Nomad Tours Gorilla Trek: The minutiae of minute details

I was grudgingly in town for not one, but two meetings today, sigh!

It’s early January for goodness sake, I’m a Capetonian, gimme a break.

A perfect excuse to sidestep into the Burg Street Nomads office to meet Jess Barker,mastermind the Nomad Gorilla Girls .

If I am honest, also to feed my control freaky need for minute details of everything that would, could or might happen on tour.

This is not a picture of Jess

I burst into the offices in a sweaty,wrinkled, talking too much mess………

………..and left and hour later, calm, cool, reassured, but sadly, still old.

New information, no matter how inane, soothes me. As an avid and fast reader, I can process a lot, I mean, a LOT, of information.

Last night I read at least 1000 pages of Nomad Gorilla Trek blogs which led to brand new questions and fresh concerns.

Anyway, enough waffling, here we go, in bullet  points, the random new info I find so fascinating.

STOP LAUGHING AT ME !

• the 5cm thick mattresses are thick enough
• it can be humid when we hike to the gorillas
• we are travelling in a “new style” Nomads truck
• the traffic is insane in the cities, pack your patience
• we should NOT get out the truck to explore when stuck in traffic
• the toilets can be truly horrific, so take loo paper & a small spade
• some locals do not like tourists and can make mean & cruel gestures
• do not photograph or point your camera at mean and cruel gesticulating locals
• there are racks in the trucks for storing things
• racks are over and above the unknown sized lockers
• expect the unexpected! Control freaks love this phrase!
• about 16 000 people per year travel with Nomads, and roughly 15 998 people love it

. Knowledge is power right?

My latest to do list.

• Smoke less
• Buy a pooh spade
• Retrain bowels, is this possible?
• Get rubber gloves for handling pooh spade? do you think?
• Remove thicker than 5cm inflatable mattress from packing room
• Practice hiking in humid weather. (the thought is good, not sure I will actually do it)
• Find sleeping bag (was not going to take it, hot flushes, lack of space,) then found out about overhead racks!

Enough nonsense.

Seriously, I am actually very easy going, I just churn a lot of crap around in my head in a managed, control freak way.

Secretly.

REAL TIP THAT HAS ACTUAL VALUE.

GUIDE BOOK

I found a great one for a mere ZAR200 at Bargain Books

Wildlife of East Africa | A Photographic Guide by Dave Richards.  First Edition 2013. Published by Struik Nature

It has information on climate, geographical regions, mammals, birds, snakes, plants and trees.

So you can also know what could, eat, sting, bite, poison, stampede or impale you. 

Good night, sweet dreams.

xx