The excitement builds …

In one week from today we will be airborne and making our way from Melbourne to Perth, to then transfer to South African Airways en route to Johannesburg to begin our next amazing adventure.

This time we will be exploring the southern part of Africa, sometimes on a group tour, sometimes via jeep, sometimes via foot, sometimes via train and sometimes in a hire car.

Our four-part adventure will take us first to Victoria Falls where will explore the Falls from both Zimbabwe and Zambia. We will take a day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana (whilst staying in Vic Falls) where we will take a safari ride and a river cruise looking out for the animals.

We have a 4-day safari booked in Kruger National Park in South Africa where we will stay in a treehouse, do sunrise and sunset safaris, take a safari walk (with a gun-carrying guide) and then meander our way back to Johannesburg via the Panorama Drive.

Stage 3 is to experience the ridiculous luxury of Rovos Rail as we travel over 3 nights from Pretoria to Cape Town with stops along the way to visit a gold mine and historic towns and to watch the vista from the viewing platform at the rear of the train.

In Cape Town we will pick up our hire car and check out Table Mountain, the Bo Kaap neighbourhood and visit the V & A Waterfront. After Cape Town we then head out of South Africa to begin a 7-day self drive tour of Namibia where we will visit the Quiver Tree Forest and the Giants Playground, watch the sunrise over Fish Creek Canyon, visit Windhoek (the capital), watch the flamingos on Walvis Bay and once again (after our time in the Sahara in Morocco) see majestic sand dunes up close.

We are excited. We have planned this trip from beginning to end. We have booked it all ourselves. It is going to be a ripper!