Our African Adventure – South Africa, Botswana, Zambia

October 2021

Our African Adventure – South Africa, Botswana, Zambia

Africa has been on my travel wish list for awhile but it took discovering Botswana to convince Kevin that this was well worth exploring as our next trip. While I had made a rough draft itinerary for South Africa, I really wanted to try and preserve some of the Cape Town components and merge it with Botswana. After many iterations, I finally landed on a two week adventure I was so excited for – now to navigate the COVID components to see if this trip could indeed take off.

The two week itinerary started in Cape Town, visited the wine region of Stellenbosch, then transitioned to two safaris in Botswana followed by exploring the area around Victoria Falls. For the safari portion, I had read all about the conservation and animal protection measures of Botswana and it was so important that our money was going towards meaningful and impactful efforts. I wanted to focus on the Okavango Delta and Chobe National park and then while we were in the area, go see Victoria Falls. I had found African Bush Camps through the Bucketlist Family and it ended up being as simple – they took all of my wishes and transformed it into a nine night safari adventure through Botswana and Zambia.

While a trip to Africa post pandemic certainly felt like a risky trip – and a two week trip at that – I had the experience of our other post COVID trips that gave me the confidence that this trip would work – let me explain! All the countries we would be visiting require COVID testing to enter via PCR test only. All of our activities would be outdoors. The safari itself is actually 100% outside – the tents, the lodges, the activities are all outside. While going in October is peak safari season, the fact that I could book a full trip a month before our arrival for a trip that is typically booked a year in advance meant that it was not a very popular activity at the moment. Yes, this would be our most advanced trip since COVID occurred with lots of logistics – and first two week adventure since Feb 2019 – but with attention to detail and focus on planning, I felt that this was going to be an epic birthday trip. 

Our trip included stops in South Africa, Botswana, and Zambia – all of which required PCR COVID testing within 72 hours of arrival to enter the country in addition to the completion of a straightforward health attestation both on arrival and departure from each county. While the safari lodges orchestrated the COVID tests required to get into Zambia and then back home to the USA, we were responsible for the testing to get into South Africa and Botswana. Since testing had been so irregular recently (due to the increased demand secondary to COVID vaccine mandates), I schedule a litany of tests to ensure something came back within the 72 hour window for our first entry point of South Africa:

Test	Description	Result
Pixel Labcrop (PCR)	At home test, we take regularly, very reliable for a 48 hour turnaround time	Kevin’s resulted in 48 hours Mine resulted at 72 hours – thank goodness we did not solely rely on this one even though we regularly get results back at 48 hours
Project Baseline with RiteAid (PCR)	Our original source for covid tests back when the pandemic started but we had not done this in while, I heard the wait times were long	7 days (ouch!)
Walgreens (PCR)	Since I had never used this one before, I tested it the week before to ensure it was reliable	36 hours
Walgreens (ID NOW)	While not a PCR test, this is a NAAT test and results come with a few hours so if all else failed, at least I had something official that showed us as negative	1 hour but not acceptable as COVID test

So based on this, I would say Walgreens all the way. It is too bad that testing in the US is so backed up / not readily available as our experience testing internationally has been much better (and spoiler, Africa was far superior). Now that we had our tests in hand and uploaded to the airline’s website, we were able to check in, grab our boarding passes, and start our African journey. 

There were two factors that I felt were in our favor for this journey – one is that there was a direct flight to South Africa, two is that the flight departed from Newark (for once, not having to travel out of JFK for the sake of price and convenience of the flight route). Our travel day was long and fairly seamless. The 15 hour flight to Johannesburg was empty – practically every party had their own row. We were able to sleep very well on the red eye and despite departing late, we did arrive on time which was critical for our connection. 

The Johannesburg airport is large and a bit confusing for an airport layout. Our international flight landed in one terminal and our domestic connection was in a terminal on the opposite side of the airport. With an hour and change in between flights, we ran through the very long international terminal, cleared through the health check (health questionnaire, COVID test results check, and temperature screening) and immigration / passport control. Then the airport has you leave the secured area and spits you back out to the check-in counters at the domestic terminal. After figuring out which section our flight would be (very confusing and took asking a few people for assistance), we then had to go back through security before finding our gate. The international to domestic (or vice versa) transfer at Johannesburg is no joke – if you do this, make sure you have ample time. 

The flight to Cape Town was also uneventful. When we landed, we called an Uber (the only car service we used for the entire trip and we did not have any issues) to arrive at our Airbnb. The drive was only a half hour and we enjoyed passing by the city lights wondering what all this looked like during the day. Our Africa adventure was about to begin! 

Read all about our time in Cape Town here!

After two full days exploring Cape Town, I knew we would not have time to see it all but we were able to get a taste of everything it has to offer.

We packed up the car and headed off to our second stop on this Africa adventure – the beautiful wine region of Stellenbosch. The drive from Cape Town was very easy which makes adding this spot a perfect compliment to any Cape Town visit and I highly recommend including it – even if you are not a wine drinker.

A funny note about the rental car we had that I have to document for future posterity – the gas gauge did not move once and we did a ton of driving in Cape Town. We were sure that on the drive to Stellenbosch we would finally lose a tick – but it never moved. Then we started a theory that if the gauge was broken and stuck on full, what if we did not have much gas left and we were stranded on the highway? We immediately started searching for gas options when the first tick finally deducted from the gauge – what a sign of relief!

Anyway, we were ready to dive into this new wine region and all it has to offer.

Read about our time exploring Stellenbosch here!

We could not believe the first country of the trip was already done! We loved the combination of Cape Town and Stellenbosch and while it did not feel like enough time do to everything, five days between the two is a great way to explore the things this area is most known for and we had the best time!

While our time in South Africa was short and we could have used more time to experience more, we were so excited to move on to the safari portion of this trip. It was nice to have some time in Africa under our belt before diving into the heart of this two week African adventure – our first ever safari. I had read all about the conservation and animal protection measures of Botswana and it was so important that our money was going towards meaningful and impactful efforts. I wanted to focus on the Okavango Delta and Chobe National park and then while we were in the area, go see Victoria Falls. I had found African Bush Camps through the Bucketlist Family and it ended up being as simple – they took all of my wishes and transformed it into a nine night safari adventure through Botswana and Zambia.

Our flight from Cape Town to Maun was only two hours in length but on one of the tiniest commercial planes! It reminded us of the one we flew from Ecuador to Galapagos but I will have to look back at photos to confirm which was smaller! Our backpacks barely fit in the overhead space but with enough pushing the bags squished into place.

When we landed in Botswana, we completed a health questionnaire and presented our COVID test results. When we turned on Google Fi, we realized a vital component of collecting our COVID test results was on an app that required service – a notification appearing on the phone indicating there was no Google Fi service in Botswana. I panicked for a second wondering how we were going to be able to produce the documents. When we got the results, I downloaded and emailed both PDFs to myself but I was not confident if they were going to be accessible – luckily they were! Note to self to keep ensuring those important documents – like COVID test results – when they cannot be printed that they are available in some offline fashion. After clearing the health screening, we went through immigration and customs – just like that we were in Botswana!

We found our names on a series of boards indicating who would be helping us on the next leg of our journey. Once our bags were weighted and tagged, we were told that the others flying in our plane were on a delayed flight into Maun and we had some down time. We were escorted to a room with AC – which was quite a luxury as it was insanely hot outside – and told to wait until someone collected us for our flight which should be around 3PM. We connected to the wifi to take the opportunity to communicate to the family that we made it to Botswana and we did not know what the wifi or cell service would be for the remainder of the trip. Well 3PM came and went. We were getting nervous and a bit frustrated that we were missing parts of our safari because this other plane with people staying at other lodges was not here – I understand why they do it this way but I was certainly not thrilled to be starting our safari this way.

Around 4PM our pilot Kaboo retrieved us to get on the prop plane as the other two parties had finally arrived. Our pilot was amazing and allowed Kevin to sit up front with him. He explained that he would keep it scenic and to be on the lookout for animals. We were making three stops and ours was the second one that was about 40 minutes away from Maun. This felt like a bus in the sky – it was so funny to us that there were “stops”. By the time we finally left after 5PM, I was just happy to be making it out of Maun and hoping that we could salvage something in the evening for the safari. 

Once we were in the air, I focused my attention out the window in hopes of seeing some wildlife from above. Kevin was upfront with the camera so I was hoping if our pilot found anything, at least he would be able to see it and share it with me after the flight. 

Within minutes, I spotted elephants and immediately teared up – yes, I cried most of the flight. I could not believe what I was seeing and it was very emotional seeing elephants from above.

Then more elephants appeared – both big and small, and giraffes, and impala, and hippos, and baboons, and water buffalo – all from the plane. I do not think anyone heard my sniffles since the plane was so loud but I was in another world. I lost count of the elephants, the hippos I spotted were out of water and I even saw one run into the water chasing the birds into flight, and every new animal I saw spun me into another round of overwhelming emotion. 

When we landed at the Linyanti airstrip, we were met by a safari vehicle to transport us to our first bush camp – African Bush Camp’s Linyanti Bush Camp.

Read about our experience at African Bush Camp’s Linyanti Bush Camp here!

We arrived at Savuti airstrip via helicopter where our plane met us a few minutes after our helicopter took off for the next ride. To our surprise, the same pilot (Kaboo) who flew us to Linyanti is the same pilot who picked us up for this transfer as well! It was so nice to see him again and we knew we were in good hands. In our 20 minute ride, we spotted lots of elephants until we passed the fire that created a veil of smoke. We were grateful for the short ride and landed on the Khwai airstrip where the next part of our safari journey was about to begin.

Read about our experience at African Bush Camp’s Khwai Leadwood Bush Camp here!

As sad as I was when we left Linyanti, I think I was more sad to leave Khwai. I knew this would be the end of this trip’s bush camp experience and I have to say, I absolutely fell in love with it – everything about it. I was not ready to leave safari life. But alas, all things come to an end and there was a plan we had to get on to take us to our final destination of the trip.

The plane picked us up – again having our pilot Kaboo! – and we flew first to Kasane for immigration out of Botswana then a private journey to Livingstone. Kaboo turns to us and says that he missed the falls and got permission to do a fly over of Victoria Falls. 

What a treat! We bid Kaboo a farewell, thanking him for safely transporting us from each location, as it was now time for the final leg of our Africa adventure.

Read about our experience at African Bush Camp’s Thorntree River Lodge here!

Fortunately, our journey home was very uneventful. Our first flight from Livingstone to Johannesburg was more or less confusing as there was no indication that a flight was departing and where it was departing to – the info boards had nothing on it. We sat and trusted we were in the right place and fortunately we were. We boarded the tiny plane and landed in Johannesburg where we transferred to the international wing of the airport. While we did not have to go through customs, we did have to go through another round of security which was pretty painful. Before we were allowed to bring our full water bottles but not this time – the staff member made me drink the entire bottle before moving. We found a lounge where we had a few snacks (left me with an upset stomach) and we filled up the waters again. Despite being a lounge with internet, the internet did not work – we even tried two different lounges! When we went to the gate, there was – wait for it – another round of security where they went through all of the stuff again AND made us empty the water bottles. I could not believe it. We have always been allowed to bring water on the plane once past security and the staff were pretty uninformed on why this protocol was here. Anyway, we hoarded those tiny water bottles when we got on the plane – which was very empty again and we had our own row to relax. The fifteen hour flight went quicker than expected and was very tolerable. We landed very early in the morning, made our way back home, and logged into work to force the jet lag back in our direction. 

And that concludes the most epic African adventure I could have every asked for – it really was way better than I could have ever expected and I am so happy that the pandemic did not stop this trip from occurring.

Overall, this was absolutely one of the best trips of our lives. Safari was far greater than any experience I could have ever imagined. Even writing this today:

• I missed the predictable routine of the day
• I missed the bumpy roads 
• I missed all the smells – both good and bad ones 
• I missed the simplicity
• I missed the people 
• I missed my safari clothes 
• I fell in love with safari in Botswana bush camps

If you have even thought about an African safari, I cannot recommend enough to just do it. There are so many ways to do one so definitely do your research but I can absolutely recommend African Bush Camps. I can only hope that another moment in life will allow us to return to this wonderful world and perhaps even experience other bush camps as well.

Read what to expect on an African Safari here!

Read how we packed for this trip here!

To see our full itinerary here!