Africa - 32 days to fill starting in SA

So I've gone and booked my flights and now am at a loss how to fill my time. Maybe not at a loss, but overwhelmed for sure!

I will be arriving early April 2013 (flight to/from JNB at the moment, but I may amend that) and leaving early May. I am starting to realize this may not be the best timing for weather in CPT or safaris, but it is what it is.

From what I have gathered reading the other threads my best plan would be:

train to Cape Town
week in Cape Town / wine tours / etc
fly to Victoria Falls (2 days there)
join a 13 day group tour Vic Falls through Zimbabwe and Mozambique to Kruger (camping style)
add on 3/4 night stay in a lodge in Kruger (not sure about how easy it would be to arrange a transfer from within the park)
return to Jo'burg, then overnight train to Durban
4 days in Durban
then ??? (4 more days to fill)


Is this reasonable? Would anyone suggest drastic changes? The group tour thing leaves Vic Falls April 13th and would end in Jo'burg April 25th, so it's a bit of stumbling block unless I skip it, but as a solo traveller it seems the best way to see a bunch of stuff I wouldn't on my own. Should I drop extra safari days or Durban and take the "spare" time to go somewhere not yet considered (Zanzibar, Madagascar)? Most of the suggestions on other threads involve shorter trips and as such I can't really adapt them to my time frame.

I am not really interested in renting a car and doing self drives at this point (I may change my mind later) - I know myself and oddly I always end up spending more time in a vehicle that way! That and I am a gawky driver, always looking everywhere other than the road - I'd probably end up as one of the fatality statistics! :) Are there other options for getting around, or is it pretty much flying, tours, or occasional trains? Haven't really seen any reference to longhaul buses (such as in North or South America).

*Just as reference points, I will be travelling as a single woman in her early 30s, I enjoy both hostels and Fairmonts, I love train travel, and both group and solo travel have a place in my itineraries.

Thanks in advance! :)

There are long-distance buses eg Greyhound, Intercape

I like Durban but if this is meant to be a big, one-off trip to see "Africa" I would maybe advise you to spend the time doing something else, such as visiting Zanzibar or perhaps the Drakensburg/inland areas of Natal.

Alternatively it would be fairly easy to extend your time in the Cape to include the Garden Route which has some very nice places.

not sure about how easy it would be to arrange a transfer from within the parkVery easy, but not necessarily cheap.

Johan

BA304 thanks for the input. As I'm young yet, there's no way I'm writing this off as a one-off to Africa! That said, it is my first trip there and I do want to fit as much in as I can, as one never really knows what life will hand them and maybe it will be the only trip. :)

Given this is your first trip and you want to see lots of new, African things, I'd advise against visiting Durban. If you've already spent time in CPT then I can think of better things to do than going to another city (nothing against Durbs!).

I love Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland. Swaziland is an easy trip, VERY close to Kruger (depending on where you are) and quite a fascinating place. Namibia is vast, but the game viewing is amazing and the skeleton coast, the dunes etc are natural wonders in themselves. Botswana has fantastic game in the delta where you can go around on canoes watching hippos etc.

Just make sure you have your visas in order for Zambia and Mozambique. I got my Mozambique visa in Pretoria (took 24 hours) and my Zambia visa in London (that was more of a hassle).

Thanks biggiggles! Definitely some food for thought in there. I don't even know that Durban was on the list concretely, just figured maybe I could use a couple free night certs at the Fairmont there. A bit of a silly reason to include it in the itinerary, but this is all loose schedule juggling at the moment! :)

Thanks for the reminder on visas though - at least I'll have a shiny new passport by then. I just hope the Canadian 10 year one comes out this winter!

I've planned out JNB to Botswana then Vic Falls,Kruger, Capetown, Garden Route used air miles and hotel points. no group tour solo bespoke trip planned with local SA agency For 22 days. Kruger has lots of options and transfers when I was researching and planning my itinerary. I'm the same as you don't want to do rental car and I wasn't able to find a group of interest that didn't incld single supp. I will miss out the train from CPT to JNB which looks interesting but doing garden route then back to JNB.

Philatravelgirl out of curiosity how did you go about finding a SA travel agent? I am sure there are tons available if I looked, but trying to figure out who/which one is reputable is a bit trickier.

I should take another look at the Garden Route, it seems to get a lot of traction on travel sites.

For those in the know, I was under the impression April/early May wasn't really the time to go to Botswana ... am I wrong?

Another question regarding visas - do they generally process them for three months from the date you send them in or specifically for your dates of travel? May sound like a strange question, but my mum and her friend nearly got burned by sending their passports in too soon (sent them about 3 months before they were due to go to Kenya and the visas came back effective immediately, due to expire 2 days after their set departure). I realize it is hard to generalize on something like a visa, but all of my travels have allowed at border application if at necessary.

Philatravelgirl out of curiosity how did you go about finding a SA travel agent? I am sure there are tons available if I looked, but trying to figure out who/which one is reputable is a bit trickier.I'm not Philatravelgirl, but I've sent you a PM nevertheless.

Johan

I went to the NY travel show a few months ago b/c one topic was "how to plan your safari" and they had local African agencies and guides in the seminar, I learned a lot well worth the trip to NYC. the trade show had a few US agencies that specialized but I met w/the South African agencies/agents that presented at the seminar. I also met a private guide who leads US travelers on tours and she recommended a few agencies. After explaining I was a solo traveller and using airmiles and trying to avoid single supp. I decided to use Rhino Africa based in SA. I looked online at the others but in speaking directly w/agent Nikki at the show I felt she was good to work with. There are so many options it's crazy but similiar w/my New Zealand trip I wanted local agents to save money. I travel soon do can update you when back.
As for visa info, not sure where you are coming from but if US the state dept has fantastic travel app to get listing everything you need to know. If not US, the app is still quite helpful. For SA, Botswana and the others I can get tourist visa upon arrival, need at least two blank pages. The medical shots/malaria meds were a bit of a cost and timing
Hope this helps-cheers!

Thanks! I'd love to hear how it went when you got back.

I am not used to planning trips this far in advance, actually not much used to 'planning' trips! Couple days intensive internet skimming and I'm done, but I think this is going to take more fine tuning.

I'm always up on shots, so that's easy, just need to figure out which/how much of the malarial stuff I'll need, but thanks for the tip. :)