Gem and Stu’s World Tour

OK, we spent 52 days travelling through Africa. We have blogged all the highlights of what we got up to but we thought it would be worthwhile saying something about truck life (day to day).

Our tour was organised by Absolute Africa, who specialise in overland treks. They use these great big Scania trucks that have been fitted out especially for this purpose. The first thing you notice about it is that it is very big and very yellow. This was a bit disconcerting at first but we just got used to it and expected to me mobbed by locals the minute you stepped out.

There were between 22 and 28 passengers on this truck, which is quite alot (a few more than ideal in our opinion). I was pretty much an even split between English, Aussies and Kiwis. Surprisingly it was about half couples and there was only one single guy. Onboard, we had a stereo and fridge and a little library. There was under-floor locker space for your day-bags/lunch food etc and everybody had a lockable under-seat space to keep cash etc stashed away.

We cooked with the truck twice a day and everybody was assigned to a group for various chores - cooking, washing up, truck clean and firestarter (Apart from the firestarter - me and Fitz - your team would rotate between jobs). Breakfast was usually toast, coffee and maybe some fresh fruit. Dinner was better than we expected, but then we didn’t expect to eat meat every day - we would have curries (mild!!), pastas, noodles, roast lamb, garlic bread - all cooked on coals.

Most days would start early (it was known to be up at 4:30am a few mornings) - if we had a long drive ahead of us, we might have breakfast as early as 6am and the firestarter and cooks would have to get up before to prep this, after taking down the tent. Everyone would help tidying up and then we would get on the road. We spent some long days on the truck - Africa is a pretty big place and we had some serious miles to do (I think we did 7,500km in total), so a number of occasions we were driving for 12 hours or more. We would sleep a bit, read, play endless games of cards, or just stare out of the window. It could get pretty bumpy on the truck (Gemma did a lot of ‘air’ especially sitting at the back), especially at the back on some well worn roads.

For lunch, we would either stop at some road-side cafe or village, or, more often than not, eat a packed lunch by the road side (usually something like tuna, crackers and fresh fruit). Before we arrived at our campsite we might need to stop in town to go to the supermarket - the cooks would need to buy food for dinner and individuals would need to get some lunch/beer supplies.

Eventually, hopefully not after dark(but this sometimes occured), we would arrive at our campsite. Now these varied… alot. Some were lovely, soft grass, nice facilities, bar etc and others were just a muddy wasteland. Now and again we got a hot shower but it certainly wasn’t guaranteed.

After putting up our tent, the cooks would get to work on dinner, which would normally take a couple of hours - cooking for 28 on coals is no easy feat. Everyone else would take time to chill out, have a beer (or wine a la cardboard box) or catch up on some washing.

We would all eat dinner on little stools in a circle around the fire - eating from a table with proper cutlery became a surprising luxury! Head-torches became the fashion accessory of choice, and deet the perfume.

Of course not every day was a driving day, that would just be pointless! Although looking at the itineraries of some of the other companies it seems that driving was all they did. It was always nice when we arrived at a site and knew we had a few days there - not have to put up and take down the tent for a while. More often than not we would leave one place with regrets but then immediately start getting excited about the next big thing. Usually if we were not driving, we would be doing something exciting (seeing lions or jumping off bridges, for example!) but occasionally we would decide not to do the activity and enjoy some time to relax. This usually meant just relaxing round the campsite (or beach). We would have liked to get out and wander around the towns a bit more but the camps were normally too remote to be able to do that. Being able to wander round Vic Falls and Swakopmund was a welcome change.

In all, we had a pretty amazing time. Looking back, it is hard to believe that we did so much in that space of time (especially as we are now sorting things out for ourselves, which takes much longer!). We got on well with everybody on the truck. The tour leader was a bit of an arse and this created some friction towards the end but considering there were that many people stuck together for so long we did surprisingly well.

Do we have a favourite? With so many highlights it is difficult to say. We both agree that Zimbabwe was the best country. We were really lucky to get through there before the elections and it is just such a shame that the country is in the state it is. Also it is difficult to think beyond the Serengeti National Park - the vastness of the landscape and the wildlife was truly spectacular but one of the hidden gems of the tour was the day we spent in Matopos National Park near Bulawayo. The guide was so knowledgeable and passionate we learnt so much more about the animals we were seeing.