This is the second group of Lessons Learned from our 83 day-long Antarctica to Zimbabwe trip that took us through Patagonia, Santiago and the Rio de Maipo Valley (Chile), the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Antarctica, the South Atlantic, Cape Town and Sabi Sands (South Africa), and Namibia.
Part 1 can be found here.
What Worked: Dig into the Destination. Beyond the vast amount of work done to ensure that we had booked the correct flights, hotels, transfers and tours, we also needed to dive deeper into the destinations themselves.
Fun Fact – Did you know that Namibia has the oldest desert in the world? It’s been around for roughly 55 million years, or roughly the time it takes to prepare for a 3-month-long trip
But there’s so much information available – how on earth does one know where to begin? Thankfully, we’ve settled into something of a routine – and a division of effort – when it comes to pre-trip research.
Immediately after we’ve decided on a destination, my wife will order the Lonely Planet book for that country or region. She will read through that cover-to-cover to identify the best possible tours, restaurants and hotels – which will form our “short list” of activities.
I’d like to say that I follow on immediately behind her, reading that same book cover to cover. And I really wish I wanted to do that – but I don’t. Instead I focus on reading through trip reports which cover these same destinations and drawing inspiration from there.
For this trip, I particularly enjoyed reading through Dr. Ron’s Cape-to-Cape trip report and watching some of the incredible photos and videos from the Dulini facebook page in Sabi Sands, South Africa.
We also try to find ways to engage our kids in the trip. That usually means finding documentaries that we can watch during family movie night. We particularly enjoyed Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World and the Sailing Florence episodes in which they visited Namibia – though we ended up visiting different locations within the country.
Sometimes there are must-read books that go along with certain destinations – such as Endurance, Alfred Lansing’s classic recount of the Shackleton expedition.
Shackleton’s waterfall is beautiful irrespective of history – but it is utterly awe-inspiring in the context of the greatest expedition story of all time
All of this gets weighed against more up-to-date information from Google Reviews and TripAdvisor as we start to fill in the calendar.
Bookings generally happen in a patchwork fashion – we might know that we are staying at the Sheraton Santiago, for example, without knowing exactly which tours we will be taking in the city. And we look for acccommodations and tours with flexible cancellation policies so that we can lift and shift as needed without paying vast penalties.
Improve: Clear the decks. Imagine, if you will – it’s 8 am and you’re getting ready to land on the Antarctic peninsula for the very first time. Your zodiac group has just been called down to the mudroom. You’re almost ready to go – you just need to send one last e-mail to get an extension on your income tax return.
Even this king penguin is reminding me to check on my nest egg…
I’m sure that anyone who reads “83 day-long trip” knows they need to tackle their ‘To Do List’ before their departure. I too put together a very reasonable and well-thought-out plan of what I expected to accomplish in the month before we left – and I got through roughly a third of it.
The problem is that you’re not just getting ahead on your list – you’re also organizing an 83 day trip into spreadsheets, digging into the destination and packing all at the same time.
Here’s just a snippet of what we had to do:
– Put all our mail on hold.
– Pre-pay all of our bills, or set-up direct withdrawal.
– Arrange pet sitters or house sitters.
– Arrange a second round of pet sitters or house sitters as our first batch weren’t able to cover the entire trip.
– Ensure we have a four-month supply of any toiletries, vitamins, etc..
– Find someone to cut the grass and / or shovel the walkway as needed.
– Gather all the receipts needed to file income taxes, despite the fact that the receipts aren’t available yet and taxes are not due for another 3 months.
– Notarize a legal document stipulating that either parent has permission to travel solo with the children in case one of us has to leave to deal with a health issue or family emergency.
Somehow, we managed to get all of that done (well, except for the income tax part) – and what happened to us the day we left? The staccato symphony of squirrels in our attic.
So it goes. Life goes on, even when we are on holiday. But next time will give myself even more time to accomplish even fewer tasks, if possible.
What worked: Keep a journal. The first time you see a leopard (or a leopard seal), you likely think to yourself – I will never, ever forget this moment.
From leopards…
To leopard seals…
But you will forget that moment. That’s just how our brains work. And you will definitely forget that moment if you then go on to see a ridiculous-looking chinstrap penguin covered in algae because it took an unfortunate slide…
… or a lion cub that attempts to climb a tree because it just doesn’t know any better…
It all tends to get mixed up, unless you find a way to organize it.
This has been one of the best outcomes of the blog – we just flip back to any given day, and it feels like we’re there again. (Though probably the single best benefit has been the sense of community that’s come along from hearing from and meeting with readers.)
Now, not everyone has the time or capacity to write thousand-word trip reports every day. But even a few quick sentences can do a world of good. On the Wind, Expedition Guide Jess had us write haikus like this one:
But even that might be too much structure. Maybe just a few sentences – a few quick brushstrokes, if you will – would be enough.
Does that still seem daunting? If so, consider using some sort of prompt generator – like Prompt Monster – to help get you going.
(Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a travel-specific prompt generator. If anyone knows of one, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail! I might also look at creating something like that for this site.)
Improve: Be patient with yourself. The stakes are higher for longer trips – the kinds of trips that people will tell you are “the trip of a lifetime.” They’re not wrong, but that is still an immense amount of pressure to put on oneself, particularly when there’s that much more that can go wrong.
If you plan a trip like this, you will get something wrong. You will attempt to try and do too much in a certain country – like we did in Namibia – or you will miss out on some crucial animal or attraction.
…Sometimes the road goes on longer than you’d like.
It happens.
It’s also okay if not every day is an incredible, life-changing adventure. Some days we just needed time to relax, sleep in, and take it easy. Yes, we made some incredible landings in some of the most remote regions of the world. Yes, we spoke to some fascinating, brilliant naturalists and scientists.
And yes, we skipped out on shipboard activities so that we could binge-watch two seasons of Severance in less than a week. I regret nothing.
… And sometimes the road takes you right where you need to be.
But there’s little time for binge-watching these days, as we will soon be departing for French Polynesia!
Will our Lessons Learned result in an even smoother trip, or will the squirrels launch a fresh offensive to regain control of our attic? Stay tuned to find out.