Hello! We meet again. It’s time to dust off the ole’ travelogue and depart on another whirl-wind adventure, this time to South Africa. 

Surprised?? So are we! Given we are a week from departure, I am reasonably confident we will go. 80% … give or take. 

The planning (and saving money) phase began years ago. Our very awesome Travel Planner has been with us every step of the way … through my career change, this pandemic, the Trump Presidency, the return of slap bracelets. We’ve worked together so long now, I’m reasonably certain we’re on the list to be God parents. I mean, not top three, obviously, that’s presumptuous, but definitely in the top twenty-five. 

Originally we were to depart in November after the election, but too many unknowns made confirming travel impossible. So the trip was postponed to late March 2021, and originally things looked promising. 

Then they didn’t. 

Delta canceled our trans-Atlantic flights and South African Airways (SAA) imploded. While Delta was cool with rebooking, we lost some money for the SAA tickets. Travel insurance only covers Chapter 7 bankruptcy, liquidation. SAA is in Chapter 11, restructuring, even though they haven’t flown a mile since March 2020. They need over a billion to pay everyone back and resume service, and have only received a portion from the government. No sane corporation will touch the airline as they haven’t been profitable since 2011. It’s a “glorious” story of corruption and cronyism that rivals the collapse of Toys R Us. 

So we rebooked through Europe and rejiggered our intra-country flights. All good? 

Then infection rates soared, the Federal Government decided no plan was better than a plan, and viral variants began emerging, accompanied by super-nuanced headlines like, “South Africa Strain Kills Everyone,” or, “English Variant Turns You Socialist … Before Killing You,” or, “Kent Variant Is 70% Deadlier!” That last one is an actual headline, though I do wonder exactly what the 70% more deadly refers to. 

However the holidays passed, most Americans got serious about masking and washing their hands, the vaccine rollout continued to gain steam while the States got better at managing its distribution, and the U.S. numbers began falling. Suddenly, things don’t look so bleak anymore.

Then two days ago our flights were canceled. Again. We rebooked. Again. This time through Amsterdam instead of London. Who knows what’ll happen next.

If you would like to come along, do nothing. You are ready to go. We depart JFK in one week. Know somebody who would enjoy seeing the sights of South Africa and my sassy commentary? Let me know and I can add them. Just make sure you have their permission first. If you would like to unsubscribe, there is a link below which will remove you. If you have any questions or wish to view past trips, shoot me a note. I’ve listed them below. 

As always I will be sending (mostly) daily emails with photographs and (perhaps verbose) commentary. Some areas of the trip will not have wifi, so messages may not be regular. If you fall in love with a particular photograph, email me at the conclusion of the trip and I will send you a high-res digital copy. The email versions of the pics generally don’t have enough pixels to print. Should you want something more bespoke, like having the image framed and signed, I can do that too but there is a cost to print and frame. Or just enjoy the ride. Totally up to you.

I hope you’ll join us.