Overlanding Africa

As the big yellow truck pulled away down the streets of Swakopmund, Namibia, people were hanging out the window, thumping “Hooked on a feeling”, with inside jokes being yelled to and fro. It was an emotional goodbye, culminating in our final act of the tour being Mark bounding down the street like a springbok. As we’d mentioned previously we had initially felt conflicted about signing on to a tour, but it didn’t take long for us to feel at home with an awesome group of people, and 4 weeks miraculously melted away with Absolute Africa. As the saying goes, “Time flies when you’re having fun”. It was also nice to not have to organise getting from A to B squashed in vans of questionable safety, with drivers with even more questionable driving credentials, finding places to stay and having arguments about the cost of a taxi into town, and to actually have bed mats in our tent after prematurely giving ours away in South Africa. But above all, it was the people that made the trip what it was.

Kruger National Park

“There’s nowhere like Kruger!” affirmed the owners of our hostel, just outside the gates, and to be honest it’s hard to argue. We say this not just because of our African game reserve novice status, but because the scope of the park and the fact that you can explore it on your own are truly remarkable. Whether it’s the immaculate roads, of which they have a purported 6000kms, or the fact you can get a reasonable priced cafe breakfast whilst overlooking Sabie river. While you’re sipping your flat white, elephants sip water at the banks, all at the same price as you’d pay anywhere else in South Africa, they even offer craft beer in the park!

Kenya: Wildlife Paradise

A zebra stares across the plains of the Mara

Suffice to say that as the plane banked over the Nairobi national park just outside the aforementioned capital of Kenya, we had mixed feelings, well, we would have if we weren’t sleeping on account of the 0320 departure. Everything we’d heard or read replaced Nairobi with “Nairobbery” and Mombasa with “Mug-basa” and made it seem like a formality we’d be robbed in broad daylight by a glue sniffing youngster. Couple the recent terror attacks and the fact we’d already had to fly to avoid the border tensions so we were unsure what to expect.