Toronto, Canada

We're off to southeastern Africa for six weeks to see Mozambique, Victoria Falls, safaris, and trekking in Lesotho. We didn't think we'd be back on safari so soon (we were in Uganda three years ago), but on our last couple trips we've met a few people who have really liked Mozambique, and so the trip was planned around that.

The Mozambique visa was one of the more laborious visas that I've applied for. There's no consulate in Canada, so we had to FedEx our passports with return envelope (I would have said couriered, but the instructions specified FedEx) to the Mozambique embassy in Washington, with proof of flights, hotels, 2 photos, and a money order payable to the embassy. I wasn't sure how to declare the contents on the FedEx site (to send across the border) as there's a dropdown with dozens of options including a birth certificate, but no passport. I think I selected personal items. The embassy processed our request rather quickly, and within three days we had our passports back with a nice looking full-page visa sticker.

In South Africa we're renting a car for almost three weeks. Car rentals are pretty cheap there, about $20 / day. Almost half of that is for the GPS! It's left drive in South Africa, and I've rented a standard, so it will be a little different. I have driven stick in England for a couple days, and didn't run into anything, so we should be okay.

Our friend Marissa and her friend Nancy are joining us for a couple weeks for the safaris in South Africa and Swaziland. You may remember Marissa from some of our previous trips. In Swaziland we're hoping to see rhinos at Mkhaya Game Reserve. The accommodations are a little freaky -- the walls on the cottages are only about waist-high, with the rest open to the outside!

Victoria Falls is the last of the big four waterfalls that have been on my list forever (the others being Niagara, Angel Falls, and Iguazu). There's others that have added to list over time, such as Kaiteur Falls and Gullfoss, but it started with those four because they were marked on the world map I had at the time. Victoria Falls is at low-flow while we're there which means we can swim in Devil's Pool, overlooking the falls. We're staying in both the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides of the falls (or Zim and Zam, as the guide books call it), so we'll get to a total of six countries this trip.