It may have been a better experience to reverse the order. The tour of the falls was really unnecessary, it's easy to get to and not hard to figure out what's what. We eventually just told the guide that we were going to go on by ourselves. The cruise was boring too, nothing to see. After the safari it was pretty pedestrian. We did go on an ultralight flight over the falls and that was great.

All in all, I was really happy with the trip, arrangements and how it all came together. Thanks again.

Sylvia