GORILLA TREK, or the maths of planning

We are now at 28 days to go and counting.

The final preparation is becoming a maths exam, and really, numbers just give me a headache.
I always loathed "story sums" but am forced to do them now.

 QUESTION 1.
A YELLOW FEVER shot is compulsory.
You get a chest infection that results in a course of cortisone.
You have to have been off cortisone for 10 days before you can have the yellow fever injection.
Using today's date, the date of departure, where you are in your cortisone treatment course and the availability of appointments on a Saturday at the travel clinic, calculate as a percentage your level of stress

QUESTION 2.
PACKING is vital to an enjoyable trip. As a blogger you need a lot of additional electronic, digital, photographic and power supply equipment.
Airline regulations dictate your luggage may not exceed  23kg.
Locker space on the Nomad truck varies between 20 & 38cm in width and 80cm in depth.
Calculate the cubic volume of your bag and list what clothes, if any, you will be taking with you.

QUESTION 3.
COMFORT is important and a good nights sleep is vital to your enjoyment on tour.
Your present body weight is x.
The mattress you will use in your tent in 5cm thick. The terrain is grass or sand and maybe some rock.
Calculate the size in cm of the bruise on your hip after 3, 7 and 14 days

QUESTION 4.
VISAS
If you do not have a Visa you will be thrown off the truck at the Ugandan Border, and this could be lonely and disappointing for you.
Your Visa Ninja returns from holiday on January 6th. The forms and supporting documents take 2 days to complete. The Ugandan Consulate has just requested proof of employment letters. The approval process can take between 3 and 5 working days. The documents must be flown back to Cape Town. The probability of the plane they are on crashing into the sea is 1: 463 000. Solve for x, x being the number of heart attacks you will have before you have the Visa in your hand.

QUESTION 5.
VIDEO You have a GoPro and it has a battery life of about 4 hours. You have access to charging facilities when the truck is not in transit. The SD card has 64 gigs of space. Calculate how many hours of filming (specify ALL camera settings) you can do before you must download and clear the SD card. Calculate how often, and where, you will charge the battery for the GoPro.

I think I will just wing it and what does not work out will become a great story.

GORILLA TREK or PAPERWORK & THE BORING BITS

I want to explore maps and read guide books and imagine exotic African stamps in my passport.
I want to find blogs about Gorillas and Kenya and Uganda.
Not happening.
Instead it is now 62 days to go until my Nomad Gorilla Girls trip and I am only half way through all the boring stuff. Beaurocracy and paperwork are consuming all my waking hours, and invading my dreams.

I have listened to at least 60 hours worth of ghastly muzak on the phone.
I have heard about 8 hours worth of options while waiting for an operator to become available.
I do know that my call is important to everyone, even if everyone is not there!
I have a broken ear from obeying the "please hold" command.


Do you know how difficult it is to take a photo of your own ear?  So no pic, sorry.

Progress so far.

FLIGHT
My flight is booked, thanks to the great service from  Leana at Up and Orange leana@upandorange.co.za 
Cape Town to Nairobi return ticket for just under 8000 South African rands,and I get dinner twice on the return flight. Beat that!

INSURANCE
I can now damage myself to the tune of 25 million rand before I need to be concerned about funds. Nice to know. Thanks to Laurence at Travel Guard for Travel & Medical Insurance (Total cost R910)

No thanks to Nedbank for giving me vague info re credit card free insurance. Their cover is actually great.

No thanks to me either for cancelling and un-cancelling my credit card and then booking my flight with my debit card! Senior moment of note.

FORMS
I have my booking form from Nomads half completed, and they have managed to get a great price for the Gorilla Permits at R5400. Thanks Jess. Still a lot of dosh, so I hope to see more than 1 gorilla doing more than eating leaves.

PHYSICAL PREP
I am down a few kilos , been walking every day, swimming lengths in my friends long pool, and doing strenuous things in the midday heat.  So far, I have not passed out from exertion.
So long as the hike to the gorillas is on a smooth, flat path with a pool nearby, I will be just awesome.

I have tested out 3 brands of FACTOR 50 Sunblock and had allergic reactions to all of them. Tomorrow I will be shopping for a hat.

I tried to eat babotie, (remember it is on the menu),still not a fan, but I did not vomit. This counts as major progress.

I have been doing lots of stretching, but I am still not taller than a Pygmy adult male. 

Still on this weeks agenda is Yellow Fever shots and any others the travel clinic, or my nurse Gorilla Girl 2, deem essential. I also need to get info and decide what malaria prevention option to go for. Some of them need to be taken way in advance of being in the presence of ragged toothed, killer mosquitoes.

Suggestions on Sunblock for super sensitive skin and Malaria prophylactics will be welcomed.
Till next week, back to the ever growing folder.

GORILLA TREK or FINDING MY ANCESTORS

In 73 days I will be heading to Nairobi for a 14 day African adventure with Nomad Tours.

The journey starts right now with research & getting fitter, thinner, organised and prepared.

For now I am learning the bald facts about the fascinating places of Kenya and Uganda.
After the trip  I hope to create captivating tales as I add the tastes and smells, emotions, textures, the people and the stories to the facts I have read.


I have been poring over maps, calculating distances and even viewing pics of the Nomad trucks we will be travelling in. Wanna see them ?   Nomad trucks 

 Being a very short person (4ft 11 and three quarter inches) my first Google search was
 " How tall are the Batwa people." (Previously known as Pygmies)

What I read on Wikipedia was scary.

On average, they are only three quarters of an inch shorter than me.  
So actually, a tall Pygmy, or one with big hair, could be taller than me. This poses a real threat.  
I could  be kidnapped and hailed as their Pale Queen,or caged in their museum as a curiosity.
Realistically, I will probably be greeted graciously and entertained, seen as just another short tourist, but still.
Sometimes my inner drama queen gets carried away. 

The Nomad website is encyclopedic in the information available to wanna be adventurers.

I now know all this and more :

What to pack   |   I need to go shopping

I  need two Visas  |  Embassies work on African time and are not available on a Friday afternoon

I will have salad for supper one night  |  because I loathe babotie

I could get eaten by a tree climbing lion   | I probably won't be, but it sounds adventurous (the drama queen coming out again, sorry! )

The trucks have no air-con  |  I have hot flushes, this is challenging for women my age

I am a fan of the "wrap yourself in a wet kikoi" hot flush remedy, but any other tips on beating the heat will be welcomed with sweaty, open arms.

This weekend I will be looking into the Maasai people , the Maasai Mara National Reserve as well as the Chimpanzee Sanctuary of Ngamba Island and Lake Naivasha.

Any tips, fun facts and pics are welcome, please share them with me, and I will hopefully give you some info you did not know in my next post.

The #GorillaGirls adventure is going to be epic. 

Cape Town Smiles

Cape Town smiles

P

Cape Town loves to show off, and when she does no one really wants to work.

Can you blame them?

Awesome views from the tourism office in Muizenberg

The beach boxes at Muizenberg, what happens inside them?

Oh to be a kid again……

Best friends forever

The only people working, my smiling car guards

The South Peninsula tourism office, great staff inside to help you with everything

Muizenberg, learning to surf

Who would not want to come here, even in winter