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Tomorrow well over 18 months of planning comes to fruition with the start of a near seven-week odyssey to Africa when PJM and I jump on the bird PER-SYD before clambering aboard QF63 SYD-JNB on Thursday.
It will come as no surprise that we cancelled original flight plans via the Middle East for alternatives in the southern hemisphere.
A bummer, as I had scored reward flights in J on CX PER-HKG and EK HKG-DXB-NBO.
We were going to have a night in Hong Kong and two nights in Dubai on the way to Nairobi, our Africa kick-off destination before wending our way to finish at Cape Town.
I had bought revenue J on QR CPT-DOH-PER, with a night in Doha for the return, using the VA/QR partnership to be in Q-Suites DOH-PER at a sensible time of day, instead of the QR midnight departure out of DOH to PER.
My attempt to treat PJM was thwarted.
All those flights were cancelled with the only penalty being 2 x 6,000 points for the rewards booking.
C’est la vie.
For flights into and out of Africa, what was to be - and what it now is:
QF PER-SYD-JNB and return CPT-xJNB(codeshare on Z4)-xSYD-PER.
PER-SYD is reward Y, which was going to be more tolerable in an A330, but – you guessed it – down-gauged to a maggot. We’ll just have to suck that up.
SYD-JNB is in W (bought as T), which should be tolerable given the flight departs at 0935 and chases the sun to arrive at 1635 in JNB. We’ll have two nights in JNB before heading to NBO on KQ.
Return from JNB-xSYD-PER is QF revenue J (C bucket). The codeshare sector CPT-JNB booked into whY on an E190, so tolerable two-abreast seating for that short flight.
My brother and SIL and another couple make up the rest of our travel group. The others were originally booked PER-DXB-NBO, with a one-night stopover in DXB and joining us there, and then CPT-xDXB-PER on EK.
In changing, they opted to fly into Africa SA J PER-xJNB-NBO. The A340 SA flight out of PER leaves at 2350. I’ve done it once before on a J reward years ago when QF and SA code shared. It’s OK, but very old-school J seating. Not now as a revenue flight, thanks.
The others will lob into JNB early morning and make the connection to the same KQ JNB-NBO flight as us.
For the return, my brother and SIL are doing what PJM and I are doing with QF; our friends have opted to go via Mauritius on MK.
OK, that covers the saga of getting into and out of Africa – apart from the surprisingly onerous process of obtaining visas for Kenya and Tanzania. I don’t recall anything like it when I last went there about 12 years ago.
Kenya wanted a day-by-day itinerary and uploaded copies of flight tickets. It’s time-consuming when on a fairly lengthy trip and where we will be going in and out several times. Once done, though, the approval was quite quick, although my brother and SIL ran into problems with the Kenya website saying their visas had been approved, but not receiving the email with them attached – apparently not an unusual problem.
The visas can’t be downloaded from the website, so failed email delivery means they need to be chased up by clunkily-directed email or WhatsApp messages. WhatsApp ended up being the go.
Tanzania was not as onerous to fill in, but the application then disappears into limbo. They say processing time takes 10 days, and it was every bit of that. I think they meant 10 business days, but they don’t say that.
For such major tourism countries, the painful nature of their visa application processes surprised me.
Within Africa, we concentrate on Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania before moving to locations in the Victoria Falls region – which takes in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, before finishing with a few days in Cape Town and Stellenbosch.
PJM has been to Morocco, but not to ‘real’ Africa. One of the key things that I particularly wanted to organise was a night at the famed Giraffe Manor (https://www.thesafaricollection.com/properties/giraffe-manor/) in Nairobi. Even 18 months ahead, with no 2026 prices yet published, it was filling fast – and of course August is peak season with the migration on the plains.
All the East Africa activities were organised through Bench Africa in Sydney, which I’ve previously used for aerial safaris in 2013 and 2014 (Aerial safari in Kenya and gorilla trek in Rwanda
JohnM's E Africa aerial safari).
Once I had secured three of the most desirable rooms, I began organising a series of other activities and safaris around that date.
Chronologically, here is the plan (ignoring PJM and my two nights in Jo’burg.):
Here’s what it looks like on the map:
That should keep us amused…
As usual, most of the TR will be done on return.
It will come as no surprise that we cancelled original flight plans via the Middle East for alternatives in the southern hemisphere.
A bummer, as I had scored reward flights in J on CX PER-HKG and EK HKG-DXB-NBO.
We were going to have a night in Hong Kong and two nights in Dubai on the way to Nairobi, our Africa kick-off destination before wending our way to finish at Cape Town.
I had bought revenue J on QR CPT-DOH-PER, with a night in Doha for the return, using the VA/QR partnership to be in Q-Suites DOH-PER at a sensible time of day, instead of the QR midnight departure out of DOH to PER.
My attempt to treat PJM was thwarted.
All those flights were cancelled with the only penalty being 2 x 6,000 points for the rewards booking.
C’est la vie.
For flights into and out of Africa, what was to be - and what it now is:
QF PER-SYD-JNB and return CPT-xJNB(codeshare on Z4)-xSYD-PER.
PER-SYD is reward Y, which was going to be more tolerable in an A330, but – you guessed it – down-gauged to a maggot. We’ll just have to suck that up.
SYD-JNB is in W (bought as T), which should be tolerable given the flight departs at 0935 and chases the sun to arrive at 1635 in JNB. We’ll have two nights in JNB before heading to NBO on KQ.
Return from JNB-xSYD-PER is QF revenue J (C bucket). The codeshare sector CPT-JNB booked into whY on an E190, so tolerable two-abreast seating for that short flight.
My brother and SIL and another couple make up the rest of our travel group. The others were originally booked PER-DXB-NBO, with a one-night stopover in DXB and joining us there, and then CPT-xDXB-PER on EK.
In changing, they opted to fly into Africa SA J PER-xJNB-NBO. The A340 SA flight out of PER leaves at 2350. I’ve done it once before on a J reward years ago when QF and SA code shared. It’s OK, but very old-school J seating. Not now as a revenue flight, thanks.
The others will lob into JNB early morning and make the connection to the same KQ JNB-NBO flight as us.
For the return, my brother and SIL are doing what PJM and I are doing with QF; our friends have opted to go via Mauritius on MK.
OK, that covers the saga of getting into and out of Africa – apart from the surprisingly onerous process of obtaining visas for Kenya and Tanzania. I don’t recall anything like it when I last went there about 12 years ago.
Kenya wanted a day-by-day itinerary and uploaded copies of flight tickets. It’s time-consuming when on a fairly lengthy trip and where we will be going in and out several times. Once done, though, the approval was quite quick, although my brother and SIL ran into problems with the Kenya website saying their visas had been approved, but not receiving the email with them attached – apparently not an unusual problem.
The visas can’t be downloaded from the website, so failed email delivery means they need to be chased up by clunkily-directed email or WhatsApp messages. WhatsApp ended up being the go.
Tanzania was not as onerous to fill in, but the application then disappears into limbo. They say processing time takes 10 days, and it was every bit of that. I think they meant 10 business days, but they don’t say that.
For such major tourism countries, the painful nature of their visa application processes surprised me.
Within Africa, we concentrate on Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania before moving to locations in the Victoria Falls region – which takes in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, before finishing with a few days in Cape Town and Stellenbosch.
PJM has been to Morocco, but not to ‘real’ Africa. One of the key things that I particularly wanted to organise was a night at the famed Giraffe Manor (https://www.thesafaricollection.com/properties/giraffe-manor/) in Nairobi. Even 18 months ahead, with no 2026 prices yet published, it was filling fast – and of course August is peak season with the migration on the plains.
All the East Africa activities were organised through Bench Africa in Sydney, which I’ve previously used for aerial safaris in 2013 and 2014 (Aerial safari in Kenya and gorilla trek in Rwanda
JohnM's E Africa aerial safari).
Once I had secured three of the most desirable rooms, I began organising a series of other activities and safaris around that date.
Chronologically, here is the plan (ignoring PJM and my two nights in Jo’burg.):
- Arrive Nairobi and stay two nights.
- Visit Nairobi National Park (Nairobi National Park | Nairobi Day Trips & Safaris in Kenya) and the Sheldrick Elephant Nursery (Visiting the Sheldrick Trust Nairobi Nursery).
- Kenya: Northern Circuit (Northern Circuit | Bench Africa).
- Rwanda: Gorilla trekking – The Bishop’s House (The Bishop's House | Bench Africa).
- Tanzania: Tanzania Highlights-Superior (Tanzania Highlights - Superior | Bench Africa).
- Kenya: Out of Africa Scenic Air Safari. This is what I did solo in 2013. The exact tour is not on the Bench Africa website, but this is essentially it: https://scenicairsafaris.com/flying-safaris/out-of-africa-flying-safari/. The 8-pax Oasis leather-furnished Cessna Grand Caravan is the big attraction.
- Botswana: Chobe Princess Houseboat (Chobe Princess by Mantis | Zambezi Queen Collection).
- Zimbabwe – Victoria Falls. Two 2-nights stays: Old Drift Lodge (Old Drift Lodge | Luxury Safari Lodge on the Zambezi) and The Elephant Camp (The Elephant Camp | Luxury Conservation Lodge | Victoria Falls).
- Finish organised tours with departure from Victoria Falls to Cape Town.
- Rent a car at CPT and spend two nights in Cape Town and two nights in Stellenbosch.
Here’s what it looks like on the map:
That should keep us amused…
As usual, most of the TR will be done on return.
