When I booked my hunt back in February, one of the things that I was told was that I would not be able to reserve my plane tickets until 11 months before the date of the flights.  Since I was a year and a half away from the hunt when I first booked it, I would have to wait until September to take care of the travel arrangements.  However, I was told to book as quickly as possible once I was within the 11 month window.  My hunt was scheduled for prime safari season, and the flights to Africa would fill up quickly.

Although it was early, around March or April I started doing some research on the airline choices that I had.  South African Airways, I learned, would probably be my best choice since they flew direct from Atlanta or Washington DC to Johannesburg.  After giving it careful thought, I decided that my best approach would be to drive from my home in South Carolina down to Atlanta the night before my departure.  By doing it this way I would not have to worry about any connecting flights, and concerns like flight delays or having the airline lose my luggage would be much less likely to throw a wrench into my plans.

To my dismay, I soon learned that South African Airways was going to discontinue their flights from Atlanta to Johannesburg.  Although not a huge problem, this would change my plans a little bit.  The drive from South Carolina to Washington is about double the length of the drive to Atlanta, and thus not worth considering as an option.  I did learn that Delta planned to begin flying from Atlanta to South Africa, so my options were beginning to open back up. 

In August, I decided it was time to get started on actually getting the flights booked and paid for.  Hannes had given me the name of a travel agent that I could contact to help me get my reservations done, so I gave her a call and got some prices.  In talking to the agent, we didn't seem to click very well together, and although neither she nor I did or said anything inappropriate, I decided to look around a bit more before booking with this agent.  Again, she didn't do anything wrong, I just didn't feel like I was getting answers to some of the questions I was asking.

While reading the African hunting forums at the Accurate Reloading website, I came across some posts by a lady named Kathi Klimes who runs a travel agency called "Wild Travel".  I decided to get in touch with her to see what she could do for me, and this seemed to work out a lot better for me.  Kathi was extremely helpful to me, answering questions that I'm sure she's heard a thousand times in the past with no trace of impatience.  Indeed, she seemed to share in the excitement of my safari. 

Not only was Kathi able to provide me with much better rates than the first agent I talked to, but she went so far as to provide me with information about contacting RiflePermits.com to get my paperwork done ahead of time, and she gave me the locations of the United States Customs port closest to my home and told me that I would need to take my rifle, cameras, binoculars, and other expensive items there to get my US 4457 forms filled out to document my ownership of these items so that I wouldn't be taxed on them upon my return to the United States.

In my discussions with Kathi, we decided that my best bet would be to fly Delta from Charlotte, NC up to Washington DC, then take the SAA flight to Africa.  She booked the flights for me, and I passed the information on to Tim MacManus, who is the American contact for Hannes Els.  Tim suggested that the flight to Washington landed a bit close to the SAA departing flight and recommended that I take an earlier flight to DC.  Kathi concurred and rearranged the flights for me.

I was about to send the final flight information on to Hannes when I suddenly realized that the dates I had given Kathi were not exactly correct.  With my lack of experience with international flights, I had given the start date of my safari to Kathi, forgetting that the flight to Africa would take 18 hours.  Tim confirmed that I should have given her the 14th of April as my departure date rather than the 15th.  Kathi changed the flights for me, and then I realized that I had made another mistake; this time, the end date was a day early.  Kathi fixed that one for me as well.

I was getting confused about all of these dates, and I had to ask Kathi to change them at least two more times before I got everything correct.  Although I felt like I was making a fool out of myself with this confusion, Kathi never once made me feel stupid about my errors, and always made the changes quickly and with great patience.  For this, I thank her, and highly recommend her to those of you who are thinking about your own future safaris.

With the flights finally taken care of, I anxiously awaited my credit card bill for the first time in my life.  I couldn't wait to send in my payment for the tickets to mark that portion of my preparations as complete.  When the bill came and the check was mailed, I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that my safari had become even more real in that moment, and the no-turning-back point had been crossed.