African Adventure

My travels resume! In about a week my Intrepid tour through 4 countries in southern Africa begins. For 3 weeks, I will be packed into a large overland vehicle with around 14 strangers to drive through incredible landscapes full of both rare and prolific animals, usually only seen in a zoo. 

(This is not the actual vehicle, but it'll be something like this.)

The countries we will visit are: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.

The tour will be mostly camping, with varying levels of facilities (from actual hotel to a tent with a hole in the ground), so I'm packing all kinds of things I wouldn't usually bring on vacations. For instance, a sleeping sack (lighter than a sleeping bag), a pillow, wet wipes and tissues to use as tp, and much more. But this means we can wake up, walk out of a tent, and see spectacular scenery and exotic animals right in front of us (hoping none of those creatures decide to join us in our tents, but I'll be shaking out my clothes and shoes every day just in case). 

Traveling in the truck means we are limited in how much stuff we can bring. There are strict guidelines for the size of a suitcase/travel backpack, as it has to fit into a locker on the underside of the vehicle (you can see those in the picture). Luggage has to fit in a 26x18x10 compartment, which is too small for almost any backpack with a frame. I'm bringing a 60L duffel bag that converts into a backpack for easier carrying. We also get to bring a daypack for things we'll need through the course of the day without digging around in the lockers. So I'm packing for 4 weeks in 4 countries (after the organized tour, I'm taking a few extra days for myself to see anything we didn't have time for at Victoria Falls and in Cape Town) in 2 smallish bags. 

Top things I'm looking forward to:

• The Cape of Good Hope (and the penguins)
• The Namib desert and sand boarding
• Etosha National Park game drive (zebra, elephants and black rhinos, oh my!)
• The Okavango Delta and rowing mokoros through the waterways
• Victoria Falls, one of the 7 wonders of the natural world 

In my travel experience, some of the best things will be ones I didn't know to anticipate. I'll be posting more over the next month as wi-fi allows. 

Thanks for reading!