Although we had two terrific Nana and Papa vacations with our grandson Cooper in the second half of 2023 which I have yet to blog about, our June 2024 family trip was too special to wait to post. If Nana writes about the prior visits in chronological order, especially at the rate she is posting lately, it might be quite a while until our 2024 adventure reached publication. So I won’t wait, blogger’s prerogative.
Stacy had been thinking about going on safari in Africa with our family for a while. And having served two extraordinary years right after college in the Peace Corps in Gabon, Stacy had a strong affinity for Africa.
During 2023 Stacy suggested, “I think next summer will be a good time to take a safari trip.” Cooper would be 8 years old then, a good age to appreciate the animal viewing on long unpredictable forays. Understandably, Cooper has already become a budding naturalist, following in his mother’s footsteps. I knew what else Stacy seem to imply, that sooner was better than later in case her aging parents’ physical health might unpredictably decline and prohibit taking this kind of trip. I was not insulted. Being in our 70’s, you just don’t know what’s around the corner. Fortunately at this point, Nana and Papa feel physically and mentally competent.
When Stacy was in the Peace Corps, the two of us went on our first photographic animal safari, a spectacular week-long trip in Zimbabwe in 1998.
Since then Jesse and I have been on other marvelous safaris in Tanzania and South Africa. During Peace Corps Stacy traveled to South Africa, and in conjunction with later work, Stacy went on safari in Kenya. Stacy’s husband Jason and certainly Cooper had never been on an African safari. Of course, we had all been on the Jungle Cruise at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, as chronicled in Blog Post #38, Orlando Amusement Mecca.
And even before that, Stacy and I had taken Cooper on the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland in California when he was only two and one-half years old, described in Blog Post #20, Nana Does Disney.
We focused on Botswana because none of us had ever been there and the country is known for its well-managed animal preserves and outstanding safaris. So in the fall of 2023, I contacted Frontiers, our go-to travel agency for exotic journeys, to plan an optimal and seamless travel experience. Working with their Africa specialist Kathy Schulz, we focused on June dates when Cooper would be on school break. Their team immediately went to work on bookings as preferred safari lodges are small, in-demand and fill up quickly. Kathy developed a fabulous itinerary, with some coordinated tweaking among us regarding dates, locales and trip length. All the lodging details were confirmed by December.
It would be an expensive but extraordinary trip which we all contributed to financially. Meanwhile during the trip planning stages, I happened to connect with a local jeweler to sell many gold coins that had been gifted to Stacy and her brother years ago by their grandfather (my father). From the coin sale, we were fortuitously able to apply $7000 worth of proceeds to our trip deposit. Stacy and I both agreed that Pop-pop (now deceased) would have approved.
Stacy and I separately organized our flights as we would be arriving to Johannesburg, South Africa, from opposite sides of the world. Stacy worked directly with a Frontiers flight specialist for her family’s flights from Fiji. For the best business class prices, I booked Nana and Papa’s flights through the American Express international travel program which optimally combined American Airlines and British Air flights. The itinerary was significantly less expensive than any other that Frontiers or I could locate, but eventually came with an emotional cost when situations arose which necessitated flight changes, to be explained later in the blog post.
Having a travel agency experienced in African travel would minimize travel snafus later on. We received methodical instructions from Frontiers about our passports which needed to be valid for six months after our Africa trip concluded and have at least nine blank visa pages available to support our three-country itinerary. As Jesse and I had fairly new passports, we fortunately met all the specifications. Stacy had more concerns due to issues with Jason’s expiring Australian passport and her questionable amount of visa pages due to her frequent international travel for work. Even though Cooper has his own passport, travel agent Kathy highly recommended that they also carry a certified copy of Cooper’s unabridged Australian birth certificate. More paperwork and logistics for Stacy to handle.
Nana and Papa spent 2023 year-end holidays with our family in Fiji where we reviewed together our exciting upcoming itinerary with exceptional lodges.
We were booked in two safari locales in Botswana, the Okavango Delta and Chobe National Park, and a third in Zimbabwe in the Zambezi National Park near Victoria Falls.
By late February I received a concerning change of itinerary notice from American Express travel. The first leg of our itinerary began at West Palm Beach, our closest and preferred airport, flying on American Air to Charlotte, NC to connect to British Airways to London, with another connection to Johannesburg, South Africa. I had intentionally selected a 5:40 pm PBI departure for a two-hour flight to CLT, giving us ample connecting time for an 11:10 pm international departure. But I was notified that our originating flight, due to Amer Air schedule change, was changed to a 7:20 pm PBI departure with a 9:20 pm CLT arrival. The significantly reduced connection time, only 90 minutes, was considered sufficient, but still worrisome to me, with little wiggle room for extenuating circumstances. I checked American’s schedule and found that the next earlier flight to CLT was a 1:45 pm PBI departure, which would mean an excessive amount of time hanging out in Charlotte. So we were stuck with the less than optimal change.
By spring of 2024, we continued preparations for our trip, following the copious details specifically outlined by our travel agency. Of major concern was assembling, and purchasing as needed, suggested clothing and gear, adhering to luggage restrictions for size and weight, and obtaining and/or updating vaccinations and preventive medications.
Nana and Papa already had the majority of suggested green and beige, environmentally-blending, easy-care clothing for layering from prior safaris and Colorado mountain life, but we still needed to update a few more items. Fortunately, an REI outdoor store had recently opened near us in Palm Beach Gardens, a perfect go-to store for safari clothes and duffel bags for small plane allowances. While we updated our adventure wardrobe, I bought replacement hiking pants to comfortably fit my unfortunately expanding waistline, and found an ideal brimmed hat with adjustable strap (wearing in family photo at beginning of post).
Nana even found for Cooper, a great safari appropriate, green-colored, long-sleeved hooded top.
Most importantly, we had to adhere to the luggage requirements which were very restrictive due to traveling on light aircraft. Each person was limited to 44 pounds including their carry-on bag. The pre-travel info specified that only soft bags will be accepted, duffel bags without wheels preferred, with maximum dimensions of 10 x 12 x 24 inches.
With help from an experienced REI associate, I found duffel bags that fell within the size allowance, which appeared to be quite minimal for a self-admitted travel schlepper like Nana. Even with using a sizable backpack for my carry-on, I would not likely exceed 44 pounds. However, I recognized early on that the limited volume of the duffel was going to be a packing challenge.
We were also warned that disposable plastic bags are banned in most countries in Africa, that they will be confiscated on arrival and exorbitant fines may apply. Clear plastic cases, purchasable on Amazon (what isn’t?), were recommended. I bought several in the one-quart size which were very efficient for our Africa trip and as well as future TSA-approved screening.
By May we had to decide which vaccines we needed, based on our own vaccination history and CDC recommendations for our African itinerary countries, and then figure out how to obtain them in a timely manner. Vaccines were available at CVS but not all were covered by our health insurance. Nana and Papa needed to update vaccines for Tdap (diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis/whooping cough) and Hepatitis A & B (which required two doses one week apart). We decided to get the oral typhoid vaccine Vivotif, which would also be good for future trips to Fiji where typhoid is endemic as well. We prophylactically obtained prescriptions for malaria prevention, a series of pills started two days before entering Africa, during the trip and several days thereafter.
Among the voluminous information sent by Frontiers were also book lists related to countries of travel. Nana picked out three books whose stories were set in Botswana, purchasing them for my Kindle account for ease of portability. One was an Alexander Smith McCall book, “The Double Comfort Safari Club,” in his charming series about the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, some of which I have enjoyed previously. Author Peter Allison told his true tales of a Botswana safari guide in “Whatever You Do, Don’t Run.” In the third book, author Robyn Scott described her childhood and family experiences in Botswana.
Nana allotted ample advance time for methodically packing all the recommended safari suggestions, but the small duffle bag definitely limited selections. To add to the packing challenge, we planned to go to Switzerland shortly after the African safari for Jesse to attend an orthpaedic meeting. We had already arranged to fly from Africa to Switzerland but we would also need additional attire related to weather and activities. The best solution was to pack our safari duffels into a larger suitcases which would also hold our clothes and needs for Switzerland. Frontiers made arrangements with Tour with Ease, an agency in Johannesburg which could meet us at the airport to take our excess luggage for storage while on safari, and return the stored bags to us at trip’s end. That worked well for Stacy too, as she could also arrive in Africa with a large bag to store items we brought to them, as we usually do, for return to Fiji, and have room to fit African purchases, etc. I even brought Stacy another measurement-compliant duffel for safari use. We were all staying one night at the City Lodge at the Johannesburg airport hotel where we could sort and re-pack our belongings.
The Fiji family had a lengthy itinerary, flying first to Auckland, New Zealand, connecting to Dubai, and eventually to Jo’burg, South Africa. Young Cooper was already an international traveling veteran, having been coming from Fiji to America many times since infancy, as well as trips to Australia, Tahiti, France, Spain, and the Solomon Islands. With his neck pillow in place, Cooper settled right into his plane seat with head set and drawing materials.
You may have caught the foreboding about Nana’s and Papa’s Charlotte connection for our June 14 trip onset. By the end of May, flight-interfering thunderstorms were popping up problematically throughout the United States. In fact, returning on different dates on American Air flights from Colorado connecting through Texas to Florida, both Jesse and I had weather-related flight issues. Jesse’s Montrose flight to Dallas was completely cancelled the morning of his travel, so I had to scramble to find him a new itinerary on United through Denver to Fort Lauderdale. A few days later I was delayed for hours in Dallas on my way home to West Palm.
So I already had my thunderstorm antennas on high alert. Meanwhile flooding downpours had become a regular occurrence in our hot, humid Florida vicinity in June. About a week before our trip departure I started phoning and explaining my realistic travel weather concerns to American Airlines and American Express Travel agents, begging to change our West Palm to Charlotte flight to an earlier departure but to no avail. My worst fears were coming true, as thunderstorms and flooding the day before our departure resulted in cancelled flights whose re-booked passengers filled previously available flights the next day. There was much more to this exasperating travel tale but I am trying to summarize the crucial developments.
With more of the same flight-delaying weather predicted for June 14, we went to PBI in the morning to standby for any earlier flight despite their all being considered full. It seemed too risky to wait until our evening flight, nervously hoping it would not be significantly delayed.
Managing to get boarding passes for an 11:30 am departure, we and our checked luggage arrived in Charlotte well in advance of our international departure, but far preferable than biting our nails in Florida while hoping that our 7:20 pm departure would get us to CLT in time to make our London connection, especially after an anticipated long domino-effect day of cancellations and delays. In the end, our originally booked flight arrived at CLT with only 50 minutes connecting time, which would have meant quite a sprint across the expansive Charlotte airport and uncertainty as to whether the luggage would make the transfer. I was certain we made the right decision to standby earlier, but with absolutely no assistance from either American Airlines or Amex Travel.
Meanwhile, our British Airways flight left Charlotte on time and arrived in London around noon as scheduled. We proceeded to the British Airways lounge to relax before our next BritIsh Air flight, departing about 7 pm, overnight to Jo’burg. Although that flight kept getting delayed, we fortunately had a scheduled catch-up day at the airport before flying to Botswana the next day.
For Jo’burg arrival, Frontiers had arranged our being met at the international airport by a representative from Menzies Aviation to smooth our way through South Africa customs, immigration, and luggage collection, and escort us to the City Lodge. We had the rest of the day to relax, clean up, re-pack, and await the late afternoon arrival of our Fiji family, who also had the same expediting arrangements with Menzies aviation.
Nana and Papa were thrilled to see grandson Cooper, Stacy and Jason, as we had last been together five months prior. Even though we were trying to limit our packing, we still brought many extras for them, like requested Lego sets for Cooper, extra hiking pants for Stacy, orders of Stacy’s including photo books and math exercise books, and a variety of other items and gifts from Nana and Papa.
Jason had recently been teaching chess to Cooper, so they brought a portable chess set with them. Cooper quickly took the opportunity to challenge Papa to a chess game to show off his new skills.
From our hotel room, we saw our first distinctive African sunset of the trip. Admittedly, not sure if the attractive red sky was related to Johannesburg air pollution?
We had two family meals at the City Lodge, dinner and breakfast before we were once again escorted by Menzies Aviation back to the airport for our flight to Botswana. As pre-arranged, Tour with Ease rep Alex met us at the Airlink check-in to take three pieces of luggage to store during our safari trip. So we all had only size-compliant duffels for check-in.
We had some extra time in the airport for shopping, where Cooper got to select a toy of choice, which was a cute stuffed wild dog pup.
I was surprised that our airport purchases were handed to us in plastic bags, given the warnings we received about not bringing them to the African countries. With our packing we had all observed the plastic bag prohibition but we never noticed anyone examining our luggage for plastic bags. So much for anticipated regulations.
While in the waiting area for our flight, another passenger remarked about Cooper to Stacy, “He’s very cute.” Overhearing the comment, Cooper retorted, “I’m cute but I’m tough too!” Nana loves Cooper’s self-characterization.
With that scenario, Nana will conclude this post all about the preparations for our family’s African safari. Certainly to be continued about the safari specifics in the next blog post. Stay tuned.
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