Preparation
Sally and I had been talking about an African trip for sometime. Originally we were thinking of going to Nigeria. Sally was there from 1964 to 1966 as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and she wanted to see the place again and see if she could find any of her old students, a kind of nostalgia trip. But a trip to Nigeria seemed too dangerous, especially when the US State Department was warning all U.S. citizens not to travel to Nigeria. Crime was and still is rampant particularly in Lagos where Sally lived and wanted to go. The travel warnings were as follows: Tourist have experienced armed muggings, assaults, carjacking, kidnappings and extortions, often involving violence. In addition Americans have experienced harassment at checkpoints and shakedowns during encounters with Nigerian law enforcement officials. That was enough to change our plans.
Although South Africa was reported to also have some security problems, it seemed safer than Nigeria. So by May of 2009, we were ready to start preparations for our South African trip. We were debating about going with a group or doing it on our own. It is much more interesting to go on your own, than with a group on a prepared trip. Yet it was a very difficult decision for me because when we are on our own, we have to worry about everything. Despite that, we decided to go on our own, partly because the people in South Africa speak English, at least that what we thought. But, as you read this, I warn you not to take my advice. Going on your own is very difficult. Besides, going with a group to Africa is also very exiting. However, when you’re on your own, it becomes more of a journey, and the journey takes on its own life. This is when the trip can become very difficult and at the same time, it becomes very real. This then was a very serious moment in the planning phase. Once this decision was made and we had bought our tickets and reserved our hotels, there was no going back.
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The following is a high-level chronology of our preparations:
5-12-09 called Craig Pollard 415-xxx-xxxx Gretchen’s friend at Delta Airlines. He handled our standby tickets. We charged our Buddy Pass to a credit card, approximately $350.00 per person one way. Very nice!
5-15-09 I read more about the trip and I was worried, but still liked the idea.
5-27-09: Going with a group or on our own? That was the question. I was still thinking.
6-06-09 Things we would like to do in South Africa:
Johannesburg, Cape Town, and possibly Kwa Zulu Natal, Kruger National Park, Victoria on another before it filled up. It was $939.00 pp plus $200 each for the local guides. This was a very serious move in the Falls in Zambia, Chobe National Park, Botswana, Etosha Park in Namibia. We had not thought of Zimbabwe.
6-10-09 the plan was coming together. George Soloki sent me some more information about the GAP tour to Namibia and since we were very interested in Namibia, we signed up immediately because the tour was getting full and we had to decide immediately. At this point, we have made the decision that we would be going on our own and we were married to the trip. There could be no more bemoaning about what we should do or what we should have done. We were together in our plan, us against the world. But still the journey had no particular purpose beyond “Seeing Africa”. But not long after that, by accident – as we were discussing what we wanted to do, we decided on the end point of the trip -- The Great Zimbabwe Ruins. To get to the ruins became the goal and things had to be organized with that in mind.
6-18-09 we went to Kaiser. Since we were going to Namibia, we had to get immunized against Hepatitis A and a Polio booster shot (inactive virus).
The following is what I packed:
Medications: In addition to my regular medication I took malaria medicine, also 20 tablets of 600 mg Ibuprofen, 10 tablets of 500 mg ciprofloxacin (against diarrhea), 20 tablets of Tylenol with Codeine, some Swiss Kriss herbal laxative and Metamucil.
Clothing: 3 socks, 3 underwear, 3 T-shirts, 2 long pants, 1 short pants, 2 turtlenecks, 1 sweater, 2 hats, 1 leader shoe, 1 walking shoe, 1 worm jacket, sleeping gear, vest, scarf and hats and gloves.
Miscellaneous: Wristwatch, map of Africa, 2 digital cameras with several disks, Digital camcorder, pocket knife, a big bag of nuts and fruits, and 2 books book for reading (Jacob Needleman recommended that I read Beelzebub’s Tales to his Grandson, but I took only the first 380 pages, and the Lonely Planet.
