I am going to a conference next weekend so getting organized to pack today. Found a shirt we are taking that Ken can wear a tie with. Not the best but who is going to care anyway!!! Might as well go with the flow and two ties is smaller than two silk tees. So I thought I would post this and let the guys know.

Michelle and Anne, we are going to have a challenge with packing for Livingstone and our post safari Botswana trips with our very low weight limt.

I'm going to do my VERY best not to fill our bags; if I have some room, I'll be happy to bring excess home with me and ship from here.

I think I'm going to do some packing in Ziplock Bags, to be a little more organized.

Ngaire, are you the first of our group to depart? Next Wednesday?

Ties are pretty light. I weighed dress shirt at about half a pound each. Of course, 44 pounds is a lot more than 22.

Are a group of you leaving us in Livingstone? As we will have a six hour layover in JNB, who will be joining us flying out on the 30th?

Marc, we are going to be staying at a hotel in Livingstone because we are leaving on May 1. You and Arlene are welcome to stay at our hotel and enjoy the resort. We are also planning to take a tour around Johannesburg if you are interested.

Andi, thanks for the offer but the flight to JNB is part of the package (and only BA flight of the day). Maybe a driving tour of JNB would be a good deal if a group were interested.

We are going with you to JBurg airport. Instead of getting on a flight home, though, we are staying one night in JBurg (because I couldn't get us free seats on the 30th). I think our hotel is pretty close to the airport if you don't want to cool your heels there.

We are leaving from JBurg directly after Singita, on the 28th; our flight isn't until nearly 8:00 pm so I guess we'll learn the airport well.

Marc - The six of us are heading to Chobe Chilwero in Botswana straight from Livingstone. Gary & I leave them two days later & go to Mombo in the Okavanga Delta. We then fly directly back to Cape Town, stay one day & then head back via Frankfurt. I've been sweating luggage .. we are leaving a bag in Capetown so we're at the 22 lb limit thereafter until we return after the rest of the trip. Thankfully, we've worked out room in Michele's luggage. We can stow our Rovos dress clothes, including Gary's tie & jacket, and they will get it back to the US.

I will be really tired of my three outfits by the end of those two weeks! :D :ohmy: SEe you in two short weeks. Have a safe trip & a great tour of the Garden Road. Cheers, Anne

We'll be joining you Marc...our SAA flight leaves J'burg at 8pm straight through to Atl. Not thinking I'll have any extra room in luggage to help anyone :( 13 more days! :hyper:

Marc, Linda and I leave on the 12th. We are AA to Zurich and Zurich to JNB. Linda is DFW to Dulles to JNB.

Betty has already left she is in Egypt right now. Doing a trip there with a week on the Nile then coming early into Cape Town and going down to Hermanus for a couple of nights.

People coming and going in all directions!

Ken and I are doing a 4 night jaunt different place each night to areas of South Africa and camps we have not seen, Ron and Linda are doing the same thing but different camps that I have already seen but want her to see. We meet up on the Garden Route on the 17th and then drive into Cape Town together looking at a few properties on the way.

The city tour, it is really good to get your bearings and know a little about the town. I hope you all get to go up Table Mountain weather permitting that is really special. I want to show Linda some hotels in town and I need Ken for pictures, so we three are going to not do the tour in the morning but spend the day site inspecting. Our time is so busy there is no spare time to do anything. Ron will probably be coming along with you though. After that I will be doing all the tours with you and NO MORE WORK, would not miss the winelands or Cape Point again I think they are really great highlights of Cape Town.

Only other time I will "stray" is that I have 6 clients at Leopard Hills while we are at Singita and they want to meet me. They wanted to book Singita but we had it booked. I explained there was no point in waitlisting it would NOT clear. I will pop over there one afternoon inbetween game drives to meet them or they may pop over to Singita remains to be seen.

I still cant believe it is finally here always seemed SO FAR in the future.

Where are you staying night of 17th? Are you driving into Cape Town on 18th?

Suzie, Would you like to do a tour together in the afternoon with Marc and Arlene as well?

Andi, thanks; I had misunderstood. I thought you were spending extra day in Livingstone. It looks like there will be a few of us in Jo'burg for the day.

We are staying at the Wellington..very posh, I understand...it has got to be better than staying at the airport for 6 hours. Let me know what interests you and we can arrange something.

Ooo - the Wellington sounds really great...edit: but have a departure 5/5.
We're leaving LAX on the 13th on AA (overnight in Zurich) arriving Cape Town the 16th. Staying two nights in Hermanus. We're really looking forward to meeting everyone! Our post trip to Botswana is challenging us packing-wise but should be OK with the back & forth out of Jo-burg. The highlight is finally getting to meet everyone...Ngaire, your schedule sounds exhausting! :) Michele

We're leaving JNB at 6:40 on the 30th. I wish I could be interested, but I think I will have had enough by then. JNB has never piqued my interest.

Andi, I checked flight schedule again out of JNB and we leave at 7:30 pm so lets discuss the afternoon tour when we're all together (at last) and by then I'll know if I want to. My flights and times were changed last week.

Today is the day I test the 22 pound limit for Nambia.... What are you ladies finding adds up to 22 lbs?

There is a diamond mine in the area and supposedly they have some of the world's largest diamonds.

We leave JNB at 8:50pm on the 30th and would probably be interested in some kind of tour. Keep us posted.

Leslie: the following came in at 21.5 pounds in the Ker & Downey duffle: 2 pr. Columbia pants; one pr. jeans, 3 travel shirts (2 longsleeve & 1 shortsleeve); 2 golf shirts; 1 long-sleeved t-shirt; toiletry bag; 1 pr. shower shoes; 1 pr. flats; windbreaker; 1 sweater; 2 pr. shorts; 1 pr. capris; 4 pr. lightweight crew socks (so they'll dry overnight); 2 nighties; swimsuit & coverup; 5 days' underwear & Tilley-style hat.

I assume I'm wearing the heavier shoes (lightweight hikers), lightweight fleece I'll carry a small backpack with camera gear and recharger cords. I will probably swap one smart casual outfit (for dinners) for the jeans in the bag.

I can make a couple of substitutions on this to shave a pound off the weight but not much more.

Cheers, Anne

Joe and I do not leave Joberg until about 11.30PM on April 30 to head back home. We would definitely be interested in doing something to break up the day in Joberg. I have done nothing to try to find out what there is to see or do. The thought of spending that much time in an airport and then getting on a plane for 13 hours to then get on another plane. Oh lets not go there. Even dinner at a nice restaurant might be a nice idea.

I can't find my link to the dayrooms at various airport hotels. Is there one at JBurg?

You are all welcome to come to our hotel. We are not too far from the airport. Supposedly it is very lovely. (The Westcliff). We could organize a tour via the hotel. K&D arranged my hotel for me.

There is a hotel right at the airport. Just literally two minutes walk. It is between the domestic and international terminal. This would be a nice place to go and have a nice dinner while you wait.

We get to the airport about 3.00 pm. To get through the check in and immigration process could easily take 2 hours so you would need to really allow 2 to 3 hours by the time you reclaim your luggage from storage if you need to do that first.

So arriving at 3.00 pm and leaving by 7.00pm to 8.00pm having to be back at the airport by 4.00pm to 5.00 pm to be safe does not leave much time for a tour. Then you could get caught in traffic. .

If anyone is travelling business with anyone travelling coach most lounges allow one guest per passenger. That may be a better option.

Just my two cents worth I think you need to think about that before committing to a tour.

Good advice, Ngaire. It looks like having a few drinks or a nice dinner at the airport hotel and then going to the business class lounge until flight time would be the best idea. We're flying home via Madrid on Iberia. I want to check in with them as early as possible because they wont't pre-assign seats over the phone--only at the airport. We have seat assignments from Madrid to ORD, but they only pre-assign seats to US passengers on flights to and from the US. We're in business class, I suppose it's the same thing in coach--have no idea why they have such an odd rule.

Ngaire, makes sense. I need to find out when Virgin's lounge opens. Might as well go in there, eat dinner, and shower before our flight. If anyone is flying coach on Virgin JNB-LHR let us know and we can find out whether we can bring in guests.

Thanks Anne.

My 22 lbs trial packing went well so I'm not concerned any more about the Namibia portion. My list is similiar to yours, but I will probably just take a pair of sandals to Namibia and wear my light hiking shoes, plus I will probably take a skirt/top to wear for dinner in Windhoek, but I'm sure out in the dunes the evenings will be very casual.

Now I have to go re-read the logistics of the luggage storage - I'd like to take a little more to Singita than to Namibia.

Your Namibia trip sounds great, Leslie. Packing my 22-26 lbs. duffle for Livingstone & post trip to Botswana was much easier than I had expected. A very lightweight duffle & quick drying bush clothes really helps in addition to having easy casual wear for dinners. I'm also wearing the trail shoes & packing the sandals. It will be nice to be able to take a little more to Singita for dinners, etc. Our carry on, cameras, lenses, binoculars, batteries, charger, etc., seems heavy but it's just my threshold being challenged since I don't like to carry much on board. We'll split this stuff between the two of us, thank goodness.

We should get a ROAR group picture with our hats on. - Michele

PLEASE!!!! Hat picture - Joanna

You'd better stop, Joanna or I will post my hat picture again. Yes, we should do one like that to show everyone our hats, baseball caps, visors, and the rest, just because it has been an issue here....that's a good suggestion to Ken for a photo!

Fine,

I am now anguishing over which Tilley I'm getting. The girlie one that Olivia ordered (good choice!) or a model dissimilar to anything I own like this...



Arragh.... Or, just go with what I already have in the closet <img border="0" alt="[bounce]" title="" src="graemlins/ubbbounce2.gif" />

Wait...am I even in the correct post? It says ties, how'd we get into hats?

http://www.luxurycruisetalk.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=15;t=000120;p=2
My girlie hat was here! Maybe hers is better because it has "air-conditioning?" I like that hat, Suzanne!

We will be a Tilley bunch!

I just bought one this weekend!

Doug

Doug:

Penny bought one of those Tilley hats too. But since your wife made me buy one of those expensive Saeco coffee machines, there's no more shekels in the till to buy me a hat.

I will be wearing a floppy Radisson hat that I bought on our Tahiti cruise and I fear that it will make me the laughable stock of the animal kingdom.

I'm off now to have a lovely cup of coffee and contemplate my past sins......that'll take a New York minute.... <img border="0" alt="[vhappy]" title="" src="graemlins/icon_vhappy.gif" />

Cheers! Ray

A hat is a hat. Ken wears a baseball cap. We will be fine looking group in our hats for the lions to contemplate!!

I'll end up being known as "the hat lady", probably; I have been using some Retin A on my face so I'll be hiding from the sun, big time.

Pam,

Here's the Sahara where you can almost completely cover your face. ;)

Suzanne, that hat is UGLY! I'll draw the line there. Although there are days I'd love to completely cover my face.

Oh yeah, ugly is right! But think of how handy it would be in a sandstorm...