Mavimet's Weblog

I probably warned you back when I started making plans for this trip, that you would be hearing much more about it.  🙂  If I didn’t warn you – sorry, but this will not be the last post on it.  😉

Anyway, this trip has been booked and mostly paid for, for a few months now and by my calculations, I will be leaving in 153 days.  The only things not paid for are things like the car rental (which is booked), the hotel for a 1 night stay at Johannesburg (which is booked), the Wild Card for Kruger, the meals I will be eating and the gas for the car.  I have made sure I will have the extra insurance on the car for tyre (tire) and windscreen (windshield) damage, since I completely damaged a tyre there last time and have completely damaged a windshield here since then.

Most of the people that I have met online are people who have a lot of similar interests as I have (pets, wildlife, nature, etc), which is the reason we met in the first place.  I remember one time when I was driving to a picnic in Ohio to meet a group of people from an online mail list and the border guard looked at me as if I was crazy.  😀  The thing is that I knew these people (and the others I met personally) for many years before actually meeting them.

This trip I will meet one more friend for sure and possibly another one.  I should also get to spend time with 2 other online friends who I met last time I went to Africa.

I met all of these particular friends online because of Africam.  I still have my addiction to Africam and spend every evening watching the cams and taking pictures to post on their website.

Penny and Jurek will be meeting me at the airport in Skukuza and letting me stay with them for a couple of days before returning me to Skukuza where I pick up my car.  There is a good chance we will meet again in mid May since we are both booked into the same camp then.

Janine will let me know where/when we can meet closer to or after my arrival when she will have a better way of having her busy schedule sorted.

Gerda and I will meet in early June when we are staying at nearby camps.

Julia (Bushie) and I will hopefully meet near the end of May when I will be staying close to her camp.

This trip will be the best of 2 worlds – I get lots of time alone in the bush, where it is just nature and me, and I will get to spend time with friends to talk about the bush and nature as well as to share some photos.  🙂

I will probably be out of touch with the rest of the world while I am there.  Last time I was only able to get internet connection while with Penny & Jurek and for about an hour in one of the camps with a very slow connection.  I expect it will be similar this time also.  Once I return home, the rest of the world will be getting my stories and pictures here and on Face Book.

I will end with a picture I took of a Waterbuck on my first day alone in Kruger in 2012.