THE GRAND PLAN

Now referring to this as a 'plan' is a bit of an exaggeration − it's more a statement of intent! There is a general idea of starting in Cape Town and heading North towards Ethiopia − what happens then is still under consideration. This will be done in several stages with breaks between various stages − with Andy being left in friendly storage along the way.

The first stage of this sojourn starts in early August 2005 and take me from Cape Town towards Livingstone (where the aim is to fly out by early December).

So what exiting things will fill these four months? A few days in Cape Town wrestling with SA Customs extracting Andy from its shipping container. Then an exploration of the West coast (but only by day trips), followed by the start of the trek northwards along the Garden Route. Along the way visits may be made to the Addo Elephants NP and the Mountain Zebra NP before heading to Bloemfontein to meet a friend who is to travel with me for a while.

The plan so far is to spend a few days in Lesotho − a mountainous country famed for offering unsurpassed walking and pony trekking. After leaving there we will return to South Africa to explore the Drakensberg NP and the battlefield sites made famous by the film 'Zulu'. From there it is aimed to visit the Hluhluwe [pronounced Scheshuwe]; Imfolozi and Mkhuze NPs. Then is off further North to visit the famous Kruger NP before the friend leaves at the start of September.

A number of years ago one of the satellite TV channels showed a series entitled "Safari School" where a very mixed group of people lernt to be a safari guide − they seemed to have a good time and learnt much of the flora, forna and ecosystems of Southern Africa. I'd always been envious of the fun they seemed to have had, so I signed myself for a similar experience: the course was entitled "Train to be a Safari Field Guide". Having been looked after by some excellent Guides, I think that this a bit of an overstatement as it would take more than four weeks to even start approaching their encyclopedic knowledge. However, the course does cover ecology, botany and taxonomy as well as tracking, identification, weapons handling and bush driving.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier NP will be the final stop in South Africa.

From here on the plan becomes even more vague but the following is an outline:

. . . . . and so back to Birmingham for a while − but then's always next year: perhaps Zambia & Malawi and even Tanzania!