The Prize

Okay so the prize was mine. I still had a nagging doubt that I could be the victim of some elaborate scam, but I'll talk about that later. For the moment, let's look at the prize itself:

You are the grand prize winner of an Olympus Prize pack consisting of an African Photo Safari adventure for two and your very own Olympus PEN EPL1

So the very first thing I did? Check into this PEN EPL1.

And THIS was exactly the sort of camera I wanted. Not a full DSLR but portable enough to be a pocket camera with the horsepower of the SLR. And removable lenses. Sweet. 

Of course, the idea of this grand prize is that I will take advantage of this wonderful camera and snap beauty shots while I'm in Africa. Sounds like a brilliant plan.

I talked with the prize people who laid out the situation. The prize has a set budget but where we go in Africa is rather wide open. Where would WE like to go? This was unexpected and very exciting. I haven't been to much of Africa before. Libya, Morocco. I spent 2 years in Abu Dhabi which is sort of near Africa. But I have never been to what we all consider AFRICA. Lions, cheetahs, zebras and the vast Serengeti. 

We briefly toyed with the idea of hiking to the snows of Kilimanjaro. Who knows how long the snows will be there? But we also realized it was impossible to guess when we might be back to Africa again. And taking a classic safari seemed very much a once in a lifetime sort of deal.

After some minor research and debate, we settled on Kenya or Tanzania for our safari. First we wanted to go in February, then May. But then we decided March would be best. Then it was settled. June would be the date of our trip!

We finally contacted our prize rep and proposed a September trip to Africa. He promised to contact us once he got news back from the travel agent. 

And so we waited while reading up more on the EP-1 camera and Tanzania.