The Plan

We are going to be gone for a month. We'll be backpacking. The goal, to climb Kilimanjaro, and to witness the Serengeti migration, incorporating whatever else we can fit in between. The plan is to arrive in Johannesburg by air, and make our way to and/or from Kilimanjaro by ground transport. The route is still a little uncertain.

Originally we were thinking of going south to Cape Town by coach, then continue north through Namibia, Livingstone in Zambia, and finally Tanzania. All this to avoid taking the more direct route via Zimbabwe, a country currently not of very pleasant disposition from what we hear. Najam was also fantasizing about the beautiful Namib, the oldest desert in the world, home of some of the most breathtaking views, and unique flora and fauna (see also this). He's got a thing for deserts. But, that track side tracks us quite a bit, and we are afraid we won't have enough time to do what we really want to do.


So, the new plan is to go through Botswana instead. I don't know why we didn't think of that before. We got very enthusiastic about it once we learned that it is the only blue rated country in that region on the world peace index, almost twice as peaceful as USA! There's got to be something special about the place, and we hope to sample some of its peace in our journey.