Go Well.....Stay well friends!!

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We are off to Africa......soon. As I write this first sentence we are exactly 4 sleeps or 3 full days, or 80 hours, or 4800 minutes away from leaving. suffice it to say.....we are leaving soon!!!

I might also tell you that we are very excited!!!

For Rene and I Africa has always been one of those exotic, far away, places that you see on T.V or hear about from the news. A place where there is incredible beauty, enormous deserts, fantastic wildlife and..... unending human poverty and suffering. A place that we never even really talked about going. So how come Africa now!....well....to tell the truth I'm still not really sure!

Rene jokes that it was me who wanted to go to Africa, and he wanted to go to Canada's Wonderland (hehe) Oh and speaking about Ontario, (Canada's Wonderland is an amusement park near Toronto, Ontario) we are taking this journey with Rene's sister Susan and her husband Dick. Susan is one of Rene's sisters (he has 5, I have none!) who lives in Ontario. We invited them to join us on this adventure and so off the 4 of us go.

As we prepared for this journey we both explored the internet, we read brochures, we listened to music and we read books that talked to us, sang to us and spoke to us about this massive continent of Africa we were headed for. One of the books we read was CRY, THE BELOVED COUNTRY a book written by Alan Patton and set in 1948 South Africa. it is a novel about black man's country under white man's law. A fascinating story about an old Zulu pastor and his son and their individual journey's living in a land and with people who are riven by racial injustice. A book we read that spoke to both of us and solidified our decision to explore the land of Africa. A book where we have picked up one of our new favorite sayings, which is an old Zulu (one of the many languages of South Africa) greeting that goes like this. As I am leaving your home or leaving away from you I say to you....Stay well my friend. Then you in return will say to me as I leave......Go well my friend.

Now, Africa is a HUGE continent with 53 different countries. We knew we couldn't see them all, so had to make some decisions about where it was we wanted to go. Some of that decision was actually quite simple. Some parts of Africa are just not safe so many of those Northwestern countries were eliminated from our thoughts very quickly. I also have a friend who has a condo in Cape Town, South Africa and she has encouraged me to go there several times, so that was an easy decision. We knew we wanted to go there for some exploring. Next we explored some small group tour companies and because Africa is so unknown to us, we thought a group tour would be a safe, fun way to see some of the land. We know some things about small group tours because we hooked up with a small group tour while we were in Southeast Asia and travelled with some great people through Northern Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Met some great people from all corners of the world and had a blast travelling with them. So we chose the tour group, then with Dick and Sue one night in September in Ontario, we picked the tour and proceeded to make the travel plans.

So as we have promised ourselves since we started our traveling adventures, if we dream it and want it, it is only us that can make it happen. Now, 6 months later we are going to make Africa happen.

So, in a nut shell, this is loosely what our itinerary looks like. We fly from Edmonton to Minneapolis. Then Minneapolis to Amsterdam. We meet up with Dick and Sue in Amsterdam and together carry on to Cape Town. We are spending 10 days in a condo in Cape Town, exploring the area.....do you know how many vineyards there are near and around Cape Town??? We're gonna find out!!!! After 10 days of Cape Town and area, we are jumping on the train (the locals' train) and heading to Johannesburg where we will meet up with our Intrepid tour group. Then for the next 15 days we will be touring the countries of Botswana Zimbabwe and more of South Africa. After our 15 days of touring we make our way home. When we booked our trip, we added on a couple extra days for a stop over in Holland. Rene and Sue have many relatives there and one of their cherished uncles wished we could stop in to see him as he was very sick. Of course we wanted to do that and to see him before he passed on. With sadness I tell you that this dear uncle died just weeks ago, so we will not be seeing him, but we will still stay the extra couple of days to see other family and we arrive back home on April 02.

Sounds like an adventure doesn't it? We think so, we hope so.....in fact we will make it so!!

as I now say good night, I also say to you our friends and family....

STAY WELL WHILE WE GO WELL

Rene and Crystal

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Comments

[Jennifer]

Great to hear from you! Sorry I didn\'t get to see you before you left but we will make up for it after you get back!

[Sandra Lavoie]

Go Well...
Go well my friend and have an amazing adventure!!!

[muff]

AWESOME!!
Sounds like a blast.. still don't have your new number Will catch up with you in April or May Have a great trip

[Gale and Ken]

greetings
Go well my friends

[Rina Roos]

Have a good journey
We were in South Africa in 2001 for five weeks and we are looking forward to your blog. Beautiful country. Stay safe.

[Darlene]

Go well my dear cousin!!
This sounds like a trip of a lifetime! I am so happy for you and trust that you will go well and stay well and then arrive well in April. :-) Looking forward to sharing you adventure by blog. Sleep well and God bless your praying, packing, preparing, and pushing off. Go well.

[Dirk Slager]

We wish you a nice journey in a beautiful country. I was there a few times-Capetown area is exciting and provinces, except some big cities like Durban. Warm regards/Dirk and Lenie

[Christine Koch]

wonderful plan
We are looking forward to your blog entries. Please note our new e-mail address. We're so excited to hear that you will be traveling with Intrepid Travel. We have been on several of their trips, and each has been outstanding. Thank you for sharing your adventures with your friends!

[Peter Koch]

Africa adventure
You picked a good group to travel with! We have been on several trips with them in Asia and one in South America. They usually have one well organized tour leader and very knowledgeable local guides. The emphasis is on getting to meet the people and seeing life the way it really is. They also always give you lots of free time to explore on your own. We went to Africa with an overland tour which is usually done in old army trucks and tents, but we were fortunate to have a bus body on a truck chassis, so it was much more comfortable. We explored 6 countries in East Africa. The situation in Zimbabwe and parts of Kenya is really bad, from what we hear, but we would go there anytime again. Enjoy the wine and tell us all about your adventures.