July 27, 2006

Another month and we'll be on our way to Cape Town. It's hard to believe we're really going to be living this dream!


This all started a little over a year ago when Edward forwarded me an article about shrinking habitats for proteas, those wonderful, exotic -- almost alien-looking to those of us in the northern hemisphere -- plants native to South Africa and Australia. As I read the article I thought wouldn't it be WONDERFUL to see the proteas in their native habitat? Edward seemed to think that would be pretty wonderful, too, so we started looking into planning a trip to South Africa.


Edward found an online travel agent that advertised accessible travel planning for people needing wheelchairs and since that was a real need, we started trying to plan an itinerary. I had done my homework and knew what we wanted to see, but I had a hard time getting across to the travel planners that we were REALLY interested in going to see the PLANTS -- and not in going on a wildlife safari! After several months of emailing back and forth and not getting far fast, I thought that if we were going to go through all the trouble of getting to Africa, we might as well stay for awhile. Maybe Edward should apply for a sabbatical...