First we are celebrating my birthday on the island of Mauritius, where we'll spend three nights prior to taking a two week cruise of the Indian Ocean and East Africa. Ports include locations in Reunion, Mozambique, and South Africa. (Madagascar, which we were looking forward to should have been after Reunion). We disembark in Cape Town and spend three nights in the city prior to boarding Rovos Rail's "Pride of Africa" and a 1,000-mile journey north to Pretoria. (The experience incorporates Victorian-era passenger cars and recreates rail travel during Colonial times. Think Agatha Christie and the Orient Express without the drama.) From Pretoria we head to nearby Johannesburg--flying out the next morning to Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls. From there we travel to Chobe National Park in Botswana for five days at a safari camp on the banks of the Zambezi river.
