Tomorrow we begin the trek to Southern Africa.  This will be my sixth trip and Gina’s fourth.  Our focus for most of our previous trips was Kruger National Park, which is northeastern corner of South Africa, along the border with Mozambique.  For this trip, however, we’re heading in a different direction.

It’s a long-ass journey. We’re leaving tomorrow morning early (as you always do leaving Central Oregon), flying to Seattle for a long layover, then direct to Amsterdam (with a tighter layover) and then to Johannesburg.  We’ll arrive late on Tuesday night and get a few hours of sleep.  Wednesday morning, we’ll meet our guide and friend, Albie Venter, and we’ll hit the road heading west toward the Kgalagadi (pronounced Kalahari) Transfrontier Park.  It’s a long way – about 600 miles – so we’ll spend the night along the road (staying at a place called Van Zylsrus, which was the base for filming the Meerkat Manor if you’ve ever seen that) and arrive at the KTP sometime on Thursday morning. 

This trip will be different in so many ways.  Well, first, it’s short.  We’ll have only about 8 nights in the park.  We’re heading into a very different environment than either the dry area along the Limpopo where Mashatu is located or what’s called the lowveld where Kruger is.  This will I believe be classic desert and will look and feel very different than Kruger or Mashatu.  And it’s populated by some different animals.  Most of the usual predators are there – lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyena – but no elephants, no hippo, no rhino, no buffalo. That’ll feel strange to us, especially given the amount of emotional attention that goes into to being aware and cautious around elephants. Some other animals though that I haven’t seen. Hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to see brown hyena, and oryx, meerkat and cape foxes.  And tons of birds of prey.  The Kgalagadi is famous for it’s birds of prey. 

It’ll also feel very different because we’re traveling with a guide.  Albie is a trained guide and a very well-respected wildlife photographer.  I met him several years ago at Mashatu where he was leading a group of photographers.  We struck up a conversation about some photos I’d taken of an elephant birth in 2009 and he pointed me to the contacts that eventually enabled me to get the images published.  I worked with Albie for a week in 2012 and consider him to be a friend.  I love traveling on my own and have gained a bit of confidence in my bushcraft but there’s also huge benefits in working with a guide.  For one thing, Albie makes all of the arrangements and he does the cooking (and Albie’s a good cook).  I’m kind of a planner by nature and I know that when I’m responsible for planning all of the logistics, including buying food and cooking, that I stress about it all falling into place and whether everyone else is happy.  It’s a very different experience not having to worry about anything else but showing up.  Even the number of documents that I’ve printed in preparation for this trip – nothing compared to normal. 

Working with a guide also means that you can constantly ask questions about every living thing.  For me, that’s the big payoff here – that for even these few days, I get to immerse myself in this and learn as much as I can about the animals.  And I think that Albie and I have the same sensibility about traveling in the bush.  Yes, certainly there are things that we’re hoping to see but mostly we want to be open to whatever presents itself to us.  Little things, big things.  Mammals, birds, reptiles.  Sounds, smells, tracks, poop.  So much to see and learn.

And I love traveling with Gina.  I’m so freaking lucky to be married to her.  She loves being in the bush.  She just loves absorbing it and she’ll be happy what whatever comes along.  There’s never a bad day in the bush with Gina. 

There’s a trajectory with every trip like this, for me at least.  It starts many months early, squirming about what we can afford and whether to do the same thing (where you know what to expect and how to navigate) or something different (with greater risks and potential reward).  Then a plan starts to come together and you start spending money, putting the pieces into place, trying to think about all of the stuff that has a long lead-time.  Then it get’s closer and then really close and you start to think about the things that could derail the train.  For years, it was my parent’s health.  Then it was some volcano in Iceland that could cancel flights, or hurricane Sandy. And there’s always a strike in France that could derail Air France, right?  In 2012, when I’d gone ahead to South Africa, Aislin and Gina barely were able to get out of Redmond and join me due to an unexpected winter storm (apparently the Redmond Airport reserves the right to be shocked and surprised by the first snowfall every year).  This year, both Gina and I had unexpected health issues come up in the last week and a half before departure.  Gina ended up with a damned root canal on Thursday.  And then the first snowfall of 2014 once again shocked and surprised the Redmond Airport.  But now it’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m thinking that even Redmond’s airport is now aware of winter and I think that there’s a damned good chance that we’ll get out of here on that long road tomorrow morning.  And back to the bush and the smells and sounds and stories and wide-open skies.  Hyenas and lions calling at night.  And watch where you walk so not to step on Mr. Puff Adder.

Here’s a few photos from 2013.  More to come now….