THE BIG TRIP NORTH

THE ROUTE FROM SOUTH AFRICA TO ENGLAND VIA THE INDIAN OCEAN ISLANDS…

So where on earth are we going?

The trouble is with these kinds of expeditions is that if you are already going thousands of miles…when you open the atlas and look at the map of the world you feel that a slight diversion of a thousand miles or so is perfectly acceptable. Lizzie wanted to go to Madagascar, and Trevor the Seychelles…so we might as well as do some islands in-between, don’t you agree? (and it breaks up the journey over water).

Nothing is set in stone, and anything can happen in terms of weather or being delayed for various reasons like administration. We have chosen this time of year as we hope the weather will be calmer, but storms and ‘weather’ can appear and delay you, or divert you.

However, here is the sketch of our hops back to Blighty.

 

 

From Johannesburg we fly first to the Kruger, to see some of the amazing animals in one of the largest National Parks in the world.

We then make our way to Madagascar via Mozambique. From Mozambique we fly over the Indian Ocean to Madagascar. Using Madagascar as our ‘hub’ we fly to Reunion returning to Madagascar and up to the tiny island off the northern coast called the Nosy Ve (pronounced Nosy Bee) then set off for the Seychelles returning to Madagascar and then set off west and head for Tanzania. In all cases wearing our immersion suits, life jackets – keeping us nice and toasty, and with the raft at the ready.

Unfortunately Mauritius is not currently letting in small planes so we won’t be going there, and we are missing the Comores on the way back to Tanzania. So many islands – so little time!

From Madagascar we get back on to the mainland, landing in Tanzania, Dar Es Salaam. From there we fly to the base of Kilimanjaro and the International Airport. We continue up to Kenya, and through Uganda, tracking down gorillas.

We stop for a breather here, and then fly onto Heraklion in Crete, where we might have another lie-down!

From Crete as we head into Europe the concerns become different, and the focus changes to busier skies and more restrictions as the ‘no fly’ areas are more prevalent and closer together.

Crete, Italy and Florence, turn left into southern France, up to northern France and then over the channel to home……

As with all plans, and has happened already, things can change. Countries have rules and the weather has it’s own character that can change everything.

We hope to leave South Africa around mid July and reach home around mid September.

During the trip we will meet up with friends, see some wonderful sights, hear some wonderful sounds and probably smell some extraordinary smells especially the ylang ylang and vanilla farms in Madagascar (let’s just talk about nice smells!)