As I had to cancel my coffee date with Laura during the
week we decided to meet up on Sunday and Laura elected to drive to ‘my side’ of
town to make it easier for me and we met at Village Market at 3pm. When she asked where should we meet the food
court or at Art Cafe, I didn’t even know that there WAS an Art Cafe at my
shopping centre, the same centre that I have been going to twice a week since
moving here almost 6 weeks ago. In
saying that and also my defence, the shopping centre is 95% outdoors and is
spread out over a large area that all doesn’t flow and ebb. There are little shops tucked away everywhere
and I am yet to find the bowling alley and also apparently there is a cinema
here as well. Who knew!!!
So my Sunday morning was getting the trip notes and maps
saved for my West Africa trip that I have decided to book, so that I could get
them printed at the computer shop this afternoon. I also started at looking at flights and I
have been able to find a GREAT fare that gets me back from London in May,
flights to Accra-departing Dakar back to Nairobi and then a flight back to the
originating country and place-London (to complete the circle making it cheaper)
and the flights all on one ticket is only $1400 bucks. To do the flights in all other combinations I
could get any cheaper than 1850 bucks, so I am saving around $400USD and
knowing the cost of the flights individually, this was an exceptional find and
I just hope that the fare is still around when I go to book, which I can’t
until I know if my tour is a guaranteed departure which I may not know till
May-that’s a long time in airline booking world.
I also took the time to re-check flight my flight options
to Canada in July, as my great mate Amy is getting married. About 4 weeks ago I found a great fare for
1600AUD, well talking about how airfares change, that fare has now gone and the
next airfare is 2300AUD!!!! I was happy
to pay the 1600AUD, but I find it hard to pay the 2300AUD when the first part
of my West Africa trip is 2400AUD for 32 days.
It kind of puts into perspective for me and I am now going to have to
break the bad news to Amy, but being a fellow traveller, I am sure she will
understand. So to give myself something
closer to look forward to is that I am going to do a 7 night tour of the Masai
Mara in late July. Not only do I get to
see a section of my ‘adoptive’ country that I haven’t seen yet, but I am going
that late so that I will be able to see the mass migration of African animals,
which after looking up the information on the internet, it looks like a trip of
a life time and something that you won’t get to see anywhere else in the
world. The Great Wildebeest Migration is
one of the “Seven New Wonders of the World”.
Nowhere in the world is there a movement of animals as immense as the
wildebeest migration, over two million animals migrate from the Serengeti
National Park in Tanzania to the greener pastures of the Masai Mara National
Reserve in Kenya during July through to October. The principle players of the migration are
the wildebeest, whose numbers appear to have settled at just under 1.5 million,
with supporting roles from some 350,000 Thomson’s gazelle, 200,000 zebra and
12,000 eland. These are the main migrators and they cross the ranges of over a
quarter of a million other resident herbivores and, of course, carnivores. The
lions, hyenas, leopards, cheetahs and lesser predators await the annual coming
of the migration with eager anticipation. In reality there is no such single entity as ‘the
migration’. The wildebeest are the migration – there is neither start nor
finish to their endless search for food and water, as they circle the
Serengeti- Mara ecosystem. Can you
imagine seeing such a sight! I’m very excited
about the prospect and Joshua (in the travel industry) said that I should be
going in late July/September to have a better chance art seeing the migration
as it is not a set time each year and the weather plays a big part as to when
the animals actually decide to make the ‘move’.
It was great to see Laura again. We have had 2 coffee dates cancel in the last
2 weeks (and I did make a joke that if this one fell through I was going to get
a complex) but it didn’t-and we found an outdoor table on the terrace and that
is where we sat for the next 3.5 hours.
Where does the time go? They do
say that time flies when you’re having fun and that was certainly the case
today. Laura and I just click and it is
hard to believe that I am nearly 12 years older than her!! I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad
thing? Either way I truly believe I have
myself a ‘friend’ in the true sense of the word and it is a great feeling and
something that I needed at this point of my integration. It became apparent that we were going to get
along just fine when she mention I should just do West Africa as well-yes I
think we will do just fine!!!! My social
life has been the one thing I have been lacking the first few weeks I was here but
I am happy to report that finally it is finally changing and moving in the
right direction! Laura left at 6.30pm
as she had to get home for dinner, so I decided to stay on and have dinner at
the café and with a few more glasses of wine, listening to the live jazz band
that had set up, the African stars in the sky and a slight wind in my hair-is
there anywhere else in the world that I would rather be? HELL NO.
So it was a great Sunday session and we had a great girly
chat and thanks to Laura for a great afternoon.
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