Source: http://www.travelmint.com/
Mostar is famous for its Stari Most (Old Bridge). The bridge was originally built back in the 1500s and was destroyed during the conflict in the 90s. The bridge we see today is a reconstruction, but looks amazingly beautiful anyway.
Source: http://neshtoto.com
We are really looking forward to visiting the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia. As many of you might know, Dubrovnik is the site where they are filming many of the scenes in King’s Landing in the Game of Thrones television show!
When setting out our overall itinerary, we decided that we wanted our first stop to be South Africa.We also know we wanted to do some sort of safari to see some of the amazing wildlife and sights that Africa has to offer. But what kind of safari should we do?
First, we had to figure out where we wanted to go. Some people just go out to Kruger National Park in South Africa. While that sounded like an excellent destination, once we saw pictures of places like Sossusvlei and Victoria Falls, we decided to focus on getting to both Botswana and Namibia out of Johannesburg.
A quick glance at the prices or the luxury guided safaris let us know that was a no-go. Another option that a lot of “backpackers” do is to do a group “overland” tours through a large tour operator. This would have allowed us to see a lot the highlights, but the downside seemed to be to us that we wouldn’t be able to set our own pace.
Then, we stumbled across a blog by Traveling 9 to 5 about a self-drive safari. Intrigued, we looked into this further and thought it sounded pretty cool. You rent a truck with camping equipment and drive yourself on your own itinerary. This seemed like it would allow us to see exactly what we wanted while not breaking the bank. So, we started planning for this option.
There are many operators in Johannesburg that will rent you the standard self-drive safari vehicle: a four-wheel-drive pickup (always white for some reason) with a tent mounted on top and camping supplies included. We wanted to find a good deal, but also wanted to go with someone that seemed responsive to our concerns.
We got quotes from a few different places, then made a spreadsheet to compare their daily costs, insurance options and other fees. In the end, we went with Bushlore. Their costs were on the lower end of the spectrum, and they were very responsive in answering questions. From their selection of trucks, we chose the Toyota Hilux with Safari Camper.
Image from http://www.bushlore.com/Gallery.asp
The next step was to figure out where the truck was going to take us. July is part of the high season for safaris, so we couldn’t afford to dawdle. Conveniently, Bushlore offers a service to help plan the itinerary and book accommodations along the way. So, we got in touch with the booking department and started making plans.
The agent came up with a day-by-day plan and quoted us a price to book the whole thing. However, we felt like we needed a little more information. First, we mapped out the itinerary ourselves to see if the number of days could be condensed. Then, we researched all of the proposed campsites (cross-referencing against Lonely Planet and Trip Advisor, of course) to see if any of them could be booked by us directly.
Our first attempt at mapping out the destinations
It required a little back and forth, but eventually we settled on a route and cost with the agent. We came up with a 25 day itinerary, which doesn’t allow for a lot of downtime but hopefully won’t be too hard to get done. It turned out that it was easier and almost as cheap for Bushlore to book the campsites for all but one of the destinations…
The website for Etosha National Park in Namibia seemed petty straightforward, and the price they were requesting for a campsite was about half of what Bushlore quoted. So,we decided to try and book it on our own. Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly until it got to the whole payment part of it.
We had thought we could pay by credit card, but it turned out the only option was to wire money. We hadn’t really done that before, so it took a little figuring out how to even do that. It was tough to even figure out if we were sending it the right place – the way it was supposed to work was that we wired to an account in the US that is associated with a foreign exchange company that would then send the appropriate Namibian dollars to Etosha.
We were a little scared that somehow this was a scam (and trying to explain that we were attempting to wire money to Africa while talking to representatives of our bank felt a little silly), but by this point we were in deep enough that we decided to just send the money anyway. If we ended up losing it, it wasn’t going to be the end of the world and would be a good lesson learned. We were getting a little nervous because it took Etosha quite a while to email that they received the payment… but they finally did (after close to 3 weeks)! Hopefully when we show up there, they will still remember that…
After telling everyone how flexible we want to be on our trip, it feels strange to have planned out the first month in such detail! We’re just hoping that all of this up-front planning will help make this self-drive safari go as smooth as possible. Look forward to more posts in the future about how close we can stick to this plan 😉
One week from now we will be saying farewell to our kitty for the year that we are gone. She will be well taken care of, but it will still be quite hard to say goodbye. She’s a strange cat, but we love her anyway. Here is our Ode to Texi.
Source: http://flexitreks.com/
Lake Bled is located in Slovenia. This beautiful lake is just outside the town of Bled. It features a castle on the shores of the lake as well as an amazing Castle of the Island on the little island in the middle. We are looking forward to a relaxing time wandering around the lake experiencing gorgeous fairy-tale-esque views!
We are very excited to visit the birthplace of “Bull’s Blood” wine. There is a small town in Hungary called Eger. They are most well-known for their wine, which you can get by visiting the various wineries in the area called the “Valley of Beautiful Women.” We’re hoping to visit as a side trip from Budapest.
As of May 2, we are two months from our departure date! There is so much to do. We decided to make a list to help us celebrate what we’ve done and keep track of what is left.
Source: http://www.deviantart.com/
Spiš Castle is in eastern Slovakia towering above the town of Spišské Podhradie. The ruins make up one of the largest castle sites in Central Europe. It is another UNESCO Heritage site and one I can’t wait to visit. It looks like a setting of a grand fairy tale!
We are getting closer and closer to the departure date of our trip. We’ve definitely been getting swept up in the anticipation. Luckily, a lot of things are coming together for us: we have both spoken to our jobs and have a start date for our leaves, we have someone potentially lined up to rent our house, we have a plan for our kitty, we have major plane tickets booked and a safari planned! But, there are definitely some things we are not looking forward to. I had to face one of those tonight.
Today I taught my last Zumba class at Dancing the Soul. It is a wonderful dance studio where I have worked for almost the last three years. It’s a strange thing to say goodbye to something that has been a constant part of your world and routine for so long. It was also time to say farewell to some of the wonderful women I have been dancing with every Wednesday!
Saying goodbye is never an easy task. I know that this will be the first of many goodbyes we will have to undertake before we leave in just over 2 months. It will be goodbye to family, friends, routine, familiar faces and places. While I am so excited for the adventure this trip will be, I am dreading the part where I have to do things like this.
But enough with the sad stuff for now… back to the anticipation. Even though I will be leaving Dancing the Soul, I hope to not give up Zumba for the year. One of our goals is to attend Zumba classes in as many different places as we can! Just keep your eye out for posts tagged Zumba Round the World and I’ll let you know what it’s like to Salsa in Slovakia or Cumbia in Kathmandu!
For those of you who can’t wait to dance around the world, check out this song! Zumba Round the World (All Around the World by Paulina Rubio)
The Wieliczka Salt Mine is near Krakow, Poland. It was built in the 13th century and was mined for salt until recently. Now it is mostly a tourist attraction. It boasts the beautiful natural wonder of a salt mine with caverns and beautiful crystals, but also interesting man-made sculptures, statues, churches, altars, and bas-reliefs in the rock salt.
Globe Gazers 