East Africa Days 1 & 2 - Preparation and Travel

We are headed to Africa. That statement is surreal. Even though this trip has been planned for months (really we started planning this trip in July 2019), Alison and I never had total confidence it would actually happen. The pandemic has made the world an unpredictable place and it has added layers of complexity to international travel. We originally had this trip booked for September 2020 and we were so excited. This is one of the more ambitious trips we have planned. A lot of effort went into building out the itinerary, finding and coordinating with tour guides, and deciding exactly what we wanted to do in each location. We held out hope in the early days of the pandemic that we could somehow pull the trip off on in September 2020. When our flight home from Entebbe cancelled we pulled the plug. Cancelling this trip because of Covid broke our hearts more than any other trip. We have been talking and thinking about this trips since 2016. I remember clearly the day we first rode Soarin’ Over the World at California Adventure. Alison and I were so inspired by the amazing locations showcased in that ride that we couldn’t stop thinking about it. That night when we got back to the hotel I pulled out the computer and started looking at safari options. This trip is really the culmination of years of dreaming. Now all of that dreaming is becoming reality.  

A lot of effort went into preparing for this trip. Here are a few of the things we had to do to prepare:

Clothes and gear 

We had to buy a decent amount of clothes and gear. On a safari you want to wear lots of neutral and earth based tones. Bright colors will disrupt/distract the animals. Blue and black can attract the dreaded tsetse fly. We didn’t have many items in our wardrobe that fit the safari criteria. It was actually somewhat challenging to find reasonably priced clothes that looked decent and fit the criteria. Between shopping online and visiting the outlets we found what we needed. 

We also needed gear for this trip. The main thing we had to buy were binoculars for Alison and better trekking shoes for me. We of course relied on Alison’s dad (and binocular connoisseur) to help us find the right pair of binoculars. He accompanied us to  both Sportsman’s Warehouse and Cabelas to find the perfect binoculars for our safari. Side note - Cabelas has a much better selection and their employees were way more helpful.

The biggest danger we will face in Africa is mosquitos. Mosquitos carry any number of harmful illnesses. To help prevent potential bug bites we treated our clothes with permethrin. This treatment lasts a few weeks and will help our clothes repel insects. To spray our clothes I set up a clothesline behind our garage. Due to space constraints I had to spray the clothes in two batches. It ended up taking half a day. I am sure it looked very strange to our neighbors. I even had one curios neighbor stop to ask what I was doing. 

Gathering and preparing our clothes and gear took quite a bit of time, thought, and effort over the past few weeks. We packed everything on Wednesday to make sure we had space in our suitcases and to give us time to think of anything else we might be forgetting. Packing our gear was one of the key moments when it felt like this trip was really going to happen. 

Health

Health was a big issue in preparing for this trip. We were obviously concerned about Covid. We have been closely monitoring the Covid situation in Rwanda and Uganda. Tanzania doesn’t publish any numbers so we couldn’t monitor their situation. A couple of months ago, numbers in Uganda and Rwanda both spiked.  This made us very nervous about our trip. Both because of the risk that we might catch Covid while traveling and get stuck in a foreign country and because of the risk that Uganda or Rwanda would change their entry policy and/or stop tourism. They implemented some mitigation measures (none of which impacted entry into the countries) and the numbers peaked and declined. Currently the numbers in both Rwanda and Uganda are relatively low, especially compared to the US. 

We also visited the Salt Lake County travel clinic to make sure we covered all of our bases health wise. They gave us a thick bundle of papers detailing all of the potential health risks. The doctor also walked us through each potential illness including - how it is transmitted, level of risk in each country we are visiting, and how we can mitigate the risk. It is a little daunting when you talk about that many potential heath risks. We also got one additional vaccination for yellow fever. There is a high risk of yellow fever in Uganda. It was a shot in our triceps and we had no real side effects afterward. This vaccine is good for life and we will likely need it for a few other future destinations we would like to visit. We also got malaria pills prescribed that we will need to take every day of our trip. The doctor also suggested we buy medical travel insurance that included medical evacuation if necessary. This is especially important on this trip because the countries we are visiting didn't have good healthcare capacity before Covid and with the pandemic still raging their meager healthcare resources are spread even thinner. We followed his advice and bought some insurance through United Healthcare. It was very reasonably priced and will provide significant peace of mind. 

We were much more concerned about getting Covid in Utah than during our trip. Community spread is much more significant here than in the parts of Africa we will be visiting. We will be tested many times throughout our trip. Our worst nightmare is catching Covid right before we leave and then testing positive when we arrive in Rwanda. We are both fully vaccinated, but that is not a guarantee we won’t have a breakthrough case. Side note - it is possible I even have had a booster dose. I am participating in a Pfizer study on booster doses and they injected me about a month ago. I have a 50% chance it was a booster. Anyway, we did what we could to mitigate our risk. We have taken to wearing masks indoors again (could there be an easier and more common sense mitigation step). We also avoid being indoors with other people as much as possible. We did travel to Chicago the week before we went to Africa. That trip would have been tough to cancel. We have been trying to visit Alison’s brother for 18 months. We did as much as we could outside (and only ate meals outdoors). When we were inside we masked up and social distanced. Before we left for Africa we needed a negative Covid test within 72 hours of our trip. Because we are slightly paranoid we took multiple tests. We took two tests (one through Walgreens and one through Pixel on Tuesday. We took two to ensure that one would get back in time (especially since the testing demand in Utah has increased with the current surge). We also took another test on Wednesday to try and mitigate the risk that  we picked up Covid in Chicago and it wasn’t picked up by our Tuesday test. All three of these test came back negative for both of us. To provide an extra layer of comfort we did an at home Covid test on Friday morning before our flight. Once that one came back negative we were as confident as we could be that we do not have Covid. We will test at least 3 more times throughout our trip. 

Pre-trip Education 

As with most of our international trips I read some books and watched some media before our trip. Here are the books I read:

Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

Shadows in the Grass by Isak Dineson

Rwanda Inc.: How a Devastated Nation Became an Economic Model for the Developing World by Patricia Crisafulli and Andrea Redmond

The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families by Phillip Gourevich

Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds by Joy Adamson

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson 

Machete Season: The Killers of Rwanda Speak by Jean Hatzfeld

Life Laid Bare: The survivors of Rwanda Speak by Jean Hatzfeld 

Abyssinian Chronicles by Moses Isegawa

The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by Martin Meredith 

A History of Modern Uganda by Richard J Reid

Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey

I enjoy audiobooks and that is normally how I would consume the books I read to prepare for a trip. However, many of the books on the list above are not available in audio format. Most of the books I read were physical paper copies. That was unusual for me. Many of these books were excellent. I learned much about the history of Africa and the specific countries we will be visiting. I also leaned more about some of the animals we will be seeing on safari and treks. 

Alison and I also watched a few episodes of the Apple TV+ show “Earth At Night In Color”. It is a well done documentary series showing animal nocturnal behavior. We watched the lion, cheetah and elephant episodes. They were quite interesting. Hopefully we will see all of these animals on safari. 

Departure and Arrival

On Friday morning we were busy with last minute preparations for our trip. Debbie and Skylee picked us up and took us to the airport. We arrived a few hours before our flight. Since we had time, we visited the Delta Skyclub to relax and get some food before our flight. The Skyclub in the new airport is quite nice and the food was actually pretty tasty. 

Then it was time to board our flight to Amsterdam. Because of Alison’s status with Delta we had global upgrade certificates. We were able to use these certificates to get upgraded to Delta One on our flight to Amsterdam and Business Class on our flight to Kilgali. Having seats that lay flat on these long flights is amazing. Plus it is an added bonus to not have to sit close to anyone in the age of Covid. 

The morning sky over Amsterdam

After 9 hours we arrived in the Netherlands. I enjoy the Amsterdam airport it is spacious and clean. We had about a 3 hour layover before our next flight. This was our only stop. We initially booked flights with more stops, but Delta kept changing the flight schedule and we were able to adjust our flights to have one stop each way. We found a quiet corner of the airport and waited for our next flight. 

Alison finds it quite entertaining the way I cover my entire face while I sleep on these flights

After another ~9 hour flight we landed in Kigali. These long travel days are quite draining. To pass the time we sleep, eat, watch movies and listen to audiobooks. We (along with all the other passengers) wore our masks the entire time, except when actively eating or drinking. When it was all said and done we wore masks for more than 24 hours. While they are slightly annoying we got used to the masks and really don’t mind them. It did feel good to finally take off our masks when we got to the hotel. 

We landed in Kigali at about 8pm local time. We didn't realize before we left that Rwanda is in the same time zone as Amsterdam. 

Due to Covid there are many more layers of processing upon arrival. First we went through passport control. They checked that our PCR tests were in order and that we filled out the health related visitor tracking forms. Then they reviewed our passport and visa information. We were prepared with everything they needed and made it through with no issues. Then we had to take a Covid test. To enter Rwanda you have to take a PCR test upon arrival. Then you are required to quarantine in your hotel until you get your results (within 24 hours). This feels like the most important Covid tests of the trip. We will breathe much easier when they both come back negative. 

We collected our bags and found a driver waiting for us right outside the airport to take us to our hotel. We made arrangements for the pickup through our hotel. While driving through Kigali I made a few initial impressions. It smells a lot like Cambodia. The air is smoky. My guess is that a lot of people use fires to dispose of their waste and/or cook. It is also very clean. The streets and buildings are well maintained, especially for a developing country. It is easily the cleanest developing nation we have visited. It also felt safe. There is good lighting throughout the city and plenty of people walking around taking care of their business, even at night. People also follow traffic laws (not always a given) and the signage and streets seem easy to maneuver. I think I would feel fairly comfortable driving here. It was maybe ~20 minute drive to our hotel. Once we arrived we checked in and then headed to our room were we will try to sleep and then spend our quarantine until our test results are available. 

These are the countries we will visit during are two weeks in Africa