Month: June 2019

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If we had three more weeks to spend in Africa

We would spend some of it in Kruger.

In Kruger, early June had warm and days, cold nights, and zero mosquitoes (possibly due to a drier than average wet season this year). There were clear skies except one day, overcast for a few hours and slight drizzle for a few minutes one morning. The wet time is October or November through March. High season starts in mid June when school gets out. May is certainly great month to be there.

Kruger:

Backpacking trip in Kruger (3 night 4 days) — Kruger provides meals and water; need tent and sleeping bag

Wilderness trails Kruger (3 night 4 days) — day hikes from wilderness camps

Mountain biking in Kruger

Sirheni Bush camp

Bateleur Bush camp

Punda Maria

Olifants

*** Shimuwini Bush camp is great: Does not sell wood. Water, charcoal. Ice? 13 is renovated. 14

Shipandani Overnight Hide

Talamati Bush camp

Biyamiti Bush camp

Lower Sabie

Talamati is best.

Shindzela – might be a nice semi-luxury option for the beginning or end

Johannesburg: Premier OR Tambo Hotel was safe, nice, very close to the airport, and had a great dinner buffet.

Drakensberg: Ardmore Guest Farm, really nice, great hospitality, pretty good food.

Garden Route: Multiday hike Storm River Mouth or elsewhere• Participants from 12 years and older. High fitness level, people older than 65 years needs to supply proof of fitness.

• Please be advised, that there are only 4 huts, sleeping 2 people each, for the 8 hikers (maximum), participating on this trail. This may mean that people will have to share the accommodation with participants (male/female) that aren’t part of their group booking. Please take this into consideration when making your booking as no alternative arrangements can be made in this regard with the limited accommodation available.

• Guests with special dietary requirements must please realize that although the trail can cater for some (e.g. vegetarians) it is very difficult to suit every individual’s special needs. Prior arrangements in this regard are essential. We will help if it is in any way possible, contact SpecialisedReservations@sanparks.org for more information.

• For the backpack trails, guests to supply their own personal equipment for example sleeping bag, tent, back pack, eating utensils, food, drinks etc.

• Herewith the Medical Questionnaire Certificate for trail participants.

5. Lebombo and Malopeni Eco Trail (Kruger National Park)

• No children under 12 years.

• Maximum of 4 persons per vehicle.

• Participants provide their own food and drinks.

6. All participants have to complete an indemnity form before embarking on a trail.

7. Otter trails

• An age restriction of 12 to 65 years applies, due to the level of physical demands of the Otter Trail.

• All hikers from the ages of 65 and above will be requested to provide proof of their fitness level to undertake the challenging terrain of the Otter Trail.

• Guests to provide their own food and drinks for 5 days and 4 nights.

• Please be advised that there are only 2 huts, sleeping 6 people each for the 12 hikers (maximum) participating on this trail. Should your booking be for less than 6 people or a group of 7 to 11 people, you may have to share accommodation with participants (male/female) that are not part of your booking. Please take this into consideration when making your booking as no alternative arrangements can be made in this regard with the limited accommodation available.

8. Rhebok Hiking Trail

• Hikers to provide their own food, drinks, cooking facilities, utensils and sleeping bags.

• Only cold water shower.

• No children under 12 years.

If we had three more weeks to spend in Ethiopia:

Fly into Addis, stay at GT guesthouse; Rift Valley birdwatching with Ayuba; Bale Mountain hiking; Lalibela community trekking, in some order that would make for good acclimatization. And perhaps Harar and Aksum.

If we had three weeks in Zimbabwe:

Harare: Mount Pleasant B&B; Multiday canoe safari on Zambezi; Hiking in eastern highlands; Hwange National park; Matobo National Park.

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Some things we learned

We were constantly reminded is how much easier travel is now than say 20 years ago. Among the changes: English is indeed the international language and was spoken effectively everywhere we went. Credit cards and ATMs are almost universal too.  We ran into minor trouble just once (Zimbabwe, effectively a failed state) but this was solved when the owner of our guesthouse, who had previously worked in the US, still had a US bank account and I was able to use Zelle (US Bank’s way to transfer money to others via email or text) to send her $400 electronically and she handed us four crisp $100 no more than ten minutes later. It’s much cheaper now too – we are getting cash back on credit card purchases rather than being subjected to the usury of exchanging notes.

Communications – I remember tokens and pay phones at foreign post offices and other oddball arrangements – but it’s all very easy and nearly free now.  Finding lodging, transportation, restaurants, guides – it’s all much easier than before. AirBnB is a bargain and I think has impacted mid-level lodging prices; we have probably been averaging about $75/night for bed and breakfast.  Car rental has really been changed too; our nine day rental here is $140; it was $115 until I changed the dates, all via an app on the mobile phone!

The rise of all the low-cost airlines like RyanAir – which I think prompted many of the bigger airlines to each start up a low cost subsidiary – have changed more than just price: they don’t use a “spoke and hub” system, but instead fly smaller jets directly between the second tier cities.  That turns out to be a huge bonus.

On our trip home, we flew Emirates, which uses Airbus A380 aircraft. These are pressurized to 6000 feet rather than 8000, and have better humidity control, which supposedly greatly reduced jet lag. We think that might be real – we didn’t feel as wrung out as we expected.

I signed up for Kindle Unlimited – for $10/mo you get quite a lot, including every Lonely Planet publication. How nice to just download the guide for any country that might spark interest.  Amazon’s music and video work internationally too – yesterday we downloaded Hamilton and listened to much of it on a drive.  Entertainment in the form of podcasts, music etc are now effectively free.

We use weatherspark.com to see what weather might be like where we are looking to go and it has been a major help too – we have had really good weather nearly everywhere.

It goes on; the main point is that the hurdles are gone or way, way small.  It’s not as difficult, debilitating or expensive as it used to be. So much easier that I’m seeing articles written on the theme of “travel ruining travel”.  That may be an exaggeration but it is certainly true that many previously exotic destinations are now routine (a Utah high school group at a Slovenian mountain hut, two days trek from the nearest trailhead!).  Cruises and package tours have probably altered the experience many previously nice cities with so-called “over-tourism”, about which much has been written lately. These places are easily avoided though, and during much of our travels we were surprised at how little tourism there was. This was particularly true in parts of Africa. We were there in shoulder season but even so things seemed strangely quiet quite often.