It has been awhile since we have updated you on our travel itinerary and a lot has changed since we first posted our tentative travel route for the year. In just a days, our adventures through Europe will come to an end and we will be headed to Africa.

Whether traveling to Africa from the US or from Europe it’s a bit of a trek. And therefore we have a few long travel days ahead of us, actually I think they will be our longest travel days yet. Tomorrow night we leave Bordeaux, France on a 10-hour overnight bus to Madrid, Spain. I’ve never taken an overnight bus, I’m sure it will be great, ha. We have to get back to Madrid, because that is where we found the least expensive flights to South Africa from. We will spend one night in Madrid and then we have an 8-hour flight from Madrid to Dubai, a 2-hour layover in Dubai, and then a 10-hour flight from Dubai to Cape Town, South Africa. Luckily, we have one night to recover before we leave for our safari on Saturday!

Before you start worrying or freaking out, no we are not going to west Africa. We are flying to Cape Town, South Africa and will be venturing out on a 24-day overland camping safari through South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and then finishing in Johannesburg. Although I have never camped for more than 3 consecutive days in a row, I am getting very excited about this next adventure. As many of you know, Africa has stolen my heart once before and I can only imagine I will feel the same way upon my return.

After the safari we plan to spend a few days exploring Johannesburg and then will fly to Entebbe, Uganda. From there we will travel 2-hours south to Masaka, Uganda where we will be staying for approximately 3-weeks. We will be visiting and assisting with the projects that Microfinancing Partners in a Africa (check out their website http://www.microfinancingafrica.org) are involved in. This is a St. Louis organization that Wes and I have been involved in for several years and is very dear to my heart. Those from OKC might remember Wes and I hosted a fundraising event on the rooftop of Packard’s last spring…that was an event for this organization. I am so very excited for this opportunity to visit Masaka, to spend time with the wonderful people involved in these life changing projects and to learn more about the cow project and the microfinancing program to help woman who are fistula survivors.

The last leg of our Africa travels we plan to make a quick stop in Tanzania. I vowed never to return to Africa without making a stop in Zanzibar. When I lived in Arusha, Tanzania during the summer of 2007 I ran out of time and never had the chance to make it to Zanzibar and it is a place I have dreamed about ever since. So we will spend a few days in Zanzibar and then start the long trek back to the US, more specifically to Hawaii, to spend Christmas with Wes’ family. Christmas in Hawaii was not something we originally planned on doing, but we did plan on spending Christmas with Wes’ family and this is the destination that everyone decided on (pretty awesome, right)! I’ve never spent Christmas in a warm place, so this will be a first and I’m sure it will be amazing. It will be a long journey, with an overnight stop in Chicago…which could prove to be interesting since we don’t have winter clothes, but being with family for the holidays will most definitely be worth it!

As far as our plans after Christmas…we aren’t quite ready to share the next destination. Well let’s be honest we don’t really know the specifics yet. Any guesses where we might be headed after Hawaii???

-K