And this is where I’ll be spending Christmas this year: Fish Hoek, just outside Cape Town in South Africa. We’ve finally booked a hotel (just out of shot in this photo, to the right), completing all of the bookings for this seemingly epic trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe.
I’m really starting to count the days (less than 4 months now!) until we leave, and it can’t get here quickly enough.
(Photo via Maria Wagener on Panoramio)
text, list, holidays, south africa, zimbabwe, travelling, christmas,
In 6 months time, I’ll be landing back in the UK after 3 weeks south of the equator in South Africa and Zimbabwe. We finally have our schedule planned out, and all of the flights booked, and it looks like a lot of fun (as well as a lot of travelling!):
9th December: Flying overnight from London to Johannesburg, via a stop-over in Paris.
10th December: Johannesburg and staying the night at the girlfriend’s aunt and uncle’s place near Johannesburg.
11th - 17th December: Staying in two different lodges in Kruger Park, a huge national park near the Mozambique border. We’ll be doing loads of game drives, and hopefully some walks too.
17th December: Driving back to Johannesburg, and then flying to Harare.
18th December: The friends’ wedding (which is the reason for the entire trip!)
19th December: Harare, maybe going for a drive to see where the girlfriend used to live.
20th - 23rd December: Partying on a houseboat on Lake Kariba, with the wedding party and other friends. Lots of booze, and not a whole lot of sleep.
24th December: Flying to Cape Town, via a stop-over in Johannesburg.
24th - 27th December: Christmas in Cape Town, staying in a hotel on the beach in Fish Hoek, and seeing more of the girlfriend’s family. I fully intend to be on the beach on Christmas Day for the first time.
27th December: Flying from Cape Town to London, via stop-overs in Johannesburg and Paris.
28th December: Land back in London and attempt to recover.
Damn, that’s a lot of travelling. It should be an amazing trip, and I’m starting to count the days already.
Evidently the last week of April should be re-named “planning December holidays” for me. It’s all go go go on that front, and the latest development is the girlfriend’s aunt booking the lodges in Kruger Park for us.
We’re spending six nights in two different places, both well into the park’s interior. They’re supposedly in great locations for seeing different animals, and we’ll be doing driving and walking tours too. I’ve already been told to wear non-bright colours for the latter!
Add to this our searching for flights to/from Zimbabwe yesterday, and it all seems very, very near, despite being over 7 months and 9,000km away.
South Africa and Zimbabwe are looking a whole lot closer after this weekend, because we booked our flights to head out there this December. The girlfriend is pretty much bouncing off the walls with excitement already, and I’m really looking forward to it.
The last fortnight has seen umpteen emails going back and forth between us, her relations in that part of the world, and the friends whose wedding is our reason for making the trip in the first place. Apparently there are a lot of things to get sorted!
Now, with flights booked and definite arrival dates, we can really get things organised. It seems that we’ll be doing a whistle-stop tour of the girlfriend’s extended family whilst in South Africa, including 5 days in Kruger (where I have been promised leopards and lions now!).
Then it’s off to Harare for a couple of days, including the wedding, followed by a few days partying on a houseboat on Lake Kariba, and finally Christmas at Victoria Falls, or nearby. It’ll only be the last part of the trip when it’ll just be the two of us, which will be a great way to finish it all off.
It’ll be my second Christmas in a row away from my family, which is a bit of a downer, but being in the southern hemisphere for the first time should cheer me up. Plus some mid-winter sunshine to fight off the SAD.
We booked the flights there and back using Kayak, which is my new favourite travel website. I love how customisable you can make your searches for flights, and it seems to cover every airline/website out there. We ended up choosing to have a change of flights in Paris each way, which adds about 90 minutes to each journey (not bad when it’s an 11-hour journey anyway), but saves over £200 each.
To fly direct, you’re looking at the best part of £850 each, return, whereas we picked up these flights for £630ish. It’s a remarkable saving, and I’m willing to do the stopover each way in order to save so much money. It’s like 25% off!
So yes, Christmas and that part of the world seem a lot closer today than they did on Friday.
picture, africa, zimbabwe, holidays, christmas, nature, girlfriend,
So this is where I’ll be spending the week before Christmas later this year. Two of my friends are getting married in Zimbabwe on 18th December, and then we’re all renting a houseboat for a week on Lake Kariba to celebrate, African-style. Apparently, this entails alcohol being pretty much the only liquid you’re allowed to drink for the entire time, and trying not to get eaten by a crocodile.
Seriously. Some friends just got back from another wedding there last month (and it’s from their Facebook that I’ve “borrowed” this photo), and to actually go for a dip in the lake they lower a big cage off the back of the houseboat for you. It’s pretty big, but it’s too dangerous to swim outside of the cage. The girlfriend’s been delighting in telling me stories of crocs overturning little rowing boats or leaping out of the water as you lean over the side.
After seeing these photos, I’m really excited about this part of the trip. They saw loads of elephants and other animals, plus it was a bit of a booze-fest. Ideal!
picture, weather, holiday, venice, question, girlfriend, christmas, relationships, self flattery,
I’m off to Venice tomorrow for a long weekend with the girlfriend, and am thoroughly looking forward to it. I’ve been before, once when I was really young with my family, and then on a whistle-stop day or two as part of a longer road-trip with some friends a few years ago.
She’s never been, and has been mentioning that fact for at least the last 12 months. Shortly before Christmas, I bought a guide book for the city, and booked flights and a hotel, without telling her.
On Christmas Day, one of my presents to her was the guide book, which she seemed a little surprised at. She asked “Are we going to Venice?”, and I told her to look inside the book. There, waiting, were the flight bookings and hotel reservation, ready to go. She had tears in her eyes, which I think is a good sign.
I admit it, I’m damned good at this relationship stuff sometimes.
Unfortunately, the weather is conspiring against us this weekend. Rain, rain, and more rain. Just like being in London, but with water below as well as above…
Anybody have any tips, restaurant/bar/sights-wise?
I do enjoy this time of year for the general spirit of goodwill around. I was just in McDonald’s, grabbing some lunch, when an example presented itself.
NOTE: I generally avoid McDonald’s other than for the odd Double Sausage & Egg McMuffin, which is pretty much like the ambrosia of the gods in muffin form. I’m not massively impressed by the usual burgers there, especially Big Macs of recent years. Oh, and the Big Mac has gotten a little smaller, right?
I’d ordered a Quarterpounder With Cheese meal, and then a Cheeseburger on the side. What?! I’m a growing lad, and in any case McD’s burgers have got smaller over the years.
Evidently, the time at which I’d ordered a cheeseburger was the wrong moment, as I then had to wait for one to be prepared. It took forever, during which those cheeseburgers which made it down the chute were swiftly grabbed by workers a little quicker than the girl who was serving me.
After waiting for at least five minutes (I know, a whole five minutes. The horror!), the girl serving me leaned over and asked if I’d “like a double?”. Hell yeah! The chute of double cheesburgers was piling up, with nary a single one of the, erm, single variety in sight.
She popped a double into my bag, and I walked out a very chuffed customer.
Thanks, random McDonald’s server on High Holborn. You made this guy’s day!
Who’s got two thumbs and burnt his lip on a fork from his new fondue set last night?
THIS GUY!
I nipped down to Gatwick airport yesterday to pick up my parents’ car, as they were heading off on holiday for the Christmas/New Year period and are letting me borrow it. It saves them parking costs, and it’s a whole lot easier for me to get to/from the girlfriend’s parents’ house for Christmas itself.
As I wandered through the terminal to their hotel, and also whilst sitting in the hotel bar with them, it struck me just how happy everyone around me looked. Yes, travelling can be stressful at this time of year, but the smiles on people’s faces showed that they were prepared to cope with it for the reward at the other end.
Some, like my parents, were escaping to sunnier climes for a week or two. Others, no doubt, were about to cross great distances to be with family for Christmas. Either way, the whole place was relentlessly upbeat and jovial.
‘Tis the season…
