Tumbling down the grassy slope on my side, before I’d even reached the bottom of the hill, I shouted, “again, again!”. “No that’s not fair”, was my brother’s reply, “it’s my turn to be Mufasa this time, you can be Scar”, and so after much grumbling I relented and the game continued, except this time I was cast in the less popular role of Scar, the ‘Judas’ of the Lion King world.
Looking back on my childhood I have fond memories of the Lion King, it was my favourite Disney video and my brother and I became so obsessed that we went through a phase of re-enacting scenes from the films. Not just any scene though, oh no, our all-time favourite was always the heart-wrenching moment when Scar, the old uncle, betrays King Mufasa, throwing him off the edge of the cliff, with an evil laugh. Why this rather dark and distressing scene became our favourite I do not know but we used to play it out repeatedly on the stairs in the house or if outside, on the nearest available hill or slope. There was one occasion when we tried this out on a particularly steep edge, and my mum from her perspective over the top of the hill thought I had genuinely fallen over a sheer drop, especially as my melodramatic fall action and cry was so convincing. Needless to say, I was fine, mum not so after experiencing the fright of her life!
Having grown up on stories like the Lion King, I had always had a strong desire to experience Africa and its vast plains and wild bushland for myself, but most importantly I longed to see the incredible animals which call Africa home. As I grew up this dream got pushed to the side-lines, but in the last few years, the continent has been calling my name. My Grandma, a retired teacher has spent a number of years in South Africa every January, teaching children on a volunteer basis and travelling the Wild Coast solo on a Baz bus aged 78. You can see where I get my sense of adventure from! With this in mind I set out to see some of the continent for myself.
With the aim of seeing as much as Africa as I could, I began my research online. Some of the factors that held me back in the past were the perception that Africa would be
- Too dangerous/difficult to travel to on my own
&
- Too expensive to travel to on a tour package- magazines are always filled with glossy adverts for luxury safari lodges, promising amazing sightings but with price tags which only the excessively rich or the freshly retired with well stocked pensions could afford.
However, there is a third way, which until I began my research I had not really considered. If like me you are on a budget and don’t want to or have the funds to afford to splash out your life’s savings on a trip to Africa then overlanding could be your best option. It’s still not South-East Asia cheap, but it is doable.
Once you discover the market of overland tours in Africa, you really do become spoilt for choice with many operators all offering tours. Most of the ones I looked at were confined to the Southern and the Eastern region of the continent, although there were some options to do mega tours which took you all the way up to Northern Africa, how cool is that! The East Africa tours generally seemed a bit more pricey and so I chose a tour based in Southern Africa. On the whole, I found that the companies’ prices were pretty similar across the board and they all seemed to follow similar routes, so the tipping point in causing me to choose Geckos was that I had experience of the company before from when I travelled to Indonesia, and I had found their service to be excellent with knowledgeable local guides and a strong sense of ethical travel. Based on this I chose their Best of Southern Africa tour, a 17-day trip which would span 4 countries in Southern Africa: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. However, I would recommend looking at operators such as G-Adventures, Intrepid (the main foundation of Geckos, aimed at older travellers), Dragoman and Sunway Safaris as these were some of the big names we saw whilst out on the road.
Background story out the way, here is my verdict on overland travel in Africa.
Overlanding: the Benefits:
- It’s inexpensive: In comparison to the other options, overlanding is a lot cheaper, especially as in my case it included all our breakfasts, some lunches and all our dinners.
- Camping: Now, some people might call me crazy and have put this firmly in the drawbacks section, but for me this added greatly to making the experience so rewarding. Waking up with the sunrise and to the sounds of birdsong, made those early starts way more bearable, especially as you start to get into a natural rhythm with nature. Most of our campsites were in beautiful locations such as by rivers and thus many a time you could lie in your sleeping bag and hear hippos grunting nearby or owls hooting in the trees above your tent. We really were out in the wilds and it felt much more authentic than being shut away in some luxury lodge or cabin.
- Seeing a lot in a short space of time: Overlanding gives you a great taster of Africa! I would consider an overland trip a great starter, if we’re using the three-course meal metaphor, packed with rich sights and experiences. My trip was great for testing the ground as a first timer in Africa, with no experience of visiting the continent. My tour ticked off some of the mega icons such as Victoria Falls, The Okavango Delta and Kruger National Park.
- Group Comradery: We had an unusually small tour group of 5 people, and yet we all got on well and bonded over sightings of the big 5 or the hours spent on long journeys. Usually the average number of people in a group is 10 but the bus can take up to 26 people. Personally, I preferred having a smaller group as logistically it made things run much more smoothly although a bigger group from a social perspective could have been fun.
- The Bus/ ‘elephant’ (as nicknamed by the crew): The bus was great, and had everything we needed- there were 6 charging points on board and larger lockers at the back of the bus for all our backpacks. With the long journeys, there was always time for us to charge cameras, phones, tablets etc. Being a small group our long days on the bus were made much more comfortable as we could lounge across multiple seats, and had the luxury of having masses of space in the lockers for all our belongings- my washbag even had its own personal locker at one point!
- Being on the move: it’s a weirdly liberating feeling to know you have everything you need in your backpack. Sounds cheesy, but everyday really did feel like a new adventure as we set off in search of new lands, or even new countries as we crossed borders. Personally, one of my favourite things about travel by bus or train, is just being able to sit back and watch the world go by. Bus journeys for me were often spent people watching or even spotting the odd animal such as giraffe or warthog at the side of the road. In the mornings, we’d see kids walking to school and often get a wave. Watching everyday African life play out was a real unexpected highlight of the trip for me.
- STARS!! I’ve never seen night skies so full of stars as I did in Africa-the lack of light pollution means the night sky is incredibly clear and it’s like encountering a whole new world, I could even see the milky way! My one regret was not bringing a tripod, so I could capture the scene on my camera.
Overlanding: the Drawbacks:
- Lack of exercise: This was a big one for me. At home, I love to go for walks and am generally quite active but often we’d be driving all day, usually for at least 8 hours to cover the huge distances. This meant there was little in the way of opportunity to stretch your legs, especially as a lot of the activities were game drives which meant more sitting down. Also it’s not like you can just wonder off from camp for a stroll, as you’d probably end up lion food or get stampeded by an ellie or a hippo. It’s fair to say you won’t lose weight on an overland trip, as great cooking combined with little exercise meant I felt I had piled on a few pounds.
- Feeling rushed: We definitely did have a lot of down time but there was always an underlying feeling that we would be off soon, as we usually spent only a night in each camp, absolute max 2 and so sometimes it felt like you would be unpacking only to re-pack again in a few hours.
- Surface level experience: By this I mean that in some places I felt we only just got the briefest of tasters of the area and its people. Of course, this is the nature of overland travel, as you cover huge distances with speed, only briefly seeing each location. However, this could be frustrating as there were some locations which I would have loved to have spent more time exploring. Some of the national parks were vast and could have warranted a solid week of exploration time before you could begin to understand and appreciate the area’s beauty on a deeper level. Often it felt like we were just passers-by, skirting through towns and campsites, always in search of the next hit.
My Verdict: Yay or Nae!
Despite the above drawbacks, my overlanding trip was undoubtedly a resounding yay.
The whole experience was one I will never forget and is quite unique in terms of travel style and so I feel it is worth doing at least once. Personally, I’m not sure I could do a longer overland trip in Africa, as the constant driving and lack of exercise was a real struggle in terms of my sense of well-being. Furthermore, I now feel I’d like to try a style of travel which enables me to spend more quality time in a fewer number of places, really digging deep and absorbing the atmosphere and sights of one small area. A real plus of the overland tour was that I got to see so much of the region that I now know which parts I’d love to go back to and experience more slowly. However, If you’re a first-timer, as I was, who’s always wanted to visit Africa, then I cannot recommend an overland tour enough! It provides you with a safe, affordable and social means of travel.
Sarah Clews Photography 