Getting ready for take-off

 I've been pretty busy trying to get organised for my trip. I've been planning this trip for 6 months now so you think I'd be sorted, but because it has always been months away I've been putting a lot of it off. Until quite recently, there has also been the hinderance of my job keeping me busy and away from the shops.

The top of my purchasing list was shoes. Good footwear is essential pretty much all of the time, but even more so when you are off having adventures far from home. I wanted to only take 2 pairs of shoes with me, a pair of hiking boots (otherwise known as Amazing Race shoes) for when I'm working with wildlife and a pair of sandals for when I'm playing the relaxed tourist in Zanzibar or to wear with my skirt when going out for dinner. After a bit of searching, I managed to find a suitable pair of each. I have been wearing them in and am very pleased to report that both pairs are very comfortable and I think I'm going to be very happy with them while I'm away. I will also need to pack a pair of thongs because I ended up choosing a pair of leather sandals rather than a waterproof pair that could double as shower shoes, but I'm happy to sacrifice that much space in my bag for the magnificent comfort of the sandals I've chosen.

Obviously while I'm away I plan to take hundreds (probably thousands) of photos,  so my camera will need to be with me and yet safe all the time. I went and chatted to the very helpful man at Camera House and he sold me a padded bag for my camera and small lense. He recommended that rather than buy an expensive padded case for my large lense, I buy a drink bottle with a thermal sleeve and use that to put my lense in. I took his advice, but I decided to use my sewing skills to make the drinkbottle cover into a sealed lense case and put some clips on both it and the camera bag so that I can tote it around with me a bit more easily. This is how it turned out and I'm very happy with it - even the butterfly design of the drinkbottle cover is quite nice.

I've also been to the bank to sort out some currency arrangements for my trip. I've gone with some cash in South African Rand as well as a travel MasterCard. $300 Australian worth of Rand is a nice little bundle.

Still lots to do, but I've been making progress through my endless lists.