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You know that song. If you don't, look up the YouTube of Kristin Bell and her husband playing up to it.
I thought I'd get this started a bit early and with an intention of keeping this going real time, or as close as I can. I suppose that will depend on the internet out on those plains of Africa.
Anyways, in a week's time we'll be on our way to BNE for the first of three flights to get us to Nairobi, via SYD and JNB.
bAlt has decided to write the preface/preamble, and maybe some of the ongoing uupdates, so over to bAlt for the intro (with some input from me) -
Just a recap and some background about the reason for this trip:
Prior to COVID we had a trip booked to southern Africa that was cancelled as things shut down. As most of you know, we finally went on our Africa trip last year and had an amazing time in Livingstone, Vic Falls, then a three week tour through Botswana, Namibia and the western side of South Africa. Of black maned lions and rampaging hippos
About two months after our trip, we were sitting around talking (most likely with a beer) and I told bPeteb that I couldn’t stop thinking about the animals and Africa - he said he couldn’t either. Obviously we had no choice but to continue our African adventure.
Now for the exciting part - where to go?
At some stage bPeteb and I had watched a David Attenborough doco on the lesser known parks in Kenya and we were both really drawn to Tsavo National Park. Tsavo has huge herds of elephants covered in red dirt (permanent Holi festival for elephants?).
We hunted around for longer tours that included Tsavo but there were only a few. Finally, through safaribookings.com, I found a small company called Tapestry or Africa / Tapestry of Kenya, very new, but we just liked them straight away. This was the tour we started with 20-Day Classic Grand Kenya and Tanzania Expedition
Booking and trip details:
We started working through the details of the trip with Tapestry. Usually they offer shorter trips within Kenya so this trip would involve three segments to allow for the driver and vehicle in Tanzania meeting us at the Masi/Serengeti crossing and then passing us back over (kicking us out if we’ve been a pain to drive around) near Mt Kilimanjaro, where we cross back into Kenya for the final part of our trip.
bPeteb spent some time discussing money and accommodation with Matt (one of the owners) and they changed a few things around to get the price to match our budget.
We asked a friend of ours, who bPeteb works with, and who we'll call bStu, if he wanted to come. He’d shown great interest in our previous Africa trip and said yes, even if the spend terrified him. Three is better so that we have someone else to talk to instead of just to each other for three weeks. It is great to be able to share experiences like this with someone.
Nairobi to Mombasa, 20 days, 12 parks/reserves (with Ngorongoro crater), including Tsavo, Kenya and Tanzania.
How to get there?
We were always going to fly Qantas to get the status credits for bPeteb and hope to use points for my flight. It’s not the most economical route, by either time or money, when you factor in the additional flights required - Joburg to Nairobi/Mombasa return.
Our travelling companion bStu, obviously thought three weeks together was (more than) enough and didn’t see the need to sit beside us on the plane, so he headed the other direction to get there, booking with Emirates with just the one stop in Dubai then into Nairobi.
Thanks bAlt, back to normal programming.
QF had an international sale at just the right time. Last year it was Y and J. This year we decided on PE both ways. I didn't even have to call to get PE CR seats released for bAlt. They were there just waiting to be selected. Then I had to call to make my booking as I couldn't select a flight down to SYD the night before, even thought it had been offered for the CR.
Flights booked. Safari next. We went from mid and luxury to 100% mid. Original quote just for us was USD8299pp. Adding bStu brought the overall cost down. bStu would have been USD7599 and we would be USD6948 but as we'd invited bStu we decided to split it three ways. It ended up being USD7165pp.
Safari booked, it was on to hotels for the nights before we start our trip on June 2.
bStu said he'd be looking after his own flights and would meet us in Nairobi so it was just ours. Novotel Sydney International, Protea OR Tambo and Best Western Plus Meridian.
Then of course with the reintroduction of the A380 to the SYD-JNB route, QF changed our flights to departure the day before. Grrr. Then had to call to get bAlt sitting beside me as I could select seats that he couldn't. I moved the first two hotels to the day before and added an extra night to our Nairobi booking.
Then the hotel I'd booked in Mombasa, through QF Hotels became unavailable, so after rebooking that by changing it to two hotels, we're left with this
I keep checking our flights every day. bStu told me he's doing the same.
This time next week we'll be at the J lounge at BNE.
I thought I'd get this started a bit early and with an intention of keeping this going real time, or as close as I can. I suppose that will depend on the internet out on those plains of Africa.
Anyways, in a week's time we'll be on our way to BNE for the first of three flights to get us to Nairobi, via SYD and JNB.
bAlt has decided to write the preface/preamble, and maybe some of the ongoing uupdates, so over to bAlt for the intro (with some input from me) -
Just a recap and some background about the reason for this trip:
Prior to COVID we had a trip booked to southern Africa that was cancelled as things shut down. As most of you know, we finally went on our Africa trip last year and had an amazing time in Livingstone, Vic Falls, then a three week tour through Botswana, Namibia and the western side of South Africa. Of black maned lions and rampaging hippos
About two months after our trip, we were sitting around talking (most likely with a beer) and I told bPeteb that I couldn’t stop thinking about the animals and Africa - he said he couldn’t either. Obviously we had no choice but to continue our African adventure.
Now for the exciting part - where to go?
At some stage bPeteb and I had watched a David Attenborough doco on the lesser known parks in Kenya and we were both really drawn to Tsavo National Park. Tsavo has huge herds of elephants covered in red dirt (permanent Holi festival for elephants?).
We hunted around for longer tours that included Tsavo but there were only a few. Finally, through safaribookings.com, I found a small company called Tapestry or Africa / Tapestry of Kenya, very new, but we just liked them straight away. This was the tour we started with 20-Day Classic Grand Kenya and Tanzania Expedition
Booking and trip details:
We started working through the details of the trip with Tapestry. Usually they offer shorter trips within Kenya so this trip would involve three segments to allow for the driver and vehicle in Tanzania meeting us at the Masi/Serengeti crossing and then passing us back over (kicking us out if we’ve been a pain to drive around) near Mt Kilimanjaro, where we cross back into Kenya for the final part of our trip.
bPeteb spent some time discussing money and accommodation with Matt (one of the owners) and they changed a few things around to get the price to match our budget.
We asked a friend of ours, who bPeteb works with, and who we'll call bStu, if he wanted to come. He’d shown great interest in our previous Africa trip and said yes, even if the spend terrified him. Three is better so that we have someone else to talk to instead of just to each other for three weeks. It is great to be able to share experiences like this with someone.
Nairobi to Mombasa, 20 days, 12 parks/reserves (with Ngorongoro crater), including Tsavo, Kenya and Tanzania.
How to get there?
We were always going to fly Qantas to get the status credits for bPeteb and hope to use points for my flight. It’s not the most economical route, by either time or money, when you factor in the additional flights required - Joburg to Nairobi/Mombasa return.
Our travelling companion bStu, obviously thought three weeks together was (more than) enough and didn’t see the need to sit beside us on the plane, so he headed the other direction to get there, booking with Emirates with just the one stop in Dubai then into Nairobi.
Thanks bAlt, back to normal programming.
QF had an international sale at just the right time. Last year it was Y and J. This year we decided on PE both ways. I didn't even have to call to get PE CR seats released for bAlt. They were there just waiting to be selected. Then I had to call to make my booking as I couldn't select a flight down to SYD the night before, even thought it had been offered for the CR.
Flights booked. Safari next. We went from mid and luxury to 100% mid. Original quote just for us was USD8299pp. Adding bStu brought the overall cost down. bStu would have been USD7599 and we would be USD6948 but as we'd invited bStu we decided to split it three ways. It ended up being USD7165pp.
Safari booked, it was on to hotels for the nights before we start our trip on June 2.
bStu said he'd be looking after his own flights and would meet us in Nairobi so it was just ours. Novotel Sydney International, Protea OR Tambo and Best Western Plus Meridian.
Then of course with the reintroduction of the A380 to the SYD-JNB route, QF changed our flights to departure the day before. Grrr. Then had to call to get bAlt sitting beside me as I could select seats that he couldn't. I moved the first two hotels to the day before and added an extra night to our Nairobi booking.
Then the hotel I'd booked in Mombasa, through QF Hotels became unavailable, so after rebooking that by changing it to two hotels, we're left with this
| QF 547 BNE-SYD Y |
| Novotel Sydney International Airport Hotel |
| QF 63 SYD-JNB Y+ |
| Protea Hotel O.R. Tambo, Johannesburg |
| KQ 761 JNB-NBO Y exit row |
| Best Western Plus Meridian Hotel - 2nts |
| Ikweta Safari Camp, Kenya - 2nts |
| Samburu Sopa Lodge, Kenya - 2nts |
| Rhino Watch Safari Lodge, Kenya |
| Lake Nakuru Lodge, Kenya |
| Naivasha Kongoni Lodge, Kenya |
| Fig Tree Camp, Masai Mara, Kenya - 2nts |
Acacia Enkirari Wilderness Camp, Serengeti, Tanzania - 2nts |
Ngorongoro Forest Tented Lodge, Tanzania |
| Tarangire Simba Lodge, Tanzania - 2nts |
| Tarangire Simba Lodge, Tanzania |
| Chanya Lodge, Tanzania |
| Amboseli Sopa Lodge, Kenya - 2nts |
| Balloon safari |
| Taita Hills Safari Resort & Spa, Kenya |
| Ashnil Aruba Lodge, Kenya |
| Sentrim Castle Royal Hotel, Mombasa, Kenya |
| Voyager Beach Resort, Mombasa, Kenya - 2 nts |
| KQ 603 MBA-NBO Y and KQ 762 NBO-JNB Y exit row |
| Radisson Red Johannesburg Rosebank |
| QF 64 JNB-SYD Y+ and QF 532 SYD-BNE Y (bAlt is seated in J!) |
I keep checking our flights every day. bStu told me he's doing the same.
This time next week we'll be at the J lounge at BNE.
