This note will be brief and I’m writing it in a hurry since we have just arrived in Futaleufu for our second night on the road. The power is out here at the moment but I’m on my laptop until my battery dies. After we leave early tomorrow our next couple of nights will be spent in an eco camp where there is no cell or internet capability so after today we will be off the grid for a couple of days…

I write this on Wednesday March 8 in a wonderful, modern hotel called Tierra Chiloé about 5 kilometres outside of Castro, the main town on the island of Chiloé.

“Chiloé has been described by Renato Cárdenas, historian at the Chilean National Library, as “a distinct enclave, linked more to the sea than the continent, a fragile society with a strong sense of solidarity and a deep territorial attachment.”….

I leave this evening for Santiago, Chile on the first leg of a long-planned and long-delayed adventure, driving from Porto Montt in the more northern part of Chile to Villa O’Higgins at the southern end of the Carretera Austral.

I had originally planned to make this trip almost exactly a year ago, a trip which is a textbook example of “since I’m here anyway I might as well…”.

As promised in my last post, let me tell you a little about a typical day in our safari camp. However, before I continue with a typical day on safari, I’ll attempt to answer a question we’re often asked, why do we choose the particular camps that we do? A couple of things are very important to us….

The lead picture above is Mt. Kilimanjaro from our plane window. The tallest peak in Africa.

I’m writing this in blissful quiet. It’s 7am and the rain is pouring down so we have a respite, and very welcome it is. We are now in Tswalu, a camp and conservation property in the far north-west of South Africa in the Kalahari desert. We were here during our first trip to Africa in 2012 and I have wanted to return since then but our itineraries could never quite work…

This will be a short note, given our schedule there really isn’t much time for more. In my next lull I’m planning to describe a day in a safari camp but this will have to suffice until then…