I've written about 30,000 words over the last 6 weeks but none of them have been fit for sharing. Mostly just random thoughts and shopping lists of the rich and famous. I finally started writing something that I thought I could possibly share.

Kirsty and I go to South Africa for a holiday in just over two weeks, or 19 sleeps as she puts it. To say she is excited would be an understatement beyond belief. Quite frankly, the thought of canceling the tour has crept into my mind because it might, finally, stop her talking about it. But then I wouldn’t get to go and that makes me sad. But, just like my best friend Barney Stinson (or he would be if we actually knew each other) says, “whenever I’m sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story”. For those of you who don’t know, Barney Stinson is a character played by Neil Patrick Harris on the television show How I Met your Mother. NPH is quality in the show and Barney is just awesome. Anyway, I’m getting off topic here. 

I can understand her excitement. I’ve been to southern Africa before. The driving factor in me coming to Saudi Arabia to work was the opportunities it would provide for traveling. While growing up in Canada was great, it is not the ideal place to travel from. Saudi is centrally located. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and even Qatar serve as hubs for some of the largest and busiest airlines in the world. You can get anywhere from here, often with only one brief stopover. Why not take advantage of that? 

I had always wanted to go on a safari. Always. Growing up in Alberta, a mere 4-hour drive from the Canadian Rocky Mountains, enabled me to spend much of my youth hiking and camping, spotting elk, deer, moose, bears, the occasional wolf, and other animals. I never got tired of it. I could wander around a zoo for days. Naturally, the safari was always going to be high on my list of dream vacations. I swore that the first trip I took from Saudi would be to someplace in Africa to go on a safari. 

And I did. Once I had worked past my probationary period I booked a holiday, a 24-day tour through Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. I had been in Saudi just over 8 months and needed a break. The first year out here is hard, especially if you come by yourself. We spent only two days in Etosha National Park in Namibia, and even though I didn’t see any lions or leopards, the anticipation that we might was unbelievable. I saw too many elephants to count, a crash of rhinos (that is what a group of rhinos is called my friends), giraffes, hippos, all sorts of antelope, and one cheetah hiding in the bushes tucking into what he or she had just caught. It was the trip of a lifetime, even though my dorm room was robbed in Stellenbosch.  

On my old blog site I posted a day-by-day account of the trip for my avid readers (I had about 6 of them). I’m planning on keeping a journal on this trip as well. And this trip will be different. The starting and end points are the same, but the roads in between will be completely foreign to me; and especially Kirsty. This trip, is all South Africa.  

We fly in to Johannesburg and spend the night there before departing with our tour company for a private camp outside Kruger National Park. We spend two days there, plus one inside Kruger National Park itself, before heading towards the Kingdom of Swaziland, famed for Chaka Zulu. We spend two nights in Swaziland, partaking in a game walk and game drive, and stopping by a local school to meet the children. I’m hoping we get to play football (soccer) with them. We spend a full day and night in an inn on the beach on what’s called the Dolphin Coast. I might brave the water of the Indian Ocean as well. I’ve dipped my foot in the Pacific and Atlantic; might as well add the Indian to the mix. We head back inland into the mountains and interior for the better part of the week before arriving in a coastal town called Kynsna, our gateway to the Tsitsikamma National Park. Our drive to Cape Town takes us along the famed Whale Route (and it is whale season) so hopefully we’ll see some whales. We’ve got a total of 8 days in Cape Town – 3 with the tour. The tour will take us to a wine tasting, down to Cape Point and the penguin colony, and up Table Mountain. The other five days after the tour Kirsty and I are free to do whatever we choose – and we have plenty of options. 

We can go to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was a prisoner (I think we’ll do this), we can go on specially designed off-road Segways and cruise around a wine farm, we can go shark cage diving, abseil from Table Mountain. There are spas, golf courses, movie theaters, theaters, museums and galleries. And of course, we can just relax by the hotel’s pool. There is a nude beach nearby as well, but the winter will just be ending so it might be a little cold for that. 

Naturally, the pre-holiday shopping has begun in earnest. We went to Bahrain the other weekend, and besides saying “farewell” to Harry Potter and his friends, we picked up the last of our clothes for the holiday. Kirsty even bought safari underwear! Not sure if it is meant to attract lions or bushmen but it doesn’t look any different than normal underwear. My big purchase, besides the safari I guess, was a new camera. The one I have is 6 years old now, and I thought it time to graduate to a fancier model. I just bought a Canon 550D, not quite their beginner’s model DSLR, but one step up. This will be all the camera I need for a few years. And I’m even planning on taking a little photography course as well when I return from Africa so I’ll eventually be able to use it properly. 

As you can imagine, there’s lots of excitement in the villa these days. I’m actually reluctantly posting this blog, having put it off for a few weeks. When I talk to my friends back home, around the world even, I hear how they’re struggling. The economy sucks right now. There are riots in the UK. I’m pretty sure it’s even snowing somewhere. I know how fortunate I am to be able to have at least one holiday a year. And normally, we have two. While I am a typical Leo, I do not wish to come across as if I’m boasting. If I have, my apologies. I only wanted to let you all know what’s going on, how things are shaping up, and what the near future holds.  

I promise I’ll try to take some great photos when I’m gone. I’ll take many; I just can’t guarantee they’ll be great. 

Cheers