Our Seventh and Final Contionent- Africa

Our big adventure for 2017 would be a visit to our seventh and final continent—Africa! We had been slowly working on this “bucket list” item since our visit to Europe, South America, and Antarctica in 2014, and with Australia and Asia thrown in between then and now. Unlike the other continents which centered on a cruise, we decided to do a land tour and safari for Africa.

On our way

But, as we told our travel agent, we weren’t about to do camping in the African bush! We found a tour that we thought balanced the more refined amenities we were seeking with the more traditional safari challenges. In other words, we didn’t think we were too old to do this!

But going to Africa is so unlike visiting other regions of the world. This started with a visit to the Eglin Air Force Base Travel Clinic, where we were seen by an infectious disease specialist to determine what immunizations we needed. Having visit Africa herself, she was a fountain of knowledge on diseases and hazards not seen in more developed countries.

Travelin' in style!

We would only be visiting South Africa and Zimbabwe, but that immediately necessitated Hepatitis A, typhoid, and influenza vaccinations along with antimalarial prophylaxis. It got more interesting when she learned that Capt. Larry, like her, enjoyed sampling more exotic cuisine. That prompted a whole new slate of precautions and prescriptions for traveler’s diarrhea. She had printed out a 20 page summary of medical and consular advisories for these two countries. Things we were to watch out for included: tropical diseases such as dengue, schistosomiasis, chikungunya, rickettsial infections (from tick bites), arboviral infections, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and plague (rodents and fleas); tuberculosis; HIV/AIDS (around 10-20% of the African population but less of a worry since it is sexually transmitted; air pollution; and the marine hazards of highly venomous South African box jellyfish, stonefish, and sea urchins.

Heading for Munich

We were also told to treat the clothes we would be wearing in the bush with an insecticide and to always use mosquito repellent. Consular advice included high risk of violent crime (armed robbery, sexual assault, carjacking, and murder), petty crimes throughout the country, civil unrest, water safety, wildlife attacks, and a high incidence of traffic-related injury or death. All of this and the advice of—“if you become moderately or severely sick or injured, evacuate immediately to a medical center capable of providing higher levels of medical care since there are very few facilities with the supplies and ability to provide the care you might need!” We got our vaccinations and prescriptions, but left wondering if this was really going to be an enjoyable vacation.

Packed, vaccinated, bush clothes sprayed, and passports in hand, we drove to Miami.

Western African terrain

We chose to fly out of Miami, because the tour would end at the very end of November and we had again rented the Tavernier unit we had last year in the Florida Keys from December-March. We figured we would return to Miami, hop in the mini-van, and head on down to our winter retreat. Our travel agent had booked us to Cape Town on Lufthansa Airline. There were two legs on this 11,000 mile flight: Miami to Munich; Munich to Cape Town. These long legs, exacerbated by a 10-hour layover in Munich, ended up making this a 3-day trip because of the time zone changes traveling east. We started in Miami on Wednesday evening at 1919 and arrived in Cape Town on Friday morning at 0737. The Munich layover was particularly difficult as we had only 3-4 hours of sleep on the flight over the pond. At times we were lone soles in the Munich Airport International terminal. We will be discussing layovers with our travel agent when we get back!

Flying to Cape Town, we were impressed by the immensity of the African continent (around 5,000 miles north to south), and its arid ruggedness as we flew on a more westerly route.

Cape Town and Table Mountain

The bareness and lack of features suggesting populated areas reminded us of the Australian Outback with a significantly more mountainous terrain. We landed at Cape Town and quickly passed through passport control. We retrieved our bags and expected a longer wait through customs. Were we surprised! We followed the signs taking us to customs until we came to a fork marked with signs pointing — “Something to Declare” this way and “Nothing to Declare” the other way. We paused, decided we had nothing to declare, and took the left fork which brought us to the arrival area where we met our transfer driver. Compared to U.S. Customs, that was unbelievable. We were early, so we rode in rush-hour traffic, and arrived at our hotel an hour later. Fortunately our room was ready and we were able to crash and recover from an arduous trip.

Refreshed from a nap and shower, we made our way to a welcoming reception poolside the hotel’s pool and bar.

Our hotel- The Cape Grace

We were early which allowed us to meet other tour members as they filtered in. After a few drinks, which brought down those anti-social tendencies, we discovered that we were in a group of very seasoned and experienced travelers—many of whom had toured with this tour company before. During the following inclusive dinner we quickly started to establish friendships that will undoubtedly become long-lasting as we have found so often happens. If only this could be as easy with familial relationships…