My Prologue

I wanted to start this blog post in the following way:

Here I sit, the day before my grand departure.

That is no longer how this gets to start because I just got an email from Kenyan Airways informing me that my flight has been delayed until Wednesday morning at 8am. Ah - the travels have started well! So I guess this is now two days before my grand departure. BUT as I am not going to be getting up earlier than my already very early start Wednesday morning of 3am, this blog post is still going out now.

After that tidbit of information, I will now continue with what I had previously written.

I know that in my life I have had amazing opportunities to travel and I have taken full advantage of those opportunities. However, this next bit of travelling is different. Kenya has been top of my travel list for a while for personal reasons (of which I am sure I will divulge later - oh the suspense and intrigue! Stay tuned); also, I get to go back to South Africa about once every five years and the last time was in 2010 so you do the math(s)*. Because this is such a personal trip, I wanted to keep a record of this for myself. However, I've never been much good at keeping a diary. I get so enthusiastic about it for the first week but that quickly fades and I am left with 20 years of started journals with mostly empty pages. My reasoning is that if I am held responsible to the people who are going to actually read this and will be waiting for more posts (hi mom!) than I will maybe, actually, possibly, hopefully keep this up. Plus when I'm super famous this will be funny for when I go on talk shows (hi Ellen! or Graham! see first asterisk).

A quick run down of my travel itinerary:

3rd (now 4th) November: Departing London.

4th November: Arrive in Nairobi (this still remains true).

12th November: Flight from Nairobi to Johannesburg.

30th November: My brother, James, arrives in Johannesburg!

End of November: Trip to Zithulele (see their website here) with my cousin Mark and his wife Kate.

First two weeks in December: Safari time!! My uncle, James and I will be travelling South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.**

16th December: My mom arrives in South Africa and my father does at some point in this general period as well.

19th - 23rd December: Quick trip to Cape Town

25th December: CHRISTMAS (In Johannesburg). For those of you who know me Christmas is a big deal. I love Christmas. Not more than my birthday but it's definitely a very close second.

New Year's: This time will be spent in Nature's Valley, on the east coast of SA.

7th January: Flight back to London!

So there you have it. My travels in a nutshell.***

Before this post gets too long - I am going to go start packing. I also need to buy insect repellant, sun screen, and shampoo because, well, does this need an explanation? And an extra box of tampons. Did you not want to know that? Too bad. Girls/Women need sanitary products. We should be okay talking about it.

Then after that little outing, I need to fill this suitcase:

You'll get a post from me tomorrow evening before I wake up at 3am Wednesday morning for my flight. - and hopefully a picture of a full suitcase to go along with it.

Now off to make a cup of tea xx

*This blog is english english and american english friendly. Keep your opinions to yourselves.

**I haven't decided on whether or not I agree with the Oxford comma. I welcome all comments/questions/opinions. Maybe I'll create a poll.

***I do also have a trip to Dartmouth right after I get back which may or may not also become a part of this blog. That depends on whether or not I like blogging.

#Beginnings #UK #Thoughts #Firstpost