FURTHER TRAVEL NOW BOOKED

I’m officially now back on my way again after Australia.  I have made my bookings and laid some plans for my 3 weeks in the UK and my flight is now booked into Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  It is now all starting to become real.  I have always had a rough plan, but to sit down and research the train and planes and make the bookings is a reality check for me.

I leave Australia on the 8^th of August heading to London Town where I will stay with Paps and Em, a couple I met on my African trip, for the 8 nights that I will be there.  I am super lucky that they are taking me in as I arrive on the last few days of the Olympics so even if I could find hotel accommodation I am sure it would be so expensive that I probably would have changed my plans I think.  That’s assuming I could even get anything.  I did look at Olympic tickets for the last few remaining events and I was surprised to see that there were still some tickets floating around for events.  A few, not many, but I just wasn’t sure paying 400AUD for boxing was worth it.  There were a few more options the week before I was there, beach volleyball, weight lifting and of course the closing ceremony still had tickets for 1700AUD, which as much as it would be cool to be there for that, 1700AUD would feed a small Ethiopian family for nearly 2 years and I was finding it hard to justify that for a single ticket.  So I will be there during the Olympics but have decoded to save the cash and just soak up the atmosphere of London during this massive event.  That week will be used to catch up with people from previous trips.  Gray, Helen, Simon, Jo and Sadia to name a few. 

I then head to Brighton on the 17^th by train where I will spend the weekend with Paul and Liz who I spent 70+ days with in South America.  These two were sorely missed on the last leg of my travel as they headed home after Rio and I can’t wait to see them again.  So I am in Brighton for 3 nights and then I catch the train directly from Brighton to London Gatwick for my flight to Edinburgh.

I will be in Scotland for 10 nights doing a Haggis tour with Sharon, who I also met on my South American journey, and who did the complete circumference of the continent.  We booked Scotland back in March through her agent in New Zealand.  She will be getting there a few days before me as she is doing the Edinburgh Tattoo, but arrive on the 20^th August; we have 2 nights in Edinburgh and then head out for the 9 nights on tour.  We arrive back into Edinburgh on the afternoon of the 31^st August, so another night in the city is required and then I head out the following morning for Addis.

It was cheaper (by 500AUD) to purchase a separate ticket from Edinburgh to London and then another ticket through to Addis Ababa.  The downside is that I lose my 2 piece luggage check-in for the internal flight from London to Edinburgh.  I am allowed 2 pieces from Australia to the UK and I am allowed 2 pieces from the UK to Africa, it is just that damn internal flight that is giving me this dilemma.  What the cost of what excess baggage would be for both of those flights I am better off only taking my backpack and having the bag shipped from Australia for 129AUD.  I’m going to get Shelly to send some bags unaccompanied via Jetta Express a week before I am due to leave the UK with the hope that they will arrive the same time as me into Addis and they will have some excess clothes, some towels, sheets, some personal items and stock of Australian goodies (Twisties, Cheezels, Mint Slices and Tim Tams) for my 3 month stint.  So it is a shame to let the extra baggage allowance pass me by on the international flights, but at the end of the day it saves me having to lug an extra bag around on my UK jaunt. 

This will be my forth trip back to Africa in the last 12 months and I am finally on a direct service from Europe.  The other 3 times Egypt Air has worked out the cheapest twice and the last time was on Lufthansa via Frankfurt.  I am booked on an Ethiopian Airlines flight getting me into Addis on the morning of the 02 September.  I have emailed Zeme checking to make sure he doesn’t have any jobs or tours on that weekend and then we will start in earnest to find a place to live.  We will book a week in a hotel to get us started and then hopefully the process and availability of places will not be too hard to find. 

So that is the last bit of travel booked that had to be done, considering I am leaving next month, I should of probably booked all this a little earlier.  Once in Addis we will need to start to looking at booking our flights back to Australia for Christmas, so there is still some travel left in the tank and something to look forward to.  This is another thing I have emailed Zeme about to see how much time he can get off work, ideally I would be looking at 6 weeks in Oz, but I have a funny feeling he won’t be able to get that much time off work, but we’ll see.  As long as he can come for some of it, then I will be happy and I will be on the ground over there to help facilitate his bloody visa.      

I was flipping through my trusty notebook the other day and I had ear marked an Intrepid tour that did West Africa.  It only goes once or twice a year and next year’s departure is October 2013.  It is never too early to be booking another holiday is it???????