In a few days, I’ll be leaving for my trip of a lifetime. I’ve been accumulating what I might need for most of the winter. Then I’ll have to cut that in half! I start out with seven days in South Africa on safari, then embark on a cruise ship for 40 days. The ship does have a self-service laundromat. I’m bringing my own unscented laundry and dryer sheets. Last time on this ship, I often found it hard to find an empty washing machine – and that was with only 110 passengers on board. This trip will probably have at least 250 passengers. And, who wants to spend your free time doing laundry!! So will bring more clothes than necessary....

On my flight to Johannesburg, I will be able to have two suitcases. One suitcase has to be “safari sized” for the small airplane flights. Same as what I had on last fall’s 35 days of safari. The larger suitcase will be shipped from Johannesburg to Cape Town so it can be full-sized.

Checking the weather: I will be starting out on a safari near Kruger National Park. While it will be in the 90’s in the afternoon, early morning game drives can be chilly. Also, I need to plan on possible rain showers. I will then be getting on the ship in Cape Town which sits on the equivalent latitude of Los Angeles during fall, so mild but out on deck after the sun goes down could be chilly.

As we head north towards the equator, it will be getting hotter and hotter and humid. Then we progress north to Lisbon in their springtime.

This is an expedition cruise so no formal nights – YEAH! Most nights when we’ve been ashore during the day, the evening attire is “Casual”. But their idea of casual is “similar to five-star resort sportswear”. No jeans or shorts after 6 pm. Most of the nights when we are sea for the day, the evening attire is “Informal”. For Informal: “On informal evenings, ladies may choose to wear a dress or pantsuit, while gentlemen must wear a jacket in indoor spaces. A tie is optional”. When I was on this ship last year, I had no problem getting by with slacks and a nice blouse. We were surrounded by icebergs so there was no need to get fancy. But for this cruise I have found a few cute sundresses so I will go with that too.

Then there is footwear to consider. My feet are delicate and require comfort over style. On shore excursions, I must wear sturdy, mid-rise hiking shoes for support. I wear those biggest, heaviest boots on the plane. They are a pain to take off going through security (and yes, I have TSA Precheck but due to my artificial knee, I have to go through the body scan, and it ALWAYS flags my ankles so nearly always have to take off my shoes – grrrr). For days on the ship, I have a pair of nice, white tennis shoes. But what to wear to dinner? With slacks, I think I can get by with this nice pair of brown tennis shoes.  With my dresses – I have never found a pair of sandals that looked good or were comfortable nor any dressy flats that were comfortable. I found these sparkly shoes at Sketchers – I think they will do!!

I will need my medical prescriptions for 53 days. I have counted out all my pills and there is only one that I am short. On my last long trip, I discovered that at Walgreens, that when I tried to refill a prescription before it was due, they said the insurance company wouldn’t cover it. But when I agreed to that, there was a screen asking why I needed them early and one of the options was “vacation”. I checked that and woohoo – no charge! On last fall’s trip, I sorted all six weeks pills into weekly pill boxes. But after dropping one and trying to figure out what pill went where, I am rethinking how to take them this time. I know you are always advised to take medications in their original containers but some of my pills are tiny in a large bottle. I’ve seen people who bring their pills in little ziplock bags for each am/pm. I might consider that. I found these at Walgreens and it has a system to keep track of whether or not I had taken that days pills – I forget what I did 10 minutes ago…

Lastly, I need to pack my camera gear. My Canon gear I took last fall on my safari worked extremely well so might keep everything the same. But, many of the countries I will be visiting are extremely poor. It might be better to take my Olympus gear – it is much smaller and doesn’t attract as much attention. Hard to give up half the pixels but with less emphasis on bird photography, it might be enough. But my long, Olympus telephoto lens is huge. Still deciding. Just need to make sure all the batteries are charged, the memory cards formatted and each camera put on the South Africa time zone.

Finally – when do I start packing. Spooky knows what a suitcase being packed means. Once she sees it, she gets very unhappy. I try to fold a blouse, she attacks it. When I am going to work on my cruise ship, I can get by with packing the night before – everything is pretty standard. But for this I don’t want to wait until the last minute – I’ll take too much. So I guess she will just have to deal with it. Poor baby, I’ll miss her. She is my emotional support.

Let the packing begin!