Introduction to Hitch-biking
As one door closes.
Trying to get some sleep on the stuffy cramped 4am cheap charter flight from Brussels to Cairo, my mind kept drifting to thoughts of how we had got here. In the space of a couple of months we had gone from sailing the Atlantic Ocean to the start of our unplanned 'hitch-biking' trip. How had this happened?
Originally we were involved in a sailing expedition from Belgium to Antarctica, something that Jan and a friend had been planning for a number of years. This year was the International Polar Year, and to try and raise awareness of the fragile nature of the Antarctic, the expedition's plan was to follow in the footsteps of the Belgian sailor and explorer, Adrian Gerlache.
Gerlache and his crew were the first to have spent a winter in the frozen landscape of the Antarctic, and it was the 110th anniversary of this daring voyage. In Belgium the new project had become huge with the involvement of a big company sponsorship and the investment of large sums of money. Along with the big money came enormous responsibilities, especially towards the media and the various sponsors, and of course, the inevitable politics could not be avoided. The pressures became quite intense. The two of us arrived to these pressures after completing a grueling 10 week journey sailing our 47' yacht 'Boa Esperanza' from our home base in Cape Town to Belgium for the start of the expedition. After this long voyage there was no time to rest and final preparations began in earnest. It was during these final preparations that things began to unravel. There was a clash of personalities and ideas with the team leader which Jan felt jeopardized the safety of the trip. It became clear that the two could no longer work together which resulted in the fact that we would no longer be involved in the trip, and we were even coerced into selling Jan's beloved boat. It was all quite hard to believe, but here we were sitting on a plane to Cairo, about to embark on another quite different adventure; travelling the length of 'Darkest Africa' with folding bicycles.
Both of us were devastated about the cancellation of our involvement, the loss of 'Boa' and a friend, never mind the fact that we would no longer be sailing to the South Pole. This was a long term dream gone horribly wrong and the best way to describe how we were feeling was, at the very least, a little shell-shocked. We had left home for the beginning of a fantastic voyage but instead now found ourselves in Europe with no real plan but time on our hands and no boat.
The original expedition had meant that we were supposed to be away for a whole year. It seemed a great pity to fly straight back home, and uproot all that had been put in place to make this incredible trip a possibility. The 10 weeks we had spent on the ocean had already started to change our way of looking at things, and we weren't prepared to give up, go home and pick up our lives where we had left off.
With the pressures of modern day living, how often is anyone in the position with valuable time on their hands and the whole world at their feet? Eventually there was a certain feeling of liberation. We realized we were in a position where we didn't have to go back and become overly concerned with bills, banks, work and the accompanying pressures of being available 24/7 via e-mail and mobile phone. Instead we had time to consider our options, to revel in this new-found position of freedom. We resolved ourselves to not sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves, dwelling on what could or might have been. Instead we had some time to come up with another plan.
The most obvious alternative was to buy another boat and sail back to Cape Town. Jan bought a couple of local sailing magazines to check what was available and we even went as far as looking at one or two yachts. Nothing quite caught our eye and winter was approaching fast. After a bit more thought, the prospect of spending the long winter months in an expensive European country getting a boat ready to leave when springtime finally put in an appearance wasn't that appealing. This idea also lacked imagination and we both felt that between us, we could come up with something else.
Memories surfaced of wine-fed conversations back in Cape Town, when we had often talked about how it would be great to do 'some kind of African overland trip one day'. Before we met each other, we had both had brief experiences of the deserts of Namibia, the elephants in Botswana and even the beauty and richness of Zimbabwe before the implosion caused by mad Bob Mugabe. Together we had travelled in and around South Africa and Swaziland, even going from the snowy mountains of the Drakensberg to swimming in the warm Indian Ocean on the same day. Each excursion had given us a taste of Africa and we were eager to experience more. We had daydreamed about escaping the routines of normal life and travelling together on a bigger, longer, more ambitious trip instead of the normal couple of weeks or even a month long holiday. After more discussions, this time over Belgian beer at the local pub, we realized that this was a great and maybe even the only opportunity we would ever have to carry out this dream.
The route or method of how we were going to travel had never quite been settled or even discussed, but a bubble of excitement started to build at the thought of this new adventure.
***
Africa.
Where do you start?
It's such a huge and diverse continent, filled with vast landscapes and a myriad of different tribes and people. The first question to ask was where did we actually want to travel? We bought a couple of books, pored over a map the makeshift planning began.
Just mentioning to family and friends that our new plan was to travel through Africa brought many raised eyebrows and a mixed response. Surprisingly people were more uncertain about this trip than about us sailing to the South Pole. Bringing up our plans over the phone to my mother gave her sleepless nights. Thoughts of us being abducted, robbed and worse made her worry and ask questions about the issues of how we were going to travel and of course our safety. At this stage I couldn't honestly answer any of her specific questions except to say 'Don't worry; of course we'll be OK!' Others simply asked 'Is it safe?'
'Darkest Africa'; where did this expression originate?
The first use of this phrase that I could find was as the name of an adventure film serial in 1936. But what does this long-used clichéd expression actually mean in today's context? Is it still an ignorant reference to the colour of the people and the 'dark barbaric' acts the uninformed imagine going on as common practice? Or is it the fact that if you look at a night-time satellite picture of the world, the signatures of electric lights emanate from most countries, yet still today, Africa largely remains 'the dark continent'?
Despite all the problems in Africa I have enjoyed living at its southern tip for many years. Arriving as a starry-eyed, naïve backpacker in 1994, I soon learned to love the country. The longer I live here the more frustrated I am with the politics, but the continent, the people and the country I call home are never dull, often passionate and very unpredictable. Sometimes things happen that are so ridiculous you have to laugh, otherwise you might cry. Yes, the crime is bad and the news sometimes gets you down, but take a drive or a walk and the scenery, or the average person in the street, will soon lift your spirits. Plus the view of Table Mountain never fails to make me feel that I am home.
The contrasts, the wildness and the challenges are incomparable to living in Europe where everything is much more orderly and disciplined; where rules and regulations are in place for almost every facet of life.
In South Africa the newspapers and TV are full of stories about the injustices of the past, poverty, crime and corruption. There are too many enormous social problems with no immediate solutions that can easily overwhelm or become depressing if you think about them too hard. Racism often rears its ugly head. But occasionally there is a relief to hear a single story about an ordinary person who, against all odds, shows immense courage or kindness in helping others. Despite unimaginable conditions, people survive and carry on with the rich business of living. Again, I will mention the beauty and diversity of the geography of South Africa, which is both breathtaking and unique. Where else can you find every landscape imaginable in one country? The beautiful coastline ranging from rugged isolation to semi-tropical paradise, tall mountains and flowing rivers, rich farmlands, the wine-lands, the wealth of the game parks both private and government owned, vast deserts and semi-deserts and all with unique flora and fauna.
This is just a small part of Africa I am describing; how does the reality of the rest of this vast continent measure up and compare?
There were a few obvious success stories that sprang to mind. Botswana, independent since 1968 without the bloody violence and civil war normally associated with African democracies, plus its numerous beautiful parks mean it is, deservedly, a top tourist destination. Zambia and its economy was at this time, going from strength to strength with the revival of the copper industry. And Kenya had for years been heralded as the success story of East Africa.
Yet these few pockets of varying degrees of success are consistently outnumbered by the usual negative stories that always come out of Africa. The...
