You’re going to Africa? – Part 2: Planning

Doug started doing research on travel agencies that could help us plan an itinerary and arrange the details for us.  Susan, an experienced  traveler, took on the airlines and also found us a marvelous Fodor’s reference book on African safaris that went into incredible detail on what you should do before you go, what you should bring with you when you do go (note:  not too much!  And nothing too heavy!) and what to see and do when you get there.   Fodor’s also has a great website…no matter where in the world you are going, they have information for you.

And what did I do?  Well, once we had decided on our itinerary…Mashatu Game Reserve and Pete’s Pond in Botswana, Victoria Falls in Zambia, and MalaMala Game Reserve in South Africa…I started putting notebooks together for all of us, with information about each destination. Mashatu and MalaMala both have excellent websites, with pictures and information about the wildlife, the accommodations, what you can see and do while there, even videos.  I made copies of the basic information at each of their sites , and occasionally added updates to the books as they updated wildlife sightings…fun to get acquainted with the animals you might be seeing during your visit.

I also found a lot of information about Victoria Falls, from the history to maps of the area to the accommodations available, and made copies of the useful information I found there. It’s much easier to find Livingstone these days than back in the day when Stanley was searching for “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”   Copies of our itinerary, airplane reservations and travel insurance information also went into the notebooks, along with anything else that seemed useful or interesting..

A site to check if you are going to unfamiliar areas is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where you can get health information about the shots you may need, the diseases you could encounter, how to stay healthy.  Once you have that information, you can call your local Work/Travel Health Clinic to make an appointment.  Your doctor will know.  Or your local hospital.  Or Google will find one for you.  How did we manage before Google? [Note: see earlier post by Susan about visiting the clinic]

Another particularly useful site I found was African Safari Journals which posted lists of safari gear, safari supplies, what luggage and equipment you might need, documents you might need for the countries you are going to, even checklists.  Copies of those went right into our notebooks, and were tremendously useful in finding out which specific items we didn’t have and would need.

Next:  Clothing