As noted in our Christmas trip overview last year, we decided to make 2017 the last Christmas we’d spend in Europe for awhile. We maintained fidelity with this goal this year, and spent our holiday in Southern Africa – our first time on the continent. Fantastic trip that included biking in the wine region outside Cape Town in South Africa, visiting Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, but most notably the really rewarding breadth and depth of wildlife viewing in South Africa and Botswana.
The trip itinerary included the following (logistically complex, just as we like it):
A visual overview of the trip is below:
Days 1 – 4 were spent in the Cape Town area. Our first day included heading to the Cape of Good Hope, holder of a geographical superlative, as noted below.
We headed to the wine region north of Cape Town on our second day, biking the wineries of Stellenbosch and then driving to several more in Franschhoek.
Our last day – Christmas – we hiked Lion’s Head peak, then headed to the beach below, at Camps Bay.
On Day 5, we headed to the Lion Sands Game Reserve adjacent to South Africa’s Kruger National Park. We spend the next 3 days on safari in both, spotting tons of great wildlife.
On Day 9, we headed north to Zambia, then to Zimbabwe, where we hit Victoria Falls and boated along both shores of the Zambezi River.
On Day 11, we headed south into Botswana, where we spent the next 3 days on safari in the heart of the Okavango Delta, spotting even more amazing wildlife.
We headed home on Day 14, but because the flight back to the US was so freakin’ long and because we had to lay over in Dubai anyway, we planned the layover to allow us 21 hours to explore this city in the United Arab Emirates.
All while living out of a duffel bag a piece for the entire trip, due to bush plane luggage restrictions – traveling light rocks!
Full set of wildlife pictures to follow in a post for each location – definitely a very different trip from our previous travels, and an amazing experience!
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