Now what?
Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 8:29 pm
When does a travel tail.........tale start? There are a couple of answers to this question.
12 months in advance when you book your adventure - or in some peoples case (we won't say who) - attempting to get a booking 5 days before departure date (sometimes the day before!!)
The days you do shopping and hope you haven't forgotten the basics
The day/days you start packing the vehicle (unless you one of those super efficient characters that back the afternoon prior to departure - or the morning of departure)
Or does it start when you drive out of your front gate, with a car loaded with anticipation, excitement and in some cases camping equipment and the long road ahead of you.
Perhaps it starts on the arrival at the entrance gate of your intended destination.
We all have our own way of thinking.
In seven more sleeps Jax (some of you may remember my intrepid travel companion) will be driving though my gates for a one night stop over before we hit the road for the long haul to KTP.
This is not one of my last minute bookings but started a year ago. From the offset we had our itinerary well planned and all our ducks in a row. Botswana had other ideas. I received a frantic phone call from Jax saying that the middle 10 days of our trip, the bookings had vanished. Poof - gone. So now what - we have our first few days - our last days booked and confirmed and nothing in the middle. Not only that, she is unable to contact Botswana. I eventually managed to get hold of the booking office - will at some stage compile a dictionary of the language used, caused by frustration - only to be told they were fully booked.
This I refused to accept. Eventually, after much wrangling, some flattery and a lot of sweet talk, our middle 10 days were once again booked and confirmed. Unfortunately not exactly the camps we originally requested - but hey - who cares - we would be out in the wild with no fences confining us and hopefully only the stars and the creatures of the wild to keep us company.
The 11 months since those frustrating phone calls have gone in a flash and our departure is just around the corner.
All going well, in just over a week, we should be relaxing round a fire at Leeupan before the final hop to Two Rivers for our first night in a place that once you get it's sand between your toes, you keep going back over and over again.
On that note - hopefully by the time I get back I will remember that I started a story of two old bags heading for the wild - anybody in the area - watch out - here we come!
12 months in advance when you book your adventure - or in some peoples case (we won't say who) - attempting to get a booking 5 days before departure date (sometimes the day before!!)
The days you do shopping and hope you haven't forgotten the basics
The day/days you start packing the vehicle (unless you one of those super efficient characters that back the afternoon prior to departure - or the morning of departure)
Or does it start when you drive out of your front gate, with a car loaded with anticipation, excitement and in some cases camping equipment and the long road ahead of you.
Perhaps it starts on the arrival at the entrance gate of your intended destination.
We all have our own way of thinking.
In seven more sleeps Jax (some of you may remember my intrepid travel companion) will be driving though my gates for a one night stop over before we hit the road for the long haul to KTP.
This is not one of my last minute bookings but started a year ago. From the offset we had our itinerary well planned and all our ducks in a row. Botswana had other ideas. I received a frantic phone call from Jax saying that the middle 10 days of our trip, the bookings had vanished. Poof - gone. So now what - we have our first few days - our last days booked and confirmed and nothing in the middle. Not only that, she is unable to contact Botswana. I eventually managed to get hold of the booking office - will at some stage compile a dictionary of the language used, caused by frustration - only to be told they were fully booked.
This I refused to accept. Eventually, after much wrangling, some flattery and a lot of sweet talk, our middle 10 days were once again booked and confirmed. Unfortunately not exactly the camps we originally requested - but hey - who cares - we would be out in the wild with no fences confining us and hopefully only the stars and the creatures of the wild to keep us company.
The 11 months since those frustrating phone calls have gone in a flash and our departure is just around the corner.
All going well, in just over a week, we should be relaxing round a fire at Leeupan before the final hop to Two Rivers for our first night in a place that once you get it's sand between your toes, you keep going back over and over again.
On that note - hopefully by the time I get back I will remember that I started a story of two old bags heading for the wild - anybody in the area - watch out - here we come!
OB's is one of the first things that will be packed.