African Overland Adventure
26 days in a truck; 23 nights in a tent; 9 passengers for the first half; 30 passengers for the second half; six countries; six national parks; thousands of miles of driving.
Overlanding in Africa requires some stamina to endure the long travel days in the truck (14 hours at worst), the early mornings (the most extreme being a 3:30am wake up for 4:15am breakfast and 5:00am departure), the bumpy roads (where sports bras are recommended for the ladies) and the act of erecting and dismantling your tent on a daily basis. However, the endless beauty in the vast and diverse landscapes, and the people along the way, make the journey itself one of the most valuable parts of the trip.
The main focus of the trip were the game drives but they were mixed in with travel days, some chill days on Zanzibar Island and Lake Malawi, and the final stop was the majestic Victoria Falls, one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
In the Masai Mara (Kenya), our first game drive started with a stunning sun rise complete with the symbolic Acacia tree silhouetted in the foreground. A Masai warrior drove us over the rolling hills dotted with thousands of wildebeest who had recently migrated from the Serengeti. Here we had our first of what would turn out to be many intimate encounters with lions, elephants and giraffes. The day was topped off with a true “bush life” experience when our vehicle broke down in lion country and we all had to get out and push.
Lake Nakuru (Kenya) provided completely different scenery, as the lake was full of dead trees still standing in the water, whose silhouettes rose authoritatively out of the morning mist. Here the highlight was the endangered white rhinos.
Arriving in the Serengeti (Tanzania) brought new meaning to the term “endless plains”. We saw our first leopard, which completed the “Big Five” and a mother lion feeding her cubs. We camped under the stars in the middle of the wilderness and the only visitor to our campsite overnight (that we knew of) was a hyena who got into some rubbish left outside.
The Ngorongoro Crater (Tanzania) was breathtakingly beautiful and abundantly full of wildlife. On the crater floor there were hills, flats, rivers and lakes, all set against the dramatic backdrop of the crater sides. Sadly the local Masai tribe had been removed from the crater when the government decided to turn it into a national park, and they now live around the outside of the crater with little water and food.
South Luangwa (Zambia) provided completely different scenery again. This park had a river running through it and the highlights were getting up close to a leopard sleeping under a tree and seeing a dead elephant being eaten by vultures, with a lion keeping a close watch.
Our final game drive was in Chobe (Botswana) which is home to 80,000 elephants. We almost couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw so many elephants swimming, drinking and grazing around the rivers. After yet another dramatically red sunset, we camped under one of the most amazing star-filled skies I have ever seen. The next morning we had an intimate encounter with a male lion and his lioness who walked right in front of our jeep. Making eye contact with a lion who is less than ten metres away is a thrilling yet peaceful experience.
There have been so many magical moments captured on camera, but also many more captured only in my memories when the truck was too bumpy to take a photo, or the moment was too precious to look at it through a screen. Discovering the beat of Africa has been exhilarating, moving and incredibly humbling up until this point, and it’s left me hungry for more. I’m so glad I still have just over two months left to soak in as much as I can. Next stop, Cape Town!
Note: The trip I did was the “26 Day Journey to the Falls” with Africa Travel Company and I highly recommend it!
