Today is our ten-year travel anniversary…

It was hard to believe we were there in 2013 at the Great Pyramids. See the post here.

When we received a notice from the provider that WiFi was out in the entirety of Marloth Park as of Sunday, I panicked, knowing I had to upload a short post and write a new post for today’s tenth anniversary.  There was no way I’d have time when our guests are arriving at noon today.

Mentioning my concern to Tom, he expressed the usual, “TIA, “This is Africa” and this is what happens here…no power, no water, no WiFi.”

I nodded my head in acknowledgment. But I must admit I was frustrated thinking I wouldn’t be able to upload the tenth-anniversary post on the day of the anniversary, October 31. Thus, I decided to write the entire text offline on Sunday using Word and hoped that by today, I’d be able to load it into the WordPress editing section of our website.

Initially, we’d planned for the anniversary post to include a new itinerary. But, after considerable research and a degree of uncertainty around what we’d like to do over the next few years, we have to forgo that thought which we’ll return to sometime in the future.

We know this…we’ll be here in Marloth Park, except for our upcoming trip to Seychelles on November 24, followed by the cruise of the islands beginning on November 26 until next June, one way or another. After the cruise, when we attempt to return to South Africa on December 4, we’ll hope to be able to receive a new 90-day visa stamp to  be able to stay.

Our ship is shown behind us off the top of the hotel on our fourth travel anniversary, See the post here.

This time, we are prepared if we aren’t allowed to re-enter the country when we get to Johannesburg. We’ll immediately book a flight back to the US and stay a few weeks visiting family in Minnesota, earlier than we’d intended.

If we have to leave right away, even if they give us seven days to depart, we won’t bother to return to Marloth Park and, instead, leave from Joburg, arriving in Minnesota in cold weather with only summer clothes in our duffle bags. We’ll head to a discount store such as TJ Maxx and purchase jackets and a few cold-weather items to get us through the few weeks we’ll spend there.

After a few weeks, we’ll fly back to Marloth Park. By being in the US, our home country, we’ll be able to get another 90-day visa without an issue.

In any case, we’ll leave South Africa around June for our upcoming Azamara cruise on August 1, 2023, followed by another cruise a few days later, eventually returning to the US (Boston) on August 30. We have yet to decide where we’ll stay from June to August. We are still conducting research.

It’s easy to see how so much is up in the air with the number of cruises canceled in the past few years. We hesitate to book too much since we’ve already lost a lot of money from pandemic-related cancellations.

Each morning, I listen to cruise podcasts, only to discover that some cruises require masks to be worn outside the cabin. As much as we’d like to believe the pandemic is over, it is not, based on behaviors on some cruise ships and some travel venues

We are not fearful of travel for that reason but face the pandemic’s impact on availability and pricing for ongoing journeys.

Once we leave here in June 2023, we won’t be keeping this house and will pack up entirely, leaving a few bins of kitchen items here with Louise in storage. Most likely, we won’t be returning to Marloth Park for nine months to a year, perhaps longer. We shall see.

The next country/continent visit will be South America. We still have several places we will visit, including Galapagos Islands, The Pantanal, and the Amazon River, both upper and lower regions. All of this will require cruising to some extent. We’re excited about these options.

Of course, good health is always the determining factor as to how much longer we’ll be able to travel. But for now, we’re feeling well and able to continue.

As for the past ten years, we have no regrets. Yes, we’ve experienced some ups and downs, but we’ve never questioned our decision to carry on. We’ve loved this life, its vast experiences, and the depth of the joy and love we experienced together and with the many people we’ve met along the way, let alone the vast array of wildlife and nature that have been blissfully bestowed upon us throughout the world.

We’ve considered doing a recap of each year, but that would be redundant. On many occasions, we’ve reiterated our travels, year after year, particularly when we were in lockdown in Mumbai, India for ten months in a hotel room. Instead, we’re posting some photos from prior anniversary years  and other dates from various locations including their links, which you may have already seen or not. If you have seen the photos, excuse our redundancy.

Yes, it’s been ten years, and we’ve aged in the process, but we are both grateful to be together and live this extraordinary life. Every day has tremendous meaning to us, and we joyfully continue to share it with our worldwide readers.

Thanks to many of our readers who’ve already extended our warmest wishes to us as this anniversary approached. Your kind words mean the world to us. Your continued readership and comments also mean the world to us. Ten years? Hard for us to believe. For those readers who’ve been with us since the beginning, we imagine its hard for you to believe its been ten years. Please keep reading. We’re not done yet!

Photo from one year ago today, October 31, 2021:

Selfie of us in India in February 2020, before lockdown, excited to be on our way to the palace and Lake Pichola in Udaipur, India. Little did we know what was ahead, at that point. For more, please click here.