Africa Prep

Julie and I drive to Newark on Sunday, and on Monday we fly non-stop to Johannesburg SA with three close friends for an African safari adventure.

Stringing out clothes for spraying

Our trip is a gradual transition from luxury towards self-sufficiency, culminating in about two weeks of self-driving (and guiding, and cooking, etc.) around Botswana in two Land Cruisers. This wide range of experiences, plus the need for Julie and I to be working during the trip, has made for some interesting packing challenges. Still, we are both able to fit everything in a single backpack. I had planned to bring my full Starlink kit in a Pellican-style case, but travel buddy Ken bought the Starlink Mini and will bring that. Dramatically lowers our carry footprint. I built a 12V DC converter earlier this year and was able to tune the output voltage from 59v down to 24v and will bring that along. This will allow us to power the Starlink from our Land Cruiser 12v cigarette lighter without having to use an inverter.

We sprayed 0.5% Permethrin solution on nearly all of our clothing (not our underwear or rain jackets), a technique we’ve used many times for adventures like this. Mosquitos don’t like Permethrin and in many cases it will result in a contact kill. This plus DEET application and malaria pills that we will start dosing on Sunday should help keep us malaria free. Maybe some gin and tonics with quinine as well?

Getting immunizations up to snuff for this trip was no small feat. We spent over $5,000 with Passport Health on this (over twice the cost of our airline tickets). The big splurge was the rabies vaccine: three doses each at about $700 a shot. I’m aware of sunk cost theory, but this expense makes me want to plan more exotic travel in the next five years.

Itinerary

Rough South Africa and Botswana itinerary

Here’s our rough itinerary:

• September 11-16 – Baobab Hill House in northern Kruger National Park
• September 16-19 – Ivory Wilderness Lodge in southern Kruger NP
• September 20-29 – Wild camping Kalahari Breeze (Botswana), with final two days in glamping Camp Okavango
• September 29 - October 14 – self driving around northern Botswana, living in tents atop our Land Cruisers rented from Bushlore.

This is the vehicle Karen, Julie, and I will be roaming around in:

Expect regular updates here on the blog. I’m not outfitted with the same quality photo gear I took to Galapagos, but I do have a high zoom Canon Powershot and a tripod. Sure I want to see the Big 5, but I’m honestly more excited about the birds.