Kelly and I have been planning a trip to Southern Africa for two years. We wanted to see the dunes in Namibia, go on safari in Botswana (I have loved the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series for ages), see Victoria Falls (see both sides in Zimbabwe and Zambia) and visit South Africa and Lesotho and Swaziland (since we are country counters).

When I originally reached out to my favorite travel agent for help, she came back with a quote of $47,000 for two weeks. After I picked myself off the floor, I realized I needed to get on the internet and figure out the trip by myself (which I normally do anyway).

If you read my blog, you know I started with free round trip business class tickets that I booked via United Airlines. I have two United credit cards that I use for EVERYTHING! I charge my house insurance, car insurance, travel, anything that will allow me to use a credit card. Ken does the same. So between us, we rack up a lot of points every year. I may not get the best connections (see my last post), but I can get us there. My rule is if the flight is more than six hours, I go for business class. If less, I can endure economy.

We flew into Johannesburg and then out of Cape Town. Here’s what we did for four weeks for about a third of what my travel agent quoted me for two weeks. Not including shopping, of course — which is fabulous!

I knew we would be tired after our trip and didn’t know a lot about areas of Johannesburg so I opted for a tried and true hotel chain — Four Seasons. It was a bit of a splurge at $300 per night, but I wanted us to be comfortable and have a nice place as a base. It was a beautiful hotel, complete with amazing gardens and located in what Kelly called the “Beverly Hills” of Jo-berg. From there we were able to use Uber to get around the city for super cheap (average ride ran $2-3) and saw all the sites: the Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill, a free city walking tour, the local Sunday market and a number of good restaurants. Food is very inexpensive in South Africa and we enjoyed many meals at what seemed super-cheap prices. Fine dining for two at about $50 and many quick meals for $15-20 for both of us.

After 5 days in Jo-berg, we flew to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, for a four-night visit at a farm near the famous dunes. We spent a night in Windhoek, walked around the city center, found some cute shops and stayed in a German hotel that was very Fawlty Towers-like!

The farm sent a car and driver that took us for the 5-hour drive to We Kebi, a delightful 10-cottage lodge that is home to more than 2,000 animals. We found out that few Americans visit Namibia. Most visitors are from Europe and they tend to do self-drives around the country. We were happy to be driven and not have any worries about vehicles, break-downs or finding our way. Some roads are paved, but the last hour to the lodge was on a dirt road.

When we drove up to reception, we were met by zebra, eland and warthogs. Wow! We were over the moon.

Our stay there was nowhere near some of the crazy prices I found on the web: $2000-3000 per night! We paid less than $500 for four nights which included breakfast and dinner.

Food was good. We had a hot breakfast of eggs and bacon, fruit, yogurt and toast. Dinner was some type of game (oryx, steel bak and eland) with potato and one vegetable. Dessert was also served. The lodge had a limited bar. No bourbon for me, but they had wine, gin and scotch — for the European guests.

Activities were extra and we opted for a full-day drive to see the dunes at Sossusvlei, a two-hour visit to see the cats at a neighboring lodge and a two-hour game drive around the 200,000-plus acre farm. The additional charge for the activities was about $400. We fell in love with Namibia, the people and the desert landscape. The dunes are a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a definite must-see.

When we returned to Windhoek, I had booked us in the Protea Hotel. Ugh. Don’t stay there. It was inexpensive and clean, but sorely in need of remodeling. The bathroom was so small, you could barely get in it. Suffice to say, one night was enough.

We next flew to Victoria Falls on Air Namibia. (All our other internal flights were on South African Airlines.) When we arrived in Victoria Falls, we were met by a car and driver from our hotel, the Victoria Falls Hotel, an early 1900s colonial style 5-star hotel. I had done some homework on where to stay to see the falls and there were only two options up to my standards. The Victoria Falls Hotel is on the Zimbabwe side of the falls. The Royal Livingston is on the Zambia side and was about $200 more per night, so I opted for the less expensive option — still not cheap at $400 a night (including breakfast). Because tourists are a captive audience in Victoria Falls, prices tend to be on the high side. Meals were more along the lines of typical US prices, rather than the low prices we had seen in South Africa.

Victoria Falls is magnificent — well worth the trip. The town is small, chock full of souvenir shops — most not that great. We hired a driver to escort us through customs and drive us to the Zambian side of the falls and had a delightful afternoon walking along the falls and taking zillions of photos. The next day, we easily walked to the Zimbabwe side of the falls at sunrise and had a different — but also spectacular — view of the falls, complete with a heavy mist from the water. We were told we would get wet on the Zimbabwe side, but we didn’t. I think that is mostly to get folks to buy or rent rain gear.

The entire area is safe. We felt comfortable walking around town and had dinner and lunch there — a nice way to try out some of the unusual offerings.

We left Victoria Falls and our next stop was a safari lodge in Botswana, close to Chobe National Park.

We were picked up at our hotel in Victoria Falls by a driver in a van and driven to the border, where we off-loaded, walked through immigration in Zimbabwe, went to a different van and were driven to the Botswana immigration office. We went through formalities there and then exited with our luggage, having to wade our shoes in a disinfectant bath at the border. In the second van, we were driven to the Kasane, Botswana airport, where a third van picked us up and drove us to our safari camp, Chobe Elephant Camp. It all sounds a bit complex, but was done with very little fanfare and great efficiency.

Chobe Elephant Camp has 10 cottages and a main lodge where we ate meals and gathered for daily instructions. We were introduced to our guide, Jeremy, who drove us for the three days we were there. We were paired with a couple from Chicago and went on an evening game drive the day we arrived. The next day we had an early-morning game drive and then a boat ride along the river. Our final day, we had a morning and evening game drive with lunch at the lodge and time for a little down-time.

The people at the lodge were fantastic. Jeremy was sweet, kind and so knowledgeable about the animals, birds and landscape, that I don’t know that I will ever remember all he taught us. We saw elephants, zebras, giraffe, impala, buffalo, many gorgeous birds and a pride of about ten lion munching on an elephant they had killed. It was amazing. We were able to get so close to the animals it was surreal. Since we were in a national park, the animals are used to the game vehicles and for the most part are not too timid. Of course, we could not get out of the safari trucks unless we were at a predetermined “stretch” point.

Food was quite good at the lodge. Before heading out for our game drives at 7 am, we had a light breakfast. Fruit, juice, yogurt, toast, muffins and cheese/ham. About 9:30 in the morning, we stopped for hot tea and cookies. Lunch was four to five cold salads and meats. Sundowners were served on the game drive, with one or two appetizers, as we watched the sun set over the park. Dinner was excellent. First a soup was served and then we went to the buffet line for a meat, starch and two vegetables. Everything was delicious.

When we left Chobe Elephant Lodge, we did the reverse driving scheme and headed to the Victoria Falls airport, where we flew for our final stop to Cape Town.

We arrived yesterday and so far love the city. Shopping has been first rate and we are back to inexpensive meals and Uber rides. We are staying at the Mount Nelson Hotel, another colonial hotel from the late 1800s.

Stay tuned for final thoughts on Cape Town in a few days. For now, we’re loving being at the bottom of the earth!