Friday, April 17, 2009

28 new stamps in my passport



Imagine getting 28 new stamps and visas in your passport in just one trip!!! Here’s how to do it.
1 & 2. First off, get on a plane bound for South Africa. When you arrive at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, you will stay overnight here. The South African immigration officer will paste a visa into your passport (1) and then stamp it (2) for accuracy. Spend the night at an airport hotel.
3. The next day you depart South Africa and they stamp your passport out.
4. Next, you fly to Botswana and when you enter, you will get another stamp.
5. After a week or so here, when you depart Botswana they will stamp you out.
6. Then enter Namibia. You will get another stamp in.

Spend 3 days at Susuwe Island Lodge and then 3 days at the Ntwala Island Lodge in the Caprivi Strip.
When you transfer from Susuwe to Ntwala, although still in the Caprivi this is when it gets really interesting. If you can’t afford to charter a plane to fly the short distance across, you must do a road and boat transfer.

7. You depart Namibia at the Ngoma border and you get a stamp out.
8. Cross the Ngoma Bridge across the Chobe River and enter Botswana on the other side; here you get a stamp in.
9. From here, you drive to Kasane, about 45 minutes, where you stamp out of Botswana.
10. This where you board a small boat to Ntwala Island Lodge, but on the way you must stop at immigration and stamp back into Namibia at Impalila Island.

Spend 3 days at Ntwala Island Lodge.

11. To get to Zambia from here is really easy and takes only about 1-2 hours. You depart Namibia at Impalila Island and stamp out.
12. Enter Botswana at Kasane and stamp in.
13. Drive to Kazungula, 20 minutes, and stamp out of Botswana again.
14 & 15. Here you take a small boat across the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers where 4 countries meet: Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. On the other side, when you enter Zambia, you must purchase a visa, which gets pasted into your passport; then it must get stamped to be valid.

Spend a week or more in Zambia, including a few days at Victoria Falls, the adventure capital of Africa.

16. If you want to see Victoria Falls from the Zimbabwe side while in Zambia, and I highly do recommend that you do this, then you’ll have to purchase a visa to enter Zim.
17 & 18. You will stamp out of Zam., stamp into Zim., see the Falls; then return to Zam.
19 & 20. If you didn’t get a multi-visa when you entered Zam., you have to purchase another visa, which will get stamped to make it official.

21. At the airport when you depart from Livingston, you will get a stamp out of Zambia.
22 -24. If you’re flying out of Vic. Falls airport in Zimbabwe, you will get another stamp into Zim. at the bridge and out again at the airport. Hopefully you purchased the multi entry visa when you visited the falls!! If not, you have to get another visa.

25 & 26. You then fly back to Jo-burg and you may get another visa for S. Africa, another stamp in.
27. Spend the night at a hotel and stamp out the next day.
28. When you arrive back in the US, the immigration officer will stamp you in and you’re home again.

What a trip!!!!
My advice is this: Get the extra pages right off the bat when you apply for a passport if you intend to travel to Africa!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kristina, that's what I love about Africa, you can travel from country to country so quickly and you get a new stamp each time! Sounds like you had quite an adventure in Africa!

Kristina Trowbridge said...

Thank you "hillsofafrica",
Yes it was an amazing adventure. More to come about this safari soon ... stay tuned!

Kristina