There’s a lot to tell. Over a thousand photos, too. This web version is going to be a very condensed version of my 2006 African experience.
I had never requested a long vacation from my employer, but I thought that if I never asked, there was probably no reason to expect to receive one. So I asked. After months of consideration, I was finally granted 11 weeks off. I made plane reservations for 10 weeks in Africa and a final week back home before making my way back to the office.
I flew from Seattle non-stop to Amsterdam, nine hours, where I had a 3 hour layover. From Amsterdam it was a 10 hour flight to Johannesburg, South Africa. Total flight time was 19 hours, so when I arrived in Johannesburg, I felt quite wiped out. On top of that, the time difference was 10 time zones earlier. I didn’t know if it should be day or night, or even which day or night.
I had arrangements for an airport transfer and a couple of nights in a north suburban Johannesburg hotel, but apart from that, I had 10 weeks to wander across southern Africa on my own. This is really the way I like to do my traveling. Imagine a whole African continent ahead of me, and no schedule, arrangements or deadlines, except to return to Johannesburg in 70 days for the return flight.
The map below shows the route I took through southern Africa. Distances in Africa are vast – for example, the east coast of Mozambique on the Indian Ocean is several hundred miles longer than the Pacific coast of the United States!
I took my first wildlife safari on this trip and enjoyed safaris to seven different national parks. I took hundreds of wildlife photos with my new digital camera (Sony DSC-H5). The safari locations were Etosha N. P. (Namibia), Chobe N. P. (Botswana), Tarangire / Manyara / Serengeti / Ngorongoro Crater N.P. (Tanzania), and Kruger N. P. (South Africa).
Several times during my travels I was asked by local Africans – Are you a missionary? What is your mission? Africans are very used to dealing with white people (foreigners) who are affiliated with churches, NGOs and volunteer efforts.
I always answered that yes, of course I was a missionary and I was on a "Mission of Discovery”.
In Johannesburg, I purchased an express bus ticket from Johannesburg to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It was a long 24 hour bus ride, but I got to sightsee across a large part of South Africa and a big portion of this was overnight and I was asleep.
I was on my way…..
