A slow but steady start. The journey from Manchester last night was relatively smooth. I treated myself to the delights of first class and was able to catch up on work the way down.
My packing list consists of more camera equipment than clothes! But when you embark on a journey like this, you want to leave little to chance. Being a predominantly driving holiday weight isn’t a major issue. Where as when I trekked through Nepal I limited the gear I took this time I’m loaded with my trusty 17-50, 80-200 f2.8 and as a treat for the various safaris I’ll be going on, I’ve hired a 120-300 f2.8 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter and a 2x teleconverter just for good measure. I’ve also brought along a 500gb hard drive, netbook, and flash…
Ok, possibly overstocked? We’ll see but its not everyday you get to do a trip like this.
Travelling with someone in a wheelchair always lead to some interesting experiences, however getting out the country looked almost like a non-starter. No-one at Heathrow seemed ready to assist my sister onto the plane, so we had to stand and simply watch all the commuters heading to Amsterdam board before us, as we received regular updates telling us help was on its way. Finally it did arrive albeit 5 minutes before the scheduled departure time.
Once boarded I finally slept for the first time in 22 hours. I’d like to say I dreamt of taking wandering the magnificent plains of Africa, taking stunning photos of wildlife and landscapes. But I was dead to the world.
We arrived in Cape Town several hours later, I managed to fit in a few movies and several chapters on Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. Having been finally collected from the plane and ready to head to our hotel, we discovered that our luggage hadn’t made the trip as smoothly as us. For the first time in my travels my suitcase has been lost by an airline. So I’ve got the same clothes to live in for the next 3 days. Thankfully, I followed the advice of several photographers, and kept my gear on me, including chargers and power supplies. So I may be in old clothes and not able to brush my teeth… but I can still take pictures!
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