preparing for the trip
first phase
- rough planning of the route (internet, lonely planet, personal contacts)
- determining the best time for travel taking into account weather, rainy season, local holidays, etc.
- applying for vacation from job
- finding a plane (we hired it from bush air)
second phase: planning and booking
- vaccines (hepatitis a and b, tyfus, difteri, tetanus)
- ordering aviation charts and directories (we did this through bush air)
- book flight from zürich to joburg and back (we flew with Swiss)
- transport from joburg to nespruit (we rented a car in Joburg and gave it back in Nelspruit)
- detailed plan of the route incl. sights, dates, landing strips (to some degree)
- visas (not necessary to arrange beforehand for us)
- bookings of national park entries, accommodation, tours, ... (we only booked those places that are know to be really busy)
final phase: getting ready
- money (we brought travellers cheques and several different credit cards)
- malaria prophylactic
- travel insurance
at home
- put newspapers and the like on hold
- tell relatives and friends contact details
- get somebody to water plants and empty the postbox (possibly pay bills)