Joey

My wife and I leave two weeks from today. We are meeting friends in Joburg, and then going to the Kgalagadi for 5 days of safari.

JazzDrew

46 days...I don't think I can last that long....each night before bed I put myself to sleep trying to imagine getting on the plane here in Iowa for our first trip to Africa!

Our itinerary (June 18 - July 4):

June 18 - Depart Cedar Rapids, Iowa for Amsterdam.

June 19 - Arrive Amsterdam (am). Overnight at the Hilton.

June 20 - Depart Amsterdam for Nairobi

June 21 - Arrive Nairobi (am). Overnight at Giraffe Manor.

June 22 - Fly to Amboseli Tortilis.

June 23 - Amboseli Tortilis

June 24 - Drive to Lake Manyara Tree Lodge

June 25 - Lake Manyara Tree Lodge

June 26 - Drive to Ngorongoro Serena

June 27 - (Our 18th anniversary) Ngorongoro Serena

June 28 - Drive to Serengeti Serena

June 29 - Drive to Kirawira

June 30 - Kirawira

July 1 - Kirawira

July 2 - Fly to Arusha. Day bed at KIA Lodge. Overnight flight to Amsterdam.

July 3 - Arrive Amsterdam (am). Overninght Amsterdam Airport Hilton.

July 4 - Depart Amsterdam for Cedar Rapids, Iowa

July 5 (maybe the 6th) - Begin trip report for Fodor's board!

Gardyloo

The Southern Hemisphere portion of our RTW - (some dates still approx.)

26-Jul SEA-ORD
27-Jul ORD-HNL Aloha
30-Jul HNL-SYD G'day
08-Aug MEL-AYQ After drive to Melbourne, fly to Ayers Rock
10-Aug AYQ-CNS Up to the Great Barrier Reef and Cairns
14-Aug CNS-SYD Back to Sydney
17-Aug SYD-JNB 14 hours on Qantas
18-Aug JNB-VFA To Victoria Falls, then Chobe
23-Aug VFA-JNB Back to Jo'burg then over to Ezulwini, Drakensburg, Kruger for a few days
29-Aug JNB-CPT To Cape Town for a few days
03-Sep CPT-LHR
05-Sep LHR-SNN-BOS
06-Sep BOS-ORD-SEA

Still working on specific details of Victoria Falls/Chobe.

mpkp

141 days
Sept 22 - 23 depart Atlanta; Arrive Cape Town
Sept 23-27 Cape Town
Sept 27-30 Kaingo
Sept 30 - Oct 3 Mwamba
Oct 3 - 6 Luangwa River Lodge
Oct 6-10 Kasaka River Lodge
Oct 10-11 Cape Town
Oct 12 Amsterdam overnight
Oct 13 Home in Atlanta

KathyAZ

I somehow missed this post last month. Here's our itinerary for this Sept/Oct:

18 Sept JNB - one night
3 nts Makalolo Plains
3 nts Mana Canoe & Walking Trail
2 nts Chikwenya
1 nt Victoria Falls, Vic Falls Hotel
3 nts Savuti Camp
3 nts Little Vumbura
3 nts Chitabe Trails

Getting close and getting excited!

cookndoc

Hujambo-

29 days and counting - up to lesson 7 of 10 of Pimsleur swahili and it's a neat language.

June 5/6 - Arusha Coffee House
June 7/8 - Kirawira
June 9/10 - Mbuzi Mawe
June 11/12 - Lake Manyara
June 13/14 - Ngorogoro Crater
June 15/16 - Tarangire
June 17 - o/n flight to London.

Howard & his 3 girls (wife & 2 daughters)

Roccco

KathyAZ,

If you take a closer look, this thread was started in April of LAST year.

I absolutely LOVE your itinerary. Oh, how I wish I may enjoy a nearly uninterrupted 17 night safari (save for a much deserved night at the VF Hotel).

You have some absolutely wonderful camps on your itinerary...in fact, ALL of them appear to be great lodges.

That is one trip report and photo album that I am really looking forward to seeing!

Roccco

Lin and mpkp,

Nice to see Zambia well represented this year, the 150th anniversary of Livingstone's "discovery" of Mosi-O-Tunya (Victoria Falls). It only took 150 years for Zambia to finally get some great lodges!

With just a little more tourism, Zambia's wildlife will be protected for decades to come.

P_M

My trip to Egypt is so far away, it's 7 months and 15 days from today. We will be doing the usual tour of Egypt with some time at the Red Sea.

The good news is my trip to the UK is only 23 days away!! WOOHOO!! We will be renting a car to visit York, Wales, and the Lake District.

cailin

87 Days

Itinerary
Day 1 - flying through the day, overnight in Holiday Inn in Johannesburg
Days 2-11 - Marlin Lodge, Mozambique
Day 12 - overnight in Holiday Inn in Johannesburg
Days 13-16 - Stanleys Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Days 17-20 - Chobe Chilwero, Botswana
Days 21-24 - Royal Livingstone, Zambia.

matnikstym

166 days! leave hilo, hawaii october 18, 2 days in san francisco, then off to capetown 3 days, kruger 3 days, chobe 3 days, victoria falls 2 days, johannisberg overnight then back to hawaii.

KathyAZ

Roccco,

Ah, April 04 not April 05. That certainly explains why I missed the original post - I wasn't even aware this forum existed until last Fall! Thanks for starting it over.

I've kept a journal on previous Africa trips and plan on doing it on this one too - especially since I know I'll owe everyone a trip report when we get back. As far as pictures, well I'm not much of a photographer. However, I do plan on buying a "point and shoot" digital camera soon to replace my old Pentax so I will be able to post them online - that's assuming any of them turn out. On our trip to Tanzania I dropped the camera on the 5th day. It appeared to be fine so I continued shooting pictures. I had 35 rolls of film processed and the last 20 rolls were ruined. One more reason to go digital I guess.

caroleo

We leave in 42 days!!

I have spent the last 4 months arranging our first trip to Southern Africa. We had advice from friends which I then researched online. I only discovered this forum after we had had quotes, but it was wonderful to read positive reports about the places that we had chosen to stay at.

Unfortunately we had a string of bad luck booking our camps in Botswana. We were planning to stay at CCAfrica lodges, which we then booked in January, but found that we had just missed getting our booking at Nxabega, so they booked us Xakanaka camp instead. We were booked at Sandibe, but just before we finalised complete payment, we were told that they were overbooked and that CCAfrica had changed our booking to Khwai River Lodge. So with much disappointment along the way, we are now waiting and hoping that the lodges we have will be what we are hoping for!

We leave Australia 17th June- overnight Joburg.
18-20 June Vic Falls Safari Lodge
20-22 Matetsi Water Lodge
22-24 Xakanaka Camp
24-26 Khwai River Lodge
26-30 Capetown. We will be touring with Selwyn -again a happy coincidence - I had seen his website and email-chatted with Selwyn, then found postings on this site from people that had toured with him also. That helped us realise that we were going in the right direction!
1-3 July Tshukudu Game Lodge near Kruger.We have heard wonderful things about this lodge that takes in orphanned animals and then releases them back into the wild. It allows you a closer personalencounter with some of the wildlife we will let you know what it is like when we get back.

We are very excited and certainly counting the days.

Thank you everyone for the helpful information you give so willingly on this forum. It has helped me with packing preparation etc too - wonderful, thank you!

jcasale

WOW! Just posting to this made me count up the days - 42 to go!!!!!

We booked through go2africa.com and they were wonderful to deal with. Put together the exact itinerary we wanted for a decent price. This will be my parents' last continent! (including Antarctica).

June 17 leave Chicago at the crack of dawn (maybe that will help me sleep? not likely!)
June 18-21 Cape Town: Portswood Hotel. We plan to tour the city and Table Mountain and then do a full day tour out to the Cape Peninsule
June 21-24 Sabi Sands: Staying at the Elephant Plains Game Lodge. Plan on a drive through the Panorama Region on the way from the airport to the lodge.
June 24-25 Jo'burg: Spending a night at the Balalaika Hotel in Sandton - a little down time and flight connections that wouldn't get us all the way to Victoria Falls.
June 25-27 Victoria Falls: Ilala Lodge. We'll be there for my parents' 51st wedding anniversary! Planning on a sunset Zambezi River Cruise and the "Flight of Angels" helicopter flight.
June 27-30 Okavanga Delta: Staying at Nxabega Camp and really looking forward to seeing that unique part of the world.
June 30 Leave for home

I hope this won't be a "trip of a lifetime" in that I want to go back and do Kenya and Tanzania sometime in the near future.

I've also been buying all of those safari clothes! Now I'm ready to pack!

Roccco

I still have a 2 day opening in my Zambian safari. Tafika was unable (unwilling?) to accomodate me for 2 nights...perhaps they didn't want to drive me 2.5 hours away to Puku Ridge for only a 2 night booking?

Instead, I am now trying to get 2 nights at Robin's House at Nkwali...really it is a private little lodge in itself, with a private chef, a private guide, a private vehicle and a personal attendant. The website shows 2 nights open that would perfectly fit the slot, if I rearranged my dates and did Puku Ridge (2) followed by Robin's House (2) and finished off with Luangwa River Lodge (3). They are all generally in the same area of South Luangwa, (within about 20 miles of each other) but it is a very strong gameviewing area so I do not mind.

cindymac

133 days to our first trip to Africa!

16 Sep - Simbambili (3 nights)
19 Sep - JIA Holiday Inn
20 Sep - Kasaka River Lodge (5 nights)
25 Sep - Royal Livingstone Hotel (2 nights)
27 Sep - DumaTau (3 nights)
30 Sep - Heinitzburg Hotel Windhoek (1 night)
1 Oct - Damaraland Camp (2 nights)

Booked with TagaSafaris.

JanGoss

With so many of you leaving before I do in 12 weeks, I'll have to satisfy myself with reading all your trip reports and seeing your pictures until I get there.

Please everyone remember that we're dying to hear of your travels.

Safe traveling everyone!

piperpilot

28 Days!!!

Get Married on June 4th....

Depart Florida June 5th

Arrive Capetown June 6th - 3 Nights
Arrive Vic Falls June 9th - 2 Nights
Arrive Savuti June 11th - 3 Nights
Arrive Chitabe Trails June 14 - 3 Nights
Arrive Kwetsani June June 17 - 2 Nights
Depart for home through JNB June 19
Arrive Home June 20

My first trip to Africa, my fiance's first trip to Southern Africa. Can't wait!!!

I notice we are going to miss a few of you by just days in some places. Anyone going to be in overlapping places?

Piperpilot

tuskerdave

hi,my days are getting short now. 27 to go. leave providence june 4th.
i pulled a boner here. i was supposed to be in entebbe on the 5th. well, i am not getting there till about 6am on the 6th! after a quick clean up. hit the road to BWINDI. long ride? sure, but i'm used to it. part of the adventure
DAY 1: KAMPALA - BWINDI 6th June

DAY 2: BWINDI - GORILLA TREKKING - FULL DAY 7th June
DAY 3: GORILLA TREKKING - FULL DAY 8th June
DAY 4: BWINDI - QUEEN ELIZABETH 9th June
DAY 5: QUEEN ELIZABETH NATIONAL PARK 10th June
DAY 6: QUEEN- KIBALE NATIONAL PARK 11th June
DAY 7: KIBALE CHIMP TREKKING/ PRIMATE WALK. 12th June
DAY 8: KIBALE CHIMP TREKKING/ PRIMATE WALK. 13th June
DAY 9: KIBALE - KAMPALA 14th June
June 15th early in the morn. Head to Nairobi.
I will either stay at a friends place that eve. Or if I decide then. We, we meaning: my self, driver & cook. will head to TSAVO EAST mid-day on the 15th.
If not, then leave for TSAVO on the 16th.
TSAVO EAST- 16TH, 17TH, 18TH.
Head back to Nairobi on the 19th.
Stay at a friends place. Enjoy the eve with them.
On the 20th. Head to the MARA.
Public camp site like always.
MARA: 20th, 21st, 2nd, 23rd.
Headback to Nairobi on the 24th.
Visit with friends and head home late on the 26th.
i have plenty of film and tapes.
cheers, david

RLC

Hello - what a wonderful idea Rocco. I have really enjoyed reading the countdowns. I simply love this sight.

Our quick dream trip starts in 67 days - July 14:East Africa

Washington Reagan - London
1 night - Marriott London Park Lane Hotel
on to Nairobi and our tour group
Cheli & Peacock - "flying safari."
1 night - Ngong House
3 nights - Elsa's Kopje
2 nights - Il Ngwesi
3 nights - Mara Bush Camp
1 - day room at the House of Waine
Back to Washington D.C.- no stops!

++I would love to add that we had the pleasure of attending a lecture at the National Geographic building here in Washington D.C. by Anup Shah of Kenya. His photography is amazing - I highly recommend his book, The Circle of Life, Wildlife on the African Savannah.
The extraordinary photographs concentrate on the Maasai Mara region and Ngorongoro Crater - a must have!