Michael teamed up with Swain Tours to create a luxe honeymoon in the wilderness of New Zealand...private, lush, romantic with just enough options for the adrenaline junkie! Congrats to Michael on being one of only 24 Specialists selected by Virtuoso and The Knot! Planning a honeymoon? Michael's the go-to honeymoon specialist!
On Safari in Southern Africa
Barbara and I have had a love affair going with Africa and we want to share some of our best experiences. To that end we have worked with one of the great Southern African companies – Wilderness Safari and Londolozi to offer a unique experience in safaris – we are traveling to the game parks in Botswana and South Africa and stopping along the way at one of the wonders of the world – Victoria Falls – the “Smoke that Thunders” We are planning to leave the last week of March 2011 (dates may change a bit to try and insure we have the lodges we want). The areas of these lodges are rich with wildlife and in Botswana we will probably not see other tourists at all – the lodges are that remote. Please check out the websites for the properties we have selected – these can be found at the bottom of the email. We can also help book air and of course you MUST have trip insurance and we can also handle this for you.
Because we are only taking five couples we expect to have a full group within the next 45 day to 60 days.. Please call us with questions or comments – but please – if you can – do not pass up this unique opportunity.
Day one arrive Johannesburg – spend evening at Intercontinental Hotel at the Johannesburg Airport (we are met and greeted to South Africa by a Wilderness rep who will assist us to check in at the hotel)
Day two – Meet in lobby where a Wilderness rep will take us to check - in for our flight to Maun, Botswana; arrive in Maun and transfer to Sefofane for light aircraft transfer from Maun to Duba Plains; afternoon game drive at Duba Plains
Day three – full day at Duba Plains where we have sole use of the camp
Day four – after morning game drive and breakfast – transfer to air strip for light aircraft transfer to Savuti Camp; afternoon game drive at Savuti camp
Day five – full day at Savuti camp where we have sole use of the camp
Elephants near Savuti Camp
Day six – after morning game drive and breakfast, transfer to air strip for light air craft transfer to Kasane Airport; then again light air craft transfer from Kasane to Livingstone Airport; clear customs – purchase visa, then we’ll be met and transferred to the Royal Livingstone Hotel and in the evening take a cruise aboard the African Queen – sundowner cruise – on the Zambezi river above the falls.
Day seven – meet in the lobby after breakfast for a private tour of the falls; then collect luggage and private transfer to Livingston Airport; Commercial air flight (South African air) from Livingston to Kruger Airport – clear customs and transfer by light aircraft to Londolozi air strip. (not sure if we will arrive in time for game drive)
Day eight and nine – spend at the Londolozi Varty camp
A Leopard near Londolozi
Day ten after morning game drive and breakfast – transfer to air strip for flight to Johannesburg (those who are not going to Cape Town)
End of these services
Total price is $10,968 per person plus $1790 internal air fights and air transfers
Deposit is 20% of the landed costs and in Africa, since most of the lodges book their rooms 6 to 9 months in advance – with very little chance of rebooking cancelled rooms – the deposit is non refundable.
Does NOT include:
Here are the websites for the camps and Royal Livingstone Hotel
Duba Plains – www.dubaplains.com
Savuti Camp – www.savuticamp.com
Londolozi – www.londolozi.com
Royal Livingstone - www.royal-livingstone-hotel.com
WE HAVE A THREE NIGHT EXTENSION TO CAPE TOWN, A FOUR NIGHT EXTENSION TO CAPE TOWN AND THE STELLENBOSCH WINE COUNTRY; A TWO NIGHT EXTENTION IN JOHANNESBURG; AN EXTENSION TO THE SEYCELLES OR TO MOZAMBIQUE – PLEASE JUST REQUEST THIS FROM US.
Sincerely,
Michael & Barbara
Michael and Barbara King
Email michael@greatgetaway.com or barbara@greatgetaway.com for details
This just in from Kiwi Land:
"Ok here are a couple of pictures you can post. When I arrived in Auckland
2009 has been a year of twists and turns, joys and challenges. Through it all you were there for me and for all of us at Great Getaways! Thank you for standing by me and for allowing us to do what we do best---designing memorable, and often life-changing, vacations!
Happy Thanksgiving 2009 with a an extra helping of gratitude!
(To learn more about Playing for Change, visit www.playingforchange.com)
“Good-bye, I love you”—how many times have I said those words and why are they bittersweet? When Josh began 4th grade, we walked into the school together (that wouldn’t last long-that mother-son walking into school together thing—geez, Mom!), found his new classroom and we hugged. “Good-bye, I love you!” I said and slowly walked away. That was a fun “gbily” –my first time as Josh’s mom to escort him to his first day of a new school year.
The previous May Josh and Lauren’s dad, Michael, and I married---on May 24, 1998 to be exact! They had recently lost their wife/mother, Lana, to metastasized breast cancer. Several years before that I experienced the sudden loss of my only child, my son David, at the age of 2. So, as Josh aptly described the union, “God put us together. We needed a wife and a mom and you needed a husband and a son.” Lauren was the “gift with purchase”, the daughter I never had, and with whom I have laughed, cried, argued, celebrated, distanced, drawn together, distanced again and today we are both finding our way to acceptance and love.
So, back to “gbily”--- my next memory of a poignant “Good-bye, I love you” was when Michael, Josh and I drove to Camp Chi in Wisconsin, Josh’s first adventure to be away from home, from us (How will he survive? How will we survive? Quite well, on all counts, as it turned out!). I remember the fragrant towering pine trees and giving Josh the biggest hug I could muster (Come on, Mom, this is embarrassing!), offered the standard “gbily”, turning and walking down the road towards our car with tears streaming down my face.
Another choked up “gbily” was when I took Josh to middle school---this growing up thing is going way too fast! Add a dash of “gbilys” on those occasions that we traveled abroad and weren’t able to include Josh on those journeys (poor kid has only been to more places than most adults have ever experienced—including but not limited to Hawaii, Alaska, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, England, Kenya, the Galapagos, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and countless United States!). When Josh was 16, he and Michael climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. As they unloaded their duffel bags at the airport, I hugged them both and said, “Please be safe! Good-bye, I love you” with a major lump in my throat. The good news was that Lauren and I were going to Kenya a week later to meet our intrepid climbers and go on a family safari (As an aside, Africa is my favorite continent and we’re headed back there in September!). There were two more “gbilys” of note during high school: the first was when Josh drove by himself after having received his driver’s license (Please God, keep him safe and thanks Dateline NBC for airing the scary segment on teen driving that very same evening—oy!); the second was when Josh, along with 37 other Kansas City Jewish teens, participated in The March of The Living, which visited the very real and very sobering death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau followed by a week of celebration in Israel.
It seems there have been a flood of “gbilys” in the past couple of yea or maybe, just maybe, they seem so poignant because they are so recent (like, how about today????). Two years ago Michael and I took Josh to the University of Arizona---“Good-bye, we love you!” we said as we boarded the plane to fly to Vegas to attend Virtuoso’s annual Travel Mart (a very important and exhausting travel industry event we’ve participated in for the past 14 years). The next “gbilys” ran together---Josh’s transferring to KU (only 45 minutes from home—maybe we’ll see Josh more often—oh wrong-o, Mom who doesn’t want to let go!), the abbreviated summer after Freshman year (“Hey, Mom and Dad, I’m moving out the beginning of August into an apartment near campus!”), the Thanksgiving dinner (“I’m staying in Lawrence. What time should I be home for Thanksgiving dinner?”), the Winter Break (break from school AND break from coming home other than a couple of short visits! Come on, Mom, lay off the guilt!), the new and very special relationship with Desi, and Josh and Desi giving birth to their son, Tristan, on July 2nd.
Some things are as they should be. How many times have I heard the saying, “We teach them to walk and we teach them to walk away?” Oh, please, can you say “Vomit?” Haven’t you read my script, Universe? Don’t you know that Josh was supposed to be our Peter Pan, our “I won’t grow up” kid? And why, this spewing of my feelings today, you ask? A couple of hours ago Michael and Josh loaded Josh’s bed and chest of drawers into a U-Haul truck to move to the new duplex Josh, Desi and Tristan will call home for the next year. He took his bed!!!!!!!!! He took the photos of Lana he kept next to the bed!!!!!!!!!! Where will Josh sleep when he comes home? And, that is the cause of the angst---he won’t be coming home…
I could have ended with a dramatic flourish but I assure you that this moment of pain, of self-pity, is in fact, just a moment. In my heart I know I will have many more life experiences with our son, Desi, our grandson, our daughter ( who now lives in Hawaii but is coming home to visit in September!) and her friends, our travels, our friends, our newest business venture (TBA in a couple of months)…but, God, could you just give me a little sneak preview?
Alexander McCall Smith has nothing on the King family! Michael, Josh and I visited Eagle Island Camp in Botswana in January, 1999. Two weeks ago Alexander McCall Smith, author of the series of books, No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, visited Eagle Island Camp for the 3rd time in 2 years. Read what our friends at African Travel wrote:
Two weeks ago everyone at Eagle Island Camp was abuzz with excitement as they welcomed Alexander McCall Smith – author of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency – for a three day stay. This was his third visit to Eagle Island Camp in only two years, a place that has surely captured his heart and it is also the place where the first lady detective will be traveling to solve a crime in his next book. He was lucky enough to witness a lion kill just a few yards in front of him while on a game walk. The also visited the neighboring Noxa village which he says will be featured in his new book.---courtesy of African Travel
Beat your friends to the punch---scope out Eagle Island Camp and write your own bestseller! There are some amazing special offers available, so contact me today to begin your safari to Botswana! travelingking@gmail.com or via Twitter @travelingking1!
FYI---The photo of the young man in the mokuro is our son Josh, who was 9 years old at the time, and now is 20! He’s been to Africa 3 times with us and has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with Michael (the 2nd photo was when he was 16!).
