This week and many before it, I have spent countless hours creating an REI wishlist, researching locations, countries, driving directions, cheap flights, and most importantly attempting to find an automatic Minivan in South Africa to rent. Some successful, some not.
Success....Flight for Katie (our friend, travel companion, and travel school tutor for the kids). Katie will be joining us one month into our trip in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania for our 12 day Tanzania Family Safari. She will come complete with a BA in Education and a teaching certificate. She will thankfully take over the kids schooling for the remaining months of our trip.
Success....Backpacks for everyone! After on line research and one test run at Rock & Snow New Paltz NY we meet John at The Consohoken PA REI who was very knowledgable and most importantly patient. We all walked out with appropriate sized bags.
Success.... Safari after much research and then more research, we chose AfricanSafrai.com who had the perfect blend of animals, culture, locations, timing, etc for our travel family. The Tanzania Family Safari for 12 days in Decemeber 2013. It should be amazing!
Not yet....still have not finalized our VolunteerTour trip in India. I have narrowed it down to two choices one is 30 days (maybe too long for the kids) the other 14 days and possibly just the right combination or volunteer teaching/playing with children and includes all the Northern Indian highlights...even a camel safari overnight in the desert.
Not yet... Side trip for the extra week we have between South Africa, Zambia (Victoria Falls) and the start of our safari. Should we take a quick but expensive side trip and out of directional order to Dubai, United Arab Emirates? Kids can ski indoor and visit a few waterparks. I'm trying to see if staying in the world's only 7 star hotel is in the budget.
Or maybe Lake Malawi National Park in Malawi staying on Mumbo Island a sustainable island lodge with tented camps and Eco friendly bathrooms. We can kayak the 10 kms to the island. Sounds lovely.
Not yet...still haven't booked a rental car in SA.
