Christmas in Africa

I have always wanted to visit Africa at Christmas. And who wouldn’t? It was 81 degrees in Johannesburg yesterday. The Drifters trip I was exploring—the 9-day Coastal Explorer--would have been perfect. I would have flown into Cape Town and then travelled along the coast to Durban and then flown out of Johannesburg. The tour would have left plenty of time to hike along the coast and swim in the Indian Ocean. (The current is strong, and there is always a danger of sharks, but it’s a risk I have taken before.) I would have spent Christmas and New Year’s there and would have had a chance to visit my friends in Knysna. When I initially checked, the airfare was $2,400. (The same flight today is $2,900). The most I’ve ever paid to fly to Africa so far was $1,700, and that was painful enough. The tour, on the other hand, was very reasonable—only about $1,000. If the daily news about the economy weren’t so bad and had I not just gotten my hours cut at my part-time job, I might have been willing to pay the price. As it stands now, I check the airfare every day, hoping for a dream deal.