1) Long drives and long days
Some days you would be doing nothing but driving from Point A to Point B for 8 long hours. Advice: Make sure you have a great book to read, a good play list to listen to, stock up on snacks and pray you are traveling with some like minded people (as you don’t get to choose your travel companions).
2) Be prepared to cook, wash up and eat sandwiches for lunch every day
This is no culinary journey (nor a holiday where you have waiters serving you at every meal). After Day 3, you’re probably going to be sick of eating salad and yet another sandwich. We were lucky that our guide loved to cook and would prepare dinner for us every night. I heard from others I met on the road how bad the food experience had been for them as it purely depends on the culinary skills of your fellow overland truckers.
We had different teams and a system going – “chefs” for the day team
One of our many lunch stops in the middle of nowhere
3) Bumpy rides, gravel roads
Traveling across the least developed continent in the world, you can expect to be driving mostly on terrible or non-existent roads.
But only in Africa might you see interesting animal footprints on the same gravel road.
4) Toilet breaks in the bush
Men head to one side, and women to the other. Nothing elegant about the daily toilet situation while on the road unfortunately.
5) A journey of a lifetime or your absolute nightmare
Yes you will be seeing animals during the amazing safaris, yes you will go rafting on the Zambezi river when in Victoria Falls, yes you will do a fun hike to the waterfalls in the middle of nowhere in Tanzania BUT…
You will also witness poverty everywhere…
You will have to cook and clean up at least twice per day…
Pitch your own tent and sleep on a not-great mattress every night…
Deal with the mosquitoes and random wildlife that might venture into your campsite…
Hear the guy you might hate during the day snore loudly waking you up at 3am…
Fight yet again to see whose turn it really is to get their phones or cameras charged…
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Have you done an overland travel by truck in Africa? Did you enjoy it? What was it like for you?
looks like a super great experience! would love to do this someday! 🙂