The “BIG” Reveal!!! Winter 2026

I have dropped hints for a couple weeks now…it’s time for the BIG REVEAL!!!

As you may recall,  we left the bus in Texas and spent most of last winter in Costa Rica,  wandering to and fro.   It has always been our intention to do this sort of thing every year,  so we got down to thinking about the next  “WHERE!”  With the whole world to choose from (well,  perhaps excluding some areas of the Middle East and Ukraine),  we first had to develop the process for choosing!  Names in a hat?  Pin the Tail on the Donkey-world? Enlightenment from Magic Mushrooms?  

Actually. Better and more reliable:  Talk to friends!!!  That’s how we arrived on Costa Rica,  and that worked out pretty well!

So,  informal discussion began,  and “narrowed” down to visiting Portugal and/or Croatia. Or maybe Thailand.  So,  not very narrow, our focus!!! But remember,  we’re the people that once stopped in Georgia enroute from Chicago to San Francisco…because its right on the way! 

So narrow enough,  we thought!  Until we had a random, and impactful conversation with friends Petra and Juergen, who were staying/traveling at the time in Cape Town, South Africa. 

They waxed philosophic about how unexpectedly fabulous their time there had been.  They basically said SA had never been on their list at all,  but they ended up there by happenstance,  and are now of the opinion that South Africa in particular and Africa in general should not only be on everyone’s list,  but on the top of it!!! 

Since we consider them to be very much like-minded folks…adventuresome, flexible, open-minded and un-hurried … their recommendation REALLY started us thinking.  

What actually made up our mind:  We ain’t getting any younger, so we should be doing trips tending towards adventuresome, not safe, civilized travel for as long as we can!!   Always wanted to see Africa, and it seems like the PERFECT time to  Cowboy-up and GO FOR IT!!!!   

So, AFRICA HERE WE COME!!!  Portugal is still on the top of our list.  So is Thailand…but these can wait until next year(s) and subject to whatever infirmities might arrive along the way!!!

So,  that’s the reveal:  we are bound for Africa this winter!!

And “on the way” (because what isn’t “on the way” when your destination is half-way around the world!), we are going to stop in New Zealand and Australia to spend some time with friends.  These are the kind of friends that you can see every so often and pick up right where you left off.  Friends that you don’t “miss” so much as you realize you missed them A LOT when you see them again!  And, truth be told, who also aren’t getting any younger!!!! 

Since you can get to SA traveling either Eastward or Westward;  and if we do the latter, you have to pass almost directly overhead of New Zealand and Australia, we can do so on a special, “Round-the-world” ticket /fare offered by the two major airline alliances:  

https://www.oneworld.com/rtw

https://www.staralliance.com/en/round-the-world

This fare works out to a pretty spectacular discount, on a basically open, business-class ticket (can also be first or coach-class) that can span an entire year and make up to 15 stops.   Such a ticket suits our orientation perfectly…it is ALWAYS about the journey for us,  never “the” destination. And, this trip represents that in spades!  Taking  months and multiple stops to get to SA (or Portugal or Thailand in years to come) is an EXTREME ENJOYMENT MULTIPLIER for us!

In fact, our air bit was actually booked for us by friend and travel agent Dani Same.  Just before I booked,  our friend whom one stop will be imposed upon, her Uncle Norman mentioned she was a travel agent in Australia,  so I wrote to see if she would make a Commission if we booked what we were about to book through her.  She said yes, maybe, no.  All three. 

Do tell,  I said!!!   

She definitely would not charge us a fee.  She was pretty sure she could save us some money…  And she saved us a TON of $$$$ through, I assume, secret travel-agent incantations and  incense-burning, compared to the RTW ticket I had been playing with directly on the above Airline Sites.    Apparently you need to know someone to  save BIGLY (vs. just big)!!! 

By sheer good fortune, we connected with Dani in NYC this week,  an opportunity where her already-planned vacation path crossed ours!!! We enjoyed cocktails, a delightful meal,  some after-dinner Gelato and lots of fun conversation.  Pretty sure we are not yet “even,” so maybe we will reprise all of that when we visit Melbourne in January!!!

Anyway, our round-the-world ticket:

• leaves McAllen Texas on 24 Dec.
• stops in New Zealand (10 Days),
• Australia — Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne (19 Days) and
• returns via London (for only 1 Dinner with my twin…Mark Tenzer, about which there is a story to be told later!) on 18 April.   

We’ll get to Johannesburg on 21 January, and we will remain on the continent thru April 16.  

So, what are we planning for those 3 months?  Well,  as is usual for us,  our “plan” is highly flexible, and mostly non-existent.  We DO have some things booked,  including:

• A Visit to Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), the Zambesi River and Chobe National Park (Botswanna).
• Activities in and around Johannesburg, including a visit to an Elephant Rescue, and to various historical and cultural sites related to the Apartheid, Nelson Mandella, Sowetto and more.
• Safari travel to both Waterberg and Kruger areas (8 days total), staying in Private Lodges and doing twice-daily guided drives.
• 5 Day guided tour through and around Cape Town.
• All of the above with fantastic food, wine and other cultural necessities.
• All booked, once again, through a friend of a friend who came to the US from SA many years ago.

That already sounds like “a lot, “ but in fact, all that leaves us OVER 2 MONTHS of time unencumbered with plans. 

As of this writing,  we plan to “sit down” in Cape Town for a bit…maybe rent an AirBNB or apartment.  From there,  other trips, tours or activities will be engaged.  Ideas include additional Safari opportunities in Tanzania and/or Kenya; Dining with Giraffes; Communing with Gorillas; A cross-Africa Train Voyage; Ethiopia; Malawi and/or Zambia; West-Africa destinations like Namibia and Ghana.   We figure we will meet people … fellow travelers, guides, drivers, AirBNB Hosts, etc. … who will suggest things,  and we will research, engage and do some of those things!!!  The palette is empty, awaiting paint!

And,  we’d like all of our readers, friends, family … everyone except our creditors … to follow along on our fabulous adventure. 

I will be doing my best to keep this blog going while we are there as a long-form story about our travels.  But, I am also going to work with an APP  to give immediate, blow-by-blow notes, pictures, videos and so on  that everyone might enjoy!  It’s called “POLARSTEPS,” and can be found on both Google Play and The Apple App Store or through your web browser.   Using this APP, you can “Follow” us VERY contemporaneously though the photos we take; I plan to document our travel — the “Steps” and Places we are visiting — in near real-time,  and I can attach brief comments to each (well,  brief for me…readers of this blog know that “brief” and I are barely acquainted!).

Here is the link for your browser,  or download the APP:

https://www.polarsteps.com/StrategicGeek/29346457-from-new-zealand-to-namibia?s=4e311a43-f49f-4c3f-a721-b74f28d31807&referral=true

The trip is already UP and LIVE,  though only in the planning stage.  The TRACKING phase will begin when the wheels leave the ground on 24 December!!!  I hope you will follow us … and enjoy all the places we go, people we meet, pictures we take and adventures we experience.