RTW 2024 Carefree Travel

This morning, there was no early morning wake-up call, as we didn't have to leave for Skukuza airport until just after 8 am. That meant we could enjoy some of the luxuries that came along with our "tent." You see here a very nice bath, and that's a (freezing cold) plunge pool outside on the teak decking. The later start meant breakfast at a more civilized 7:15 am before packing up, saying goodbye to the staff, and then leaving for the airport. The entire team gathered on the front steps and sang an acapella "farewell song." Nice touch.  We also said goodbye to the hippos. Our drive to the airport took about two hours, but it was all the way inside the park this time. That meant that we had plenty of opportunities to see even more animals. In terms of sheer numbers, we probably saw more animals on the way to the airport than during any of our official safari rides. We were greeted by large herds of impala and water buffalo, an entire family of elephants, and ...

Yet another early morning wake-up call. This time preceded by Allison waking up at 2:30 am to the sound of some large cat prowling around in the distance. Despite that, we were up and ready to go, armed with a cup of tea/coffee and a mini-snack. The weather was a little chilly, if you can call 60F chilly, and we definitely needed a couple of layers. Even our guide was wearing a wooly hat. The hippos were up early as well and bid us "bon voyage" with a long, throaty roar. Our first animal encounter was a family of elephants. There were about a half-dozen elephants on each side of the road and a couple more slowly plodding down the middle. They were a variety of sizes, from a large bull to a baby hanging around its Mum. Although they register the truck, they don't register that we are inside it (as long as you don't wave your hands wildly or stand up). So we casually motored along behind them at a sedate pace. This leads to a lot of "butt shots," although we g...

  This morning, we set a 5 a.m. alarm to be ready for our first full safari day. That means leaving the tent at 5:30 a.m., walking along the boardwalk to the main lodge, and partaking in a civilized early morning tea/coffee  and biscuits. The temperature is definitely on the cooler side, so you need multiple layers and long pants to combat the chill. Our jeep is a tricked-out, converted Land Cruiser. It has three cushioned rows of three seats, open sides, and a cloth roof (with roll bars).  Our tour guide, Kingsley (call me "Kings") gave us a brief safety talk, and then off we went. The safari consists of about three hours in the jeep, driving at various speeds along dirt roads and tracks through the bush. We quickly learned that Allison would be the chief spotter for the three couples, assisted by Laurie. Allison's ability to find animals hiding in the bush was quite amazing, to the point that Kings asked "So, Allison, what do you see?" multiple times.  It was ...

  Our day started with an early morning breakfast on board the ship in Durban. We (our full group is only 3 couples) then grabbed our suitcases and met a minibus to take us to the airport. I was surprised by how small the Durban Airport was, although it was very clean, well laid out, and efficient. Our flight was on an Airlink Embraer 135 aircraft flying into Nelspruit, which is 40-50 miles southwest outside of Kruger National Park. It was a small airplane for Allison, but she did great on the flight and was very smooth. We also had a really nice view of the farmland (citrus and avocados) on approach. Another bus picked us up at the airport, and we started a 3+ hour drive into the  park to our destination, Hamilton's Tented Lodge. Our voyage got off to a great start, and we drove our driver crazy (although he is probably used to it) by asking him to stop so that we could all take photos of baboons, crocodiles, and elephants. We finally arrived at the lodge mid-a...

  Kruger National Park is a South African National Park and one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It covers an area of 7,576 sq mi in the provinces of Limpopo and Mpumalanga in northeastern South Africa and extends 220 mi from north to south and 40 mi from east to west. The administrative headquarters are in Skukuza (which is where we flew out of - cute little airport!). Areas of the park were first protected by the government of the South African Republic in 1898, and it became South Africa's first national park in 1926. To give you some idea of the size, it is, depending upon your location, about the same size as New Jersey, Wales, or Portugal. Yet, looking at the map to the right, it only occupies a tiny portion of the country, tucked away in the far northeast, adjacent to the Mozambique border. Maputo, where we were a few days ago, is actually closer to Kruger than Cape Town. The park was started back in 1898 when the Sabi Game Reserve was initially created to control hu...

  Today, we slept until 5 a.m., with an early 5.30 a.m. departure to the domestic terminal in Kathmandu—just a ten-minute drive. Our flight to Mt. Everest was departing at 6.36 a.m. for a one-hour round trip at a height of 22,000 feet. Even though it is a 72-seat plane, they only sell 36 seats so everyone gets a window seat. There were a few open seats, so the braver souls amongst us got to seat-hop in search of a better view. The area around Kathmandu boasts six mountains higher than 26,000 feet, and we saw each of them. Fortunately, that early in the morning, there was very little haze and not too many clouds, so we had a really good view. Gosain Than                          26,290 Cho-Oyu                              26,906 Gyachung Kang ...

  When I was a kid, I always wanted to climb Mt. Everest (who doesn’t?), but I never really expected to see it in real life. So, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit Nepal and see the mountain. This post will be split into multiple parts. The first two will cover Nepal, Kathmandu, and all the amazing sights we saw. The last one will examine the 29,032-foot peak. On Day 85, we left the boat in Cochin. That involved multiple bureaucratic layers of Indian Immigration paperwork and border officers, even though we’d had our e-visa in place for months! We then went on a nice Air India A321 to Delhi and stayed at a local Radisson Blu hotel by the airport. Our wake-up call was 4 am to get to the airport for a 7 am flight to Kathmandu. Once again, we underwent multiple passport, visa, and bag inspections to get on the plane. Our Nepalese visas were ready for us when we landed, making that part of the trip painless. We then encountered a huge customs and security line. Line is a fu...