This month we continued the South African safari. We stayed in several tented camps along our route. Every national park has it animal specialties, so visiting several gives visitors a broad perspective on animal viewing and habitats. We did of course manage to see the big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino, cape buffalo, and elephants) plus hundreds of other type of animals and birds. Tented camps are outposts in remote areas that offer visitors easy access to the game and a secure compound to spend the night. Although they are called tented camps, and do have canvas tents, they are on the boondocking style tents pitched temporarily by visitors. Instead they are permanent tents erected on cement pads with rooms for sleeping, changing and toilet/shower. Most are run by generator so power is limited although some of our camps had A/C. Game drives are a daily event beginning very early (before dawn) when the animals are active. A game drive is just that, driving around in an open 4x4 looking for animals doing their thing be it grazing or killing. No one knows what will be around the next bend, so game drives can be exciting or boring depending on the day and location. The drivers have radios so important animal sightings can be shared. At the end of the safari we headed back to cape town to begin our cruise which will end up in Lisbon at the end of March.

It has been many years since we last visited South Africa (at the very southern most tip of Africa). In 2006, we drove a rental RV in South Africa for about 6 weeks. We of course cooked our meals and drove the RV to all of the attractions. This time we are on tour with meals, transportation, and sightseeing included. I remember having lunch in Kruger NP while watching elephants eating grass on the shore of a river. Now that's camping. This time our visit to Kruger will be via safari jeep driven by a guide. WE are still enjoying the adventure but just in a different way. We boarded our flight from Chicago to Cape Town, South Africa on a Monday and arrived on Wednesday morning at 11am local time. This involved a 13hr and 10hr flights and several time zones. We moved from snowy winter to hot summer with long days and the sun in the North. Welcome to the Southern Hemisphere. We RVed here in 2006 but this time we are on a safari and cruise. Lots of travel details plus our take on Chat GPT in this episode. We'll be on the road in South Africa for another 5 weeks so the next episode will be from here also.

The New Year (2023) finds at home in Chicago awaiting our next travel adventure which begins in mid January. After some adventures at home with our furnace and the cold weather, we'll be off to Africa for a 2 month safari & cruise in the warm Southern Hemisphere. The safari will cover

Africas big 5 plus lots of interesting birds. Our accommodations say "tented camp" so we are expecting almost primitive camping experiences. I wish we could take the RV! Our 32 day cruise from Cape Town should be a bit more civilized as we travel from South Africa to Portugal up the Western coast of Africa.

Our main topic is the importance of documenting your travels as they occur. As our old selves taking to our younger selves, we would strongly recommend that you start some sort of record keeping of your travels for later reference. We unfortunately didn't start this project until about 20 years ago, so our early travels are documented only in a few photos and memory. These day with some much digital memory available, it would be a shame NOT to completely document your travels. You'll be grateful for this recommendation when you're in your 70s. Just remember, the RV Navigators told you so!

Winter has greeted us as we return to our suburban Chicago base in time for the holidays. Seasons greetings in this episode extend to our expanded list of gift suggestions for you or your RV friends. We chat about the direction that our podcast has taken over the years. Is it still the RV Navigator or has the focus changed as our lives have changed (mainly due to the pandemic)? Although we share our travels with interested listeners, RVing is always at the heart of the podcast. We always appreciate your input and comments about our topics and focus. This is especially true as we tend to travel overseas without the RV. We'd love to take the RV on our distant travels, but that is not an option, so we do the next best thing, share our travels with interested listeners. As you know, it is important to us NOT to monetize our listeners. So much of the tech world is about money, but the RV Navigators don't expect or ask for your dollars either through advertising or subscription.

So, we'll keep the moniker for the time being, and we hope to be more RV focused in the future. However the next year will be more travel outside our country as we head to Africa in January. I am sure that you'll enjoy our reports from these far off lands. We enjoying sharing and hearing about your reaction to our lifestyle.

Beyond our Xmas gift list, we expand the list to include RV news and topics. Our best wishes the holiday season.

Note that in the podcast we make a reference to this is episode 209. It should be 210.Take off on our next trip happened mid month as we flew to Riga, Latvia for the beginning of our tour of the Baltics and Scandinavia over the next couple of weeks. We have been surprised at our lack of knowledge of this area plus the many tourist attractions that make a visit worthwhile. Riga has turn out to be very walkable, scenic with art nouveaux neighborhoods. I of course had no idea what Art Nouveaux was, but after doing some touring, we learned that it is a very ornate style of building. Riga's buildings have been restored to their original beauty making them shine. We open this episode with a music selection recorded on the great pipe organ of the Riga Cathedral (dome). It is one of the largest pipe organs in the world with almost 7000 pipes. Our tour will take us to 5 countries over the next couple of months. Next months podcast will be made from the road again.

We take you on tour with us plus we share several RVing topics from an inflatable cooler to streaming hints. I watched the iPhone introduction this month with interest because I am planning to make an iPhone purchase when we return. I was shocked that Apple has eliminated the sim cards tray, but I found a solution for over seas travel. Please keep in touch via email if you questions or comments.

Just after the last episode, we moved from Italy to France to join our river cruise in Bordeaux. This involved a short flight across the 2 countries landing in Paris and a bus trip south to meet the ship. The weather was very hot as expected in Summer, but the AC was was subpar in most locations. Sailing the rivers of the Bordeaux region of France, means learning about wine. This is the heart of the wine region and the grapes are treated with reverence. We, of course, tried our share of the fine wines of the area, but din't come away overly impressed. Earlier in the trip we enjoyed many varieties of Italian wine, which we felt was equal to the French wines. Traveling does give one the opportunity to make these comparisons first hand.

After our flight home and jet lag recovery period, we pickup the RV for a quick trip north to the Cape Cod of the midwest, Door County Wisconsin. This destination, just north of Green Bay WI, is know in the local area for its harbor towns and picturesque water views, crafts and a cool weather alternative to the summer heat. Located n Lake Michigan, the views are similar to those you'd find in ocean side communities.

Of course we have our usual list of interesting RV topics. New books, an e-bike conversion, RV road services and much more are on our agenda for this episode.

With our email back in operation, we have received several questions and comments from listeners. Thanks!! New email is at rvnavigator@mac.com. As you might expect, we headed to the Indiana Dunes for our annual beach RV trip. I feel strongly that the motorhome needs to be exercised regularly to keep it in good working order. Therefore when we are not doing a major trip we do spaced out small trips to keep the gears working smoothly on the MH. Great family time for all of those staying at the Indiana State Park. We enjoyed good weather and the company of lots of families enjoying camping in the old style - beach, campfires, food cooked outdoors, bikes, sand, water and toys to keep everyone busy.

June has been a typical summer month and we have used it to recover from our quarantine experience and get ready for our next overseas travel adventure next month. We head to Italy and France for about 5 weeks starting in July, so the podcast will be done remotely next month.

This month we talk about RV electricity issues, paying tolls when traveling, RV refridgerators, photo tips with the iPhone and much more.