Africa – booked…..

Finally, after boring everyone for days with nothing to report, (I include myself – I don’t even read my blog anymore !)  I have finally have some news, and in 23 days time the blog will have a new headline continent and travelling will be on again !

When I first arrived in Europe back in June I was feeling quite confident that finding a contract job when I needed one would be fairly straightforward. I had a few glances at some internet job boards and there was, (and still is) thousands of jobs in the information technology sector. At the time I was not overly concerned about location and was willing to consider roles in most places – as long as there was good access to the countryside and the occasional touring band came past.

Now that I have started looking seriously for work, there are not actually that many jobs that I am have the rights skills for in locations that I wish to work. I have recently gotten fussy about location and am only interested in jobs in the south – closer to my daughter in Bristol and family in Essex and Kent, as well as the pockets of acquaintances I have scattered around London.

I finally decided that I had better start thinking of a plan B, I did not have the money to waste spending too much time in England looking for work, nor the will to tour Europe on my own – especially heading into winter. I started looking at tours in Africa.

A tour was always in the plan, there was no way I was going to attempt to do it on my own -or even with someone else, it was just in the plan for next year. A few days of research lead me to this tour by Africa-in-Focus. It meets my basic requirements in having smaller groups, having a slightly older clientele, departs at the end of September and as an added bonus has more of a photographic focus. Plus they have a seat available at short notice : )

The timing is perfect, I am physically fit and apart from June and a bit of July I have spent all of 2012 in hot climates so am well acclimatised to the heat. I am used to daily travel and the thought of spending ten hours in a truck is not overly horrifying. And compared to some of the trips I took in Asia a truck with 1.3 metres of leg room sounds LUXURIOUS.

It is not the cheapest advertised tour, but the inclusions are far broader than some of the other tours, plus it has a cook which relieves us tourists of one of the many daily tasks. The tour companies I looked at are a minefield of inclusions and exclusions, so it is very hard to directly compare apples with applies. I am going to have to break into my ‘not to be touched under any circumstances’ bank account to fund the trip though which is not so hot. On the positive side I will arrive back in the UK in November which is a better time to find a job than the summer holidays !

So, I am booked to Cape Town on the 27th for a 43 day Cape Town to Nairobi tour starting on September 30th. For this trip I will be taking the big camera, all the lenses and will be buying a proper tripod as well. I am not wasting photo opportunities this time.

The tour ends in Nairobi Kenya around the 11 November (ish).  I am pondering staying on and doing a further tour to see the gorillas in Rwanda – another chunk of cash from the fund, but possibly the one chance I will get – and gorillas are on my must do list. I will see once the tour has started and I have a good idea what the tour company are like !

Anyway – why would I want a job wearing a suit and tie when I am used to working in shorts, T and bare feet !

The tour I am doing is the South Eastern Explorer,

http://www.africa-in-focus.com/africa-overland-tours-namibia-zambia.html