Foreword - 2014 Southern Africa Adventure

Foreword

2014 South Africa Adenture

Like many other adventures that I have taken over the years, this one is no exception, it was born out of no particular strategy or plan as far as my retirement life is concerned.....purely and simply to see the World, especially the Natural Wold, while I am able and fit.

When poring over maps of my footprints after returning from a near 3-month long trip to the Top End of Australia, which included crossing the Simpson Deserts in mid 2013, I started to pay attention to a gaping hole in my footprints, the African Continent.

However, at that point, I was still too interested in extending my adventure in South America to further north of Argentina and Chile, so a material plan did not come about until after early 2014, after finalising all the plans of the 3-month long Latin American trip.

My knowledge of Africa had not gone beyond the news headlines, which are mainly negative and horror filled stories of famine, massacres etc., so at the beginning, I remained quite skeptical whether a trip is worth the risks.

My research started with collecting bits of information of South Africa, books about travels in that country and other online travel blogs.

Gradually, a more positive picture started to emerge, albeit with some nagging worries about crimes in the populated cities, especially Johannesburg.  But the abundance of access to wild lives was very luring, something which I had never experienced first hand.  As I gathered more and more information, I noticed that places like Chobe National Park, Okavango Delta, Etosha National Park etc. were frequented by self drive travelers, of which is my preferred mode of travel, with some excellent reports.

A very initial plan was drawn, which included South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and the two small Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland.

At that point, though I had been a casual follower of the struggle of Nelson Mandela of South Africa and the eventual historical establishment of majority rule etc., I could not make the difference between Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia with the likes of Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda etc.

So I began drawing up a rough plan, booked a small 4x4 camper to cover Botswana and Namibia with dates I had in mind, followed by a small sedan for South Africa...my mind was still fuzzy with many of the details.

However, Zimbabwe had been a concern, especially when 9 out of 10 car rental companies do not authorise taking their vehicle over the border. I was not too keen to repeat the same hassle that I had to go through with police harassments at roadblocks during my trip in Argentina the year before, which quite a few travelers were complaining about. I took Zimbabwe out of the picture, and decided just to leap over to Victoria Falls, from northern Botswana, for a glimpse of the grand waterfalls.

The main idea was also to be there in the midst of the southern winter, affording the most opportunities to see wild lives, when during the winter dry, they congregate at the waterholes to drink, and the potential to see mass migrations of some species across the plains.

And it would be a great learning experience, hopefully leading to many future trips.

During my 3-month overland adventure in Latin America, I was lucky to meet William Dreyer, the effervescent driver who took a dozen of us, from Chile to Ecuador over 8 weeks, a South African expat.  One can not find someone more experienced than Will with Southern Africa.  On his strong advise, I decided to ditch the plan with a 4x4 camper, cancelled the booking, and opted for a small sedan for the entire trip.  That turned out to be quite a success, despite a minor disaster of having the engine fell off its mounts after 2 months.  But it has more to do with the quality problem of the mount than being a small car.

What's left on arriving home in June, with less than 4 weeks before the trip was to start the attempt to finalise all the accommodation and flight bookings. That's when I found out how expensive lodgings can be, especially at this late stage.... some of the places in popular places like Chobe National Park, asked for $800+ sums for one night.....some up there at $2000+ per night.... I was gobsmacked at these unholy prices.  Fortunately, I was able to book campsites in Etosha National Park for two of the three nights I planned, albeit missing out on the best camping ground for the very last night there.  So it was necessary to pack my camping gears, and be prepared for the worst....camping in Africa.  It'll be an experience, I told myself.

It was, come hell or high water, hello, Southern Africa, the great unknown.....

So it started with

My first day in Africa -  a near death experience.


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and here is the Index of the entire adventure.