I'm here to share some experiences and organizational details about a nearly year-long trip I recently finished through the majority of Africa. After multiple requests in both the original thread on /b/ and the archived thread on chanarchive, I'm creating a thread here on /trv/ for those who have questions or who are otherwise interested in this trip. First, some basic information about the "official" trip (scare quotes explained in a bit). For some background, check out the original thread (which was never intended to be especially informative!):
http://chanarchive.org/4chan/b/36340/what-do-you-basement-dwellers-really-know-about-africans-for-al l-your-idiotic-nigger-banter-pic-related#comments
Company: Africans Trails (See also: Oasis)
Countries visited: the UK [Gibralter], Spain, Morocco [inc. Western Territories], Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Turkey.
Trip duration: 43 weeks
Distance traveled: ~42,000 km
Less 'official':
Budget: $15,000 - $30,000 USD all-up, depending mostly on food/drinking habits and especially on activities
Average no. of passengers: 10-20 (my trip started with 17 and ended with 12--attrition)
Average age of passengers: 25-30 (we ranged from 21 to 60, average late 20s)
Most common nationalities: Usually commonwealth countries, esp. the UK. We had: 3 Brits, 1 Swede (5 years in London), 1 Finn, 1 German, 2 Canadians, 1 Kiwi, 3 Aussies, 2 S. Africans, and I was the only American. Almost nobody knew each other prior to the trip.
Anonymous
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About me: Just out of college, 28 years old, lots of travel experience in North America/Mexico (I've done 150,000km of roadtrips inbetween Alaska and Guatamala--and everywhere inbetween) and Japan but nowhere else, no real second langauges except enough Spanish to get by, paid for the trip with a combination of savings, creative utilization of student loans & grants, and a loan from my parents. I had just (amicably) broken up with my girlfriend of 5 years AND graduated school, and wanted to do something big. I had bookmarked this company's page years ago as something to consider, 'some day'. I didn't know a damned thing about Africa before booking or even once I got there (my entire knowledge base consisted of 'there are black people there' and 'it is poor' and 'there's a lot of countries I've never heard of'). That's pretty much the reason I chose Africa: I didn't know anything about it, and going there for a year is a pretty damned good way to learn.
Anonymous
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As far as I know this is the longest 'tour' in the world, but it's not very accurate to call it a tour. The company calls it an expedition, and this is more accurate. You are provided a driver, and that's it. Your driver does not cook, does not give tours, most likely does not know the local language and will not translate for you, he/she will not set up your tent or otherwise assist you in your personal responcibilities. If the truck gets stuck, you're getting filthy-dirty helping to get it unstuck. If the truck breaks down, you're probably going to help fix it. If the road is too shitty to pass, you're going to be out there with a shovel helping to level it. You cook your own food, are responcible for your own visas (although we do apply as a group), do your own shopping, and organize your own tours and activities. The driver may or may not have good advice, but he or she is not going to do it all for you (of course a lot of this depends on the driver, some will go further to help than others--many group bookings which are standard on the trip are organized by the driver). The driver's ONLY job is driving and the truck; everything else is provided as a favor to you and should not be expected. That said, most drivers are awesome and will try to help out as much as they can. Just understand that this is a favor and not their job.
Anonymous
Alright, above I listed some stats as "official". I used quotes because, due to the nature of this trip and the countries through which it travels, things rarely go to plan. This is true both of the group experience as well as your own personal experience. Your visas are your own responcibility, and if you are denied entry to a country or become very sick the truck will not wait for you (at least, not more than a couple days). It's up to you to organize your own travel in order to meet back up with the truck.
Anonymous
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Just one week into Morocco as we were applying for Malian and Mauritanian visas I was denied entry to Mauritania, as they were not issuing visas to American citizens (as is usual in Africa, absolutely no explanation was offered). Welcome to Africa, I suppose. Every other nationality was issued a visa 24 hours later, no questions asked. I opted to fly to Senegal, where I spent a week in Dakar. I then took a 36 hour bus ride (absolute hell) from Dakar to Bamako in Mali. Temps hit 120F / 50C. And the fucking Africans, for God knows what reason, refused to open the bus windows. We then got stuck in Bamako for one month because the Nigerians were fucking us around with the visas (in the end we all had to bribe our way to Malian residency and apply as residents of Mali). As we finally got that sorted, the military and police forces of Burkina Faso started rioting in the capital and major cities. We skipped the bigger cities. Our next visa issues came from Angola. We applied in Abuja, Yuonde, at Pointe Noire and Dolisi in the Congo, and finally in Matadi and Kinshasa in DRC. No luck, anywhere. No embassy was in contact with any other embassy, or with Angola itself. In the end, after several weeks of trying and multiple missions to various consulates/embassies, we never did get the visas. I flew to Cape Town where I had a friend, and we drove his car from CT up to Windhoek to meet a new truck on which we'd continue the trip. (The company eventually got one of the drivers a visa and he was able to recover the truck; this was the most insane part of our trip--the visa missions, the insane roads we had to take, it was unreal. As befitting for the Congo, I guess.)
Anonymous
Finally, I was once again denied entry to a country, this time Sudan. The United States embassy in Kenya does not issue letters of inviation, and the Sudanese consulate in Kenya requires a letter of inviation for the visa app. They also, coincidentally, do not like Americans in Sudan (that is, the government does not--the people don't care/love Americans/love all foreigners) and are entirely unwilling to help. At this point I had already been denied entry to two countries, was nearly broke, and was quite honestly extremely tired of the entire affair after 9 months on the road through the 'Dark Continent'. I also had to finance an international move to Japan once I returned home. Thus I went home after Uganada, skipping the last couple countries. As it happened, the truck did not continue past Jordan anyway due to shit heating up in Syria. The current trip on the company website now ends in Egypt and is 39 weeks long. Once things calm down in Syria it will probably continue through to Turkey again. (There was actually a lot of talk about cancelling the entire Trans-Africa due to the amount of complications we faced; evidently the company decided to keep trying.) I could have continued to Ethiopia and applied there, or I could have flown over Sudan altogether and met everybody in Egypt. But... I just couldn't be fucked to do go through all the hassle all over again. And the money.
Anonymous
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I flew home in November, drove my car from Seattle to bumfuck Pennsylvania (from my university town to my parent's home--3000 miles/5000 km in 4 days via U.S. 2), and depareted for Japan a week later (where I am now living).
Anonymous
Notes on the budget:
Anonymous
I'm sorry, but why pay so much for a supposed tour when you could do this all on your own for much less?
Anonymous
>>561522 If you want to self-organize you're going to be spending (in most cases) significantly more. You've got all the extra organizational costs, vehicle procurement, repairs, vehicle import fees, tons of extra logistics and supplies, fuel, etc, etc, etc.
I'd guess you could MAYBE approach what I paid by doing it yourself, but you'd need quite a few friends in on it to do so.
I'm not just saying this because I forked out ~$20k and am butthurt about it. We traveled with a couple independent groups and they were paying huge sums of money. The way I found out about this company was because I WAS planning to do it independently (and I still definitely will do it independently in the future).
In most cases, minimum, you're probably going to wind up paying double what we did unless you can arrange a large group. But even then, cheaper? I don't think so.
Pic: N. Mali
OP i love you
Anonymous
this doesn't sound like something worth doing. i mean, if i am going on a tour (with a driver that i'm paying for) i expect to at least have no complications. i mean that's the whole purpose of paying for a tour, not having to worry.
Anonymous
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>>561542 Aside from corrupt police/army/officials, not too much trouble. We had a couple muggings in Bamako (but our guys were out drunk in an alley at 3am ...), some attempted in Kinshasa (I personally hit two different Africans who tried to make go's at my shit--it was late and I was a lot bigger than them), another dude--a real fucking idiot, mind you--actually got into a cop car, was driven out of town, and was forced to give up everything he had. The rest of us would have told that cop to fuck off. But nothing toooo major.
I felt very safe 95% of the time, but I'm not one to worry about it too much either.
Anonymous
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>>561548 As I said in the intro, it's not really a "tour". At any rate, it's impossible to do without complication. You're talking about ~30 third world visas, applied from outside your home country. There's absolutely no way you're NOT going to run into difficulty. If you want to do an overland trip around Africa, get ready for frustration. Period. Half the guys we knew doing it independently didn't even get to finish their trip. Two got turned back in Mali (which fucking SUCKS because it's the start of the trip) and two more couldn't get past DRC. It's just how shit goes.
Anonymous
Hey OP, first off I want to say that I didn't even know such trips existed. I'm the guy who falsely thought that company only did max 14 week trips. This kind of trip is now on my to do/bucket list when it comes to travel. And his isn't the only company that does this, if anyone else is interested I guess they could shop around. I'm guessing the costs are similar for all the companies.
Anonymous
Anonymous
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>>561587 Yes, there are other companies, but inbetween Mauritania and Namibia (E.g., ALL of West Africa) only two companies run trucks- African Trails and Oasis; AfTrails is the cheapest as far as I know. There are dozens of countries that do E. Africa, though.
Breakfast and dinner done by cook groups. I'll do a write-up of day-to-day life after this post to give you a better idea. The truck holds a lot of supplies; if we needed to (it never got this bad) we could go weeks without buying anything. Most staples we carried months worth, because you simply cannot get them in the majority of W. Africa. There are only what you would describe as 'grocery stores' in country capitols and VERY major cities in West Africa--99% of your shipping is done at traditional African markets.
It's funny that you talk about "hard to reach places" and "main roads"; in West Africa, that describes the entire country. There simply aren't any tourists in many of those places, there are no "sights" or tourist activities. Yes, we do go off main roads frequently, but the "main road" is often just a dirt/mud highway anyway.
Of course in S. and E. Africa there's tons of touristy stuff and sights and the roads are good. Most companies take roughly the same route, hitting most of the same stops. But honestly, outside of those main areas, there's not too much to do. And if you've come all the way through W. Africa, you don't need to see anymore Africans or villages or any of that bullshit anyway.
Pic: the "main road" inbetween Congo and DRC.
Anonymous
>>561590 Haha, pretty much. Ask any African, they'll tell you: white people are fucking stupid. They have no common sense, they do silly things (like come to Africa instead of watching television, which is what anybody with time and money should do evidently), and they don't know anything about the world ("the world" consisting entirely of whatever village or city you happen to be in).
Pic: half a village watching the crazy white people on the Congo river
Anonymous
Daily routine:
Anonymous
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Daily routine cont'd
Anonymous
sounds amazing OP. Which was the most dangerous country? Which was the number one must visit country?
Anonymous
>>561533 >If you want to self-organize you're going to be spending (in most cases) significantly more. I don't really get that. I mean, the company is doing these tours for profit, and they're going to be profiting a hefty amount from a tour that long. I can understand if you were driving around yourself maybe, but wouldn't it be far cheaper to just use buses etc? I know that would probably be hell in Africa, but still.
Sounds like a really cool trip though.
Anonymous
badass trip.
Anonymous
Where did you go Nigeria? how were the people? Were they trying to young weeaboos into all the clubs? Sending "prince down on my luck" emails from their blackberries?
Anonymous
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>>561598 Visa flyover = Your ass got denied entry, and now you can either go home or fly over ;)
The most dangerous country ... Mmm, I never really felt very threatened. Ever. Kinshasa is a rough city, but villages in DRC and as friendly as the rest of Africa. Some sketchy areas in S. Africa of course, but that's nothing new. Basically it's like anywhere else in the world - stay out of bad neighborhoods at night and don't get completely smashed and walk back from the bar completely alone through deserted allies. Common sense, as always!
I can't tell you where you should go, and I didn't really experience much of Africa as a tourist. I mean, you stop caring about the same stuff after 2 or 4 or 6 months of travel. However, places I would like to see again: Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, DRC, Namibia/S. Africa, Tanzania, Uganda. And of course the bits of Africa that I missed.
Pic: hiking in Morocco
Anonymous
>>561600 The borders between the rougher places in Africa don't have decent connections. It is conceivably possible to get all the way through Africa on public transport, but I've never heard of it being done. Hell doesn't begin to describe what you would experience. I've used a lot of public transportation and ... Jesus, I can't even describe the agony you would face. First, EVERY company and every taxi and every possible link would try to charge you 2-10x more the actual price (and it can actually be expensive, especially considering many legs would be bush-taxi only). Second, African mass transit does not move until it is full. You would spend months (collectively) waiting for whatever vehicle you're in to fill. Third, all African public transport is 3+ decades old. It breaks down ALWAYS (see pic). Fourth, many areas or sites cannot be visited without privately hiring a taxi to take you there, which is not cheap. There's many, many more reservations I'd have about attempting an all-public transport trans of Africa, but if you did it and managed to live through it / remain sane -- Jesus Christ, I can't even describe the awe I'd regard you with.
I'm going to do a whole post dedicated to cost analysis after this, I'm pretty convinced it'd be impossible to do it cheaper on your own.
And for the record, due to the complications on our trip, the company lost a significant chunk of money on our trans, and their profit margin on the trans in general is low. They do make a good chunk of change from S. and E. African legs, though.
Pic: Bush-taxi in the Congo. Third breakdown in as many hours.
Anonymous
Okay a note on doing this solo. I encourage you to do it--very few have. Think only a handful of people a year, far less than climb Everest or drive from AK to Argentina.
Anonymous
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Solo cont'd
Anonymous
>>561604 We met one dude in Cameroon who was doing it by motorcycle. Seemed like it would be a lot easier that way, because the roads are so shit. Some days we managed 10km after 12 hours of driving haha.
Yes, Tanzania was one of my favorite countries. Did you climb Kili?
>>561605 Nigeria was great, but we didn't do Lagos (which I've repeatedly heard is not so great). We crossed in the north from Benin and cut through the capitol Abuja (visa apps) and Jos to get to northern Cameroon (Rhumsiki). The people were fantastic--easily the friendliest people in Africa. Picture this: entire villages of grown adults throwing two-handed waves at you for NO REASON but to say hello. Fucking insane. I know, I know, after a few days in Roppongi or even just in your spam box, you'd think the people were all dicks. But honestly, very very cool. The net cafes WERE full of scammers though, haha.
And no, we didn't hit Mozambique. I'd love to do a bigger, slower trip in Southern Africa sometime.
Pic: Nigerian village (but honestly all W. African villages look like this so it doesn't matter that it's in Nigeria ;) )
Anonymous
Hey OP whats the deal with Weed in Africa?
Anonymous
thanks for this thread OP, it's really interesting.
Anonymous
>>561626 I smoked a fair bit. Hash is mega cheap in Morocco (and it seems like everybody smokes). We stayed in a beautiful little mountain town called Chefchaouen which is one of the major pot growing areas in Africa (but they turn it all into hash). Basically my first day on the trip another guy and I went halves on a MASSIVE rock that lasted three of us plus frequent sharing between 5-10 people almost two months. You'll get asked 58 times a day to buy hash in town, it's ridiculous.
Weed is also super common in Ghana and especially in Malawi. Malawi is insanely cheap -- massive pre-rolled blunts (using school paper, haha) for like a dollar apiece--enough to get 4-5 people pleasantly high. Except, my friend and I usually smoked them just the two of us and got fucked out of our minds every single time.
Pic: Chefchaouen, hash paradise
Anonymous
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>>561627 Yep, spot on. N. Africa is a very relaxing, very developed, incredibly laid-back place. Had a great time there, and didn't really appreciate it until later on. You could easily rent a car in Morocco and spend weeks there cruising around.
Sub-Saharan, yep. Really excellent point about the poor having self-respect. Most black Africans assume that you owe them something because you have things and they don't. Your average inexperienced (e.g., isn't used to the tourist trade) African doesn't understand the concept of tourism--all whites should bring gifts to Africa, there is no other reason to be there.
And the hygiene is horrific. Most of Africa doesn't use toilet paper, fine. But the poor don't even fucking wash their hands afterward. All three times that I got very sick was from close contact with filthy kids.
Pic: they sure are cute, though. Mali.
Anonymous
>>561613 Now that you've explained it all, I suppose I do see how it would be better to travel around there like you did.
By the way, how would you rate Uganda compared with other African countries? I noticed you said you'd like to go there again. I should be going there (as well as to Kenya for a day or 2) as part of my course at university next year for a fortnight or so. We haven't been given many details yet, so I don't know where we'll be going though.
Anonymous
>>561626 I have a friend who went to Cameroon and smoked there.
The weed is really really cheap, he had like 10 grams for 2 euros, but it's way less concentrate in THC than what you can find nowadays.
Anonymous
>>561640 Fuck yeah, my favorite experience in Morocco was when the chef at a decent restaurant walked out of the kitchen with my meal, set it on my table, and without saying a word sat down next to me and offered me a hit from his pipe.
Anonymous
I'm interested in the road between Lagos and Accra, many checkpoints? How long does it take? How much money to give in bribes? Can you describe a little bit of that section?
Anonymous
So which countries would you recommend for a white kid who wants to bum around, hiking, camping, and hitching (if possible)?
Anonymous
I'm going to Ghana in 2 weeks. What should I expect?
Anonymous
I know everyone is eager to find this out.
Anonymous
>>561717 This! What say you, OP?
Anonymous
What are you doing in Japan OP?
Anonymous
So I looked on the website for that company. For the trans-africa expedition there's like 50+ different side trips or activities available. Did you go on many of them? What about the others, did everyone pretty much try to do all the activities along the way?
Anonymous
Anonymous
>>561624 didn't climb Kili. Didn't have time since we spent so much time up on the mountains. Went to Ngorogoro crater for a few days and went on a safari. Also spent a few days in Zanzibar which was awesome. Hung out at the beach, ate great fresh seafood and looked at all the cool architecture. Loved the Arab influences and how they meshed with Africa/European styles!
I don't expect to ride a motorcycle all around Africa but even taking to a few countries would be awesome. I'd love to get a job working over there but that's still a long way off.
< the old fort on Zanzibar in Old Town
Anonymous
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>>561648 The big to-do in Uganda is trekking the mountain gorillas. And a picture next to the equator sign. But that isn't why I'd go back--the country is incredibly beautiful. Green mountains everywhere, half of which are terraced. And it feels more like 'Africa' than much of the rest of the area. You'll love it. See the picture.
>>561649 Totally depends. A lot of the weed is total shit. But the countries I mentioned are legit. Especially especially especially Malawi.
>>561695 Hahaha nice. It depends of course, but a LOT of the Berbers smoke. And they don't mind sharing!
Pic: Uganda
Anonymous
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>>561708 I can tell you about 90% of that road, but we cut north near the Nigerian border and crossed at Llara (we were headed to Abuja, not Lagos). Mostly it's good road, and it follows the beach which is nice. Lome is an alright city, Cotonou is fucking insane. EVERYBODY rides a motorbike, there are millions of them, and I highly recommend paying a mototaxi $10 and just cruising the city for a few hours. Although, I saw a dude killed in the road so ... your mileage may vary ;)
However, although the road is good quality, there is TONS of traffic, and the Ghana->Benin and Benin-Togo border crossings are fucking ridiculous. If you've got your own vehicle you will definitely need a fixer. If you're on public transport, well, it's still hectic as.
Can't tell you about the southern (main) border crossing, but the one we took we saw the highest concentration of checkpoints anywhere in Africa. From the Nigerian border we counted 20 checkpoints in 18km. It was like: Security then immigration then health then customs then security then customs then immigration then health then then then .. etc. And they all ask the same fucking questions! Then one health stop, the medical guy (some dude in a ripped up sweater...) proceeded to tell us all our vaccinations were invalid because they were more than 6 months old. When we told him some vaccines last for decades he asked, "Are you a medical officer? No? I AM! They are invalid." We were there for an hour =\
Bribes are optional. But if you don't have much time, it's MUCH faster just to pay. That said, I never paid. Fuck that. Just keep fighting with them and they usually will give up. Don't mind the gun or the fact that they're probably drunk, you'll *most likely* be fine ;)
Pic: traffic in Cotonou; shit is serious ;p
Anonymous
>>561713 The fact that you're white is going to mean different things in different places. In places that you see a lot of tourists, it means that you've got a set budget for your trip (and that budget is VERY HIGH) and that you plan to spend 100% of that budget before you leave. Therefore all Africans will try as hard as they can to get what they see as a piece of that juicy pie.
In less-touristed areas it's going to mean that everybody still thinks you're rich, but they'll be confused about why you're there. They will still expect you to give them shit ("Come on, I see you have many shirts, why can't I have this one?") but it won't be as intense.
Everywhere is perfectly safe, and everywhere hitching is super easy. All traveling Africans hitch, after all. Any bus, truck, or taxi can be flagged down and it's usually super cheap IF you can get the African price. you probably can't, though ;)
So the real question: do you need hostels? If so, S. and E. Africa, and the bits of W. Africa that actually get tourists (e.g., Ghana). If not--go crazy, the continent is yours.
Pic: somewhere, Ghana. Pretty much ANY of these vehicles can be flagged--just ask where they're going and hand them like $5 ;)
Anonymous
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>>561714 Ghana is awesome. Used to tourists, but there aren't too many of them. Everybody speaks English. It's Africa, but it isn't overwhelmingly so. Awesome beaches, cool towns, cool forts, etc. You have to check out Kumasi, if you can. How long will you stay?
Pic: Market in Kumasi--billed as the largest open-air market in Western Africa
Anonymous
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>>561717 >>561798 Haha holy shit did you ever call the blonde girl. She started the trip trying to fuck half of us. She finally settled on the dude next to her in the picture (with the beard). It wasn't a matter of sluttiness per se, more she couldn't stand to be without a man and was trying hard to find one. She was on the last trip as well and word was she was fucking two guys on that trip steadily as well.
The other girl, next to me, was also a bit of a slut.
As far as I know only two dudes fucked local girls, and one of them had trouble getting her to leave afterward. Like... she kinda moved into his hotel room haha.
>>561828 Teaching English and fucking my Japanese girlfriend, what else? ;) I moved here immediately after getting back from Africa and finally got offered a job two weeks ago. Visa is processing now :D
Pic: leather tanneries in Fez
Anonymous
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>>561853 Yep, I (and most people) did nearly all the activities. In West Africa it's basically the only thing to do, and it's usually pretty cheap so most people do them. I skipped some of the cultural crap (I mean, once you've been in Africa three months, do you REALLY want to go to a museum about ... Africa? Seriously?).
In East and South Africa you have A LOT more choices and it costs a lot more. Yes, most people raft the Zambezi and skip it in Uganada. I did the 216m bungee in Storm River in SA so there was no reason to do the 80m one in Vic Falls. Etc. I did nearly all the game drives possible (and we go to a lot of parks) and also skydiving / quadbiking / etc in Namibia.
If you decide not to do an activity you usually chill with the truck. In East Africa you'll be at a campground with a bar and etc, so it's not bad to stay back.
The driver is usually busy. And it depends. Our driver was on his third trans in a row (only driver the company has ever had to do three in a row, only second driver to ever do three trans at all) so he had already done everything. If your driver is newer and doesn't have maintenance to do on the truck or shit to organize or supplies to buy, he or she will probably do shit with you. Depends on them!
Pic: Sahara, Morocco.
Anonymous
>>561905 Aw, thanks. WHAT ABOUT WHEN I HOLD SUPER CUTE ANIMALS??
This adorable thing followed us (bleating all the while) on a 5 mile hike up through the canyons in Todra Gorge in Morocco. Then he saw two blonde girls from some Nordic country and he followed them instead D:
Anonymous
OP seems like pretty cool guy. Eh travels Africa and doesn't afraid of anything.
Anonymous
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>>562035 Me again, also wondering if you would recommend bush camping at all?
What do you think the danger would be like from muggers/bandits seeing an obviously western camp? Or even wildlife looking for an easy meal.
Also, were there any pests/mosquitos that really made life hell anywhere?
Anonymous
dammit OP, all these pictures make me wanna go back to Africa!
Anonymous
Random question, how would I go about doing one of these trips?
xXxS3phiroth_W3ed4Lyfe420xXx
OP I remember reading the original thread when you posted it on /b/.
Anonymous
>>562013 Thanks so much for the info! I was planning on hitching Morocco-Mauritania next winter, but now I might head further south, visas permitting.
Anonymous
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>>562222 And on that note (and you're a hero for answering all these questions), was Senegal cool?
Anonymous
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>>562035 Ahah, thanks. The trip was certainly memorable. I'll even throw in life-changing, which isn't something I easily throw around. (I've done a lot of 2-3 month trips that I found to be 'horizon-broadening' but not outright life-changing, entiendo?)
No, Canadians will have no issue with Mauritania. Angola it wasn't Americans specifically, and Sudan it was just a complication which had more to do with the American side. However, a Canadian would likely have more wiggleroom than I did.
As far as your camping goes, it's a matter of numbers. If there's a few of you, you'll be left alone for sure. If there's just a couple people... well, security becomes a much more serious consideration. I'd check in with a village and ask them if you could sleep somewhere in town. Most of the time, they'd probably offer you a bed and dinner, or at least a nice patch of grass right in their front yard--Africans are like that.
Don't worry too much about animals, especially in West Africa. And in East Africa, most of the really dangerous stuff is confined to the reserves. Mosquitos are troublesome errywurr. Bring spray (Africans don't use spray and you can't really find it), bring a net (or make sure it's in your tent), bring breezy long pants and shirts, and bring anti-malarials.
Pic: bushcamping in Nigeria
Anonymous
>>562048 I was REALLY glad to get out, but now only a few months later I'm also a little nostalgic :) Where did you go?
>>562061 Very easy. Fill out a 3 second form on the company website. Book a ticket. Congratulations, you're going. Start planning ;)
>>562066 I guess it's easy to forget how little-traveled the place is and how little most people know about it (I knew next to nothing before I went!). I suppose I ought to get a blog or something up, as I'd really encourage anybody to go--though not necessarily for a year!
>>562222 Glad to help. You should have zero visa issues until you hit... well, possibly Nigeria. Even then, if you arrange the visa before you leave, it's much easier. But Mali / Senegal / Burkina / Ghana / Togo / Benin are all a breeze! Yes, Senegal was cool. They're set up for tourism, it's not bad getting around, and it's quite African despite the amount of tourists every year.
Pic: market in Dakar, Senegal
Anonymous
Was the Asian guy the outcast of the group? haha
Anonymous
>>562023 awwww shit! That's awesome :)
Anonymous
OP, never visited Africa, but it looks very interesting. Thanks a lot for the photos and sharing the information. I'll be in China, so maybe i'll see ya on the other side!?
Anonymous
>>562359 Definitely, but not due to his ethnicity. He was born and raised in the UK, but his family is from Vietnam (he's 1st gen). All the Africans thought he was Chinese and would always ask us if he was. We hated him, so of course we told them he definitely was Chinese, and that Chinese people had tons of money and loved souvenirs. He hated it, we loved it.
He was outcast because he was incredibly annoying, didn't do shit for the group, dumb as fuck, and was an obsessive stamp collector. He went home early because somehow he thought an ongoing divorce/custody battle with his wife was a good reason to go to Africa for 10-11 months, but, surprise surprise, it didn't work out so well.
>>562369 I'd seriously consider a pet goat if I had lots of land ^_^
>>562386 No problem! Is that picture you, btw? I really really hope so, because the Chinese would flip shit :D
Pic: truck life
Anonymous
>>562398 Thanks for coming over to /trv/ to share OP, i was in that /b/ thread as well and thought you weren't gonna come.
I have since made a 2 year plan to get the money saved up.
I remember you saying that you are basically an oddity everywhere you go, so I figure why not just buy the most ridiculous shiat to wear and really give them something to look at?
I was surprised to hear the age range of people who went, too. I was wondering if there were any really insufferable assholes, and how you got along with living in such close proximity to them for that long. I'd imagine in any group of 15-20 people there is going to be some turbo-feminist, douche, or sassy scumbag.
Poor Vietnamese bastard, funny story though.
Also,
>>562398 tell me those are slabs of beer on the floor there. Do you just piss off the back of the truck or what?
time to bone up on my french, think I could barter with other passengers to translate for them for beers?
Anonymous
>>562335 >>561982 >>561604 I was the guy in those two posts.
< boarding the ferry leaving Zanzibar.
Anonymous
>>562398 That must totally suck if you are stuck in a shitty group. I guess the groups are big enough to have at least a couple decent people but it's nearly a whole fucking year you spend with these people, I'd feel cheated if I were stuck with a whole bunch of people I didn't like.
Anyone else cause any problems?
Anonymous
>tfw you will never do a nearly year-long trip through the majority of africa because you would lose all your gainz
Anonymous
>>562409 No worries /b/ro. I never really intended to say too much about it. The fact that it got archived / upvoted so much on chanarchive convinced me that there was enough interest -- and I'm all for spreading the good word (not necessarily about Africa, but about out-of-the-way tourism in general).
You, you get all kinds of people. And people that can be cool for a day or two or even people you could easily be casual friends with at home, you'll want to fucking murder after a year in close proximity. I'd say the majority of our people were cool, and the annoying kids had their own little clique anyway. Very few people were so annoying that they were universally hated. The Vietnamese guy was one, we had one other.
All that said, it does honestly feel like family. I'm not one to say that, not even about good friends, but even the people I hated I also cared for and felt close to. If somebody said some shit to one of our guys (gals), it didn't matter who they were, we'd back them up.
And yeah, we went through some pretty heavy drinking periods--cases every night, etc. We got burned out on it after a month in Bamako with a bar literally meters from our tents. But in general, with the cheaper companies, it's one huge party.
We take toilet stops along the road. Some trucks have a buzzer connected to the cab, but a hand out the window from the back works just as well. Girls don't give a fuck about pissing anywhere / in front of anyone by the end of the trip.
You might get a few beers tossed your way for being helpful, it's a fucking life saver having a French speaker ;p
Pic: speaking of dressing like you just don't give a fuck...
Anonymous
>>562422 Ah, right, gotcha. Man, Tanzania was one of THE coolest places. It just has so much to offer.
>>562426 See the last post there, covered this quite a bit. I wouldn't worry too much. I mean, the people you're with are generally people in their late 20s/early 30s who decided that spending a year camping all the way through Africa is a good idea. I.e., crazy, interesting, for-the-most-part cool people with interesting backgrounds. And there's always alcoholism for when you just can't stand it anymore ;)
>>562442 Lose your gainz? eh?
Pic: pullin' mad ladies in Nairobi
Anonymous
>>562443 Your shit looks all fun
Did you meet any germans and if so, how were they doing?
I'm currently 21, student in germany, have been to australia and south east asia and thinking about doing that stuff after finishing my bachelor as well
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>562446 Loads of Germans, but let me clarify. We had one German dude (~35) join for the entire length but he went home after Ghana. He was cool as shit, but he had some personal issues to work out (I think he was trying to escape it by traveling, but that never works). Then, in East Africa, because our original truck got stranded in the Congo, we had to join other trucks. In E. Africa there are a dozen (plus) companies--including our own--running set rotations between 2-10 countries. We had an entire truck-full of Germans for about a month. They had a great time, even though at least a couple literally did not speak English. But that's E. Africa: more tourists, more comfort, much easier in general. Not exactly a vacation for your mother, but still--it ain't the Congo ;)
Yeah, see if you can make it after graduating. Totally worth it. Half my student loans went toward travel ;) Also, you don't need to do the 10+ months. Morocco - Cape Town would be epic, and S. and E. Africa is easily accessible anytime.
Pic: waterfalls in northern Ghana
Anonymous
So did you do any laundry along the way? I mean, you said you didn't shower for over a month so I guess laundry isn't a priority. And did it smell bad during the trip or did everyone get pretty used to the smell early on?
Anonymous
>>561511 How did you find out about this expedition?
Also I'm an American, but I also have Mexican citizenship. If I were to get a passport from Mexico do you think I'd be able to get into Mauritania or Sudan?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>562887 Well, I said no "proper" shower for two months. Some people learned to use 5L bottles filled up in village wells; I mastered the art of baby wipes. Only one guy smelled really offensive because he didn't do a damn thing to take care of himself. Pretty gross, and we told him so. But he was just offensive in general, so ... it fit, I guess!
Laundry was a bucket of water, some detergent, and a lot of scrubbing. Or pay $10 for some African women to do it and your clothes will be cleaner-than-brand-new.
Nothing major. A couple people got malaria but got treatment right away.
Pic: I got drunk under the waterfall and fell. Hard.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>562930 I was googling "Africa overland" a couple years ago, bookmarked the site, and decided to go for it on a whim.
Yeah, get a Mexican passport. It's good to have two and Mauritania / Sudan won't give you any trouble.
Also: Americans before me got through both countries, Americans after me will too. It's a shitshow and all rules are malleable and change constantly. Africa doesn't work the way your home country does, and even if you take my exact trip I can promise your version will be significantly different.
Pic: Ghana
Anonymous
Don't feel stupid posting stuff without anyone asking, I am still interested in more stories and/or pictures.
Anonymous
Cool thread OP. I did a 2 month Istanbul-Tunis trip with Oasis and had a blast. I'd love to do something like this when I've got the money saved, but it'll take a few years.
Anonymous
>>563101 Do what this anon said, post more stories this is really interesting. Makes me want to visit Africa now.
Also what are some of the best beaches you went to?
Any jungles? How much money did you bring with you, how much would you recommend that you bring?
Anonymous
How was life when you came back home again?
Anonymous
do you think this trip would be more enjoyable if you only did egypt to south africa, given that the countries on the eastern part of the continent are more developed and easier to get through?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
A quick note before I start replying to everybody today:
I've also been posting a bit in this thread (
>>562618 ) and there's a lot of info in there as well if you're hungry for it.
Anonymous
Do you think it is a good or bad idea to bring a girlfriend with on a trip like this?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>563101 I can try, but it's difficult to talk about something of this magnitude without prompts :)
Beaches (both in Africa and in general) formed some of the highlights of my trip. Everybody loved hitting the beach, and at a few of them we stayed for days just chilling. We stop at a few in Morocco, in Mauritania, I did in Senegal, at Ghana, Benin, Congo, S.A., Malawi (on the lake, haha), and Tanzania (of course the rest of the trip did in Egypt and Jordan as well). So, overall, given how long the trip is, not as many beaches as I would like. Most of them were huge and clean. Villages will usually clean the beaches because dirty beaches are bad for tourism, and labor is practically free. I love body-surfing so me and the guys mostly just caught waves all day. Our driver actually had a board strapped to the back of the truck but usually the waves just aren't good enough for a board.
I don't say "nigger" in my day-to-day life or on 4chan, so no worries there.
Pic: I may or may not be high as fuck in this picture, Ghana
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>563228 Awesome man, that sounds like a killer route. I'd try to do West Africa with AfTrails next, they just in the past few months made W. Africa doable in legs (Morocco-->Mali or Ghana, Cameroon-->S.A., etc) which is great. I think Oasis is the only other company that runs through W. Africa, but I dunno if they let you do it in legs or not.
>>563372 I'll try :) Best beaches, for me, were Ghana, S.A., and Zanzibar. Jungles are everywhere, especially in central Africa. Although, a lot has been cut down over the years and some areas that used to be lush are now just scrub. For budget, see
>>561520 Pic: Central Namibia
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>563396 I never came home ;) I spent 2 weeks in Seattle cleaning up my odds and ends (selling some stuff, putting shit in storage, etc) as I had been there for Uni for 5 years. Hung out with my ex (my best friend) and stayed at her place the entire time. Then I drove my car back to PA (5000km in 4 days...) spent 1 week with my family, then flew to Japan where I am now living. I start work in April as an English teacher.
I don't really relate well to most people anymore. I can't stand people who's horizon does not exceed the mundane, banal workings of their day-to-day existence. It's not really about travel, it's about having a mind open to experience and a worldview shaped by more than your job, family, and personal preference in consumer products (to include music).
>>563398 It really depends on what you're after. Egypt->S.A. is a great trip because Sudan, Ethiopia, and N. Kenya are still pretty rough, legitimately "African" places. Then E. and S. Africa are a breeze: real vacation, actual relaxation, cool activities, the usual amenities (showers, grocery stores, ATMs, etc) while still retaining a strong African influence. You'll still see huts and people carrying shit on their heads, but you can have a shower and go on safari too.
For me, I didn't go to Africa to have a vacation. I don't travel in order to take vacations. So West/Central Africa will always be the majority of the trip for me in my mind, even though it was only a few months. It fucking hard, it was shitty, I felt like I was going insane, but man... it was an experience. And THAT is why I travel---the experience.
pic: Northern S.A. in bloom.
Anonymous
>>563526 IF your girl is cool and IF she is flexible and IF she can handle her shit, I would 10,000% advise you to bring her. The happiest people on our trip either had their girlfriend along or had coupled up on the truck. When you're deep in the shit and you're fucking angry and losing motivation and tired of all the bullshit, she will be there to bring you back to level. When you're at a nice restaurant with some extra cash, she will be there to make it more than just a good meal. When you're watching a sunset on the beach, she'll be there to enjoy it with you--and walk you back to the tent ;)
It makes a huge difference having your girl along. One of the reasons I lost my shit and went home a bit early, aside from the visa fiasco, was that my girlfriend had left a month earlier and after seeing what it was like having her there (and after surviving W. and C. Africa) I just had no motivation to continue.
We had a bunch of girls on our trip, they did fine. Yes there is a difference in how Africans treat males and females. Females have NO RIGHTS in Africa, but white girls aren't held to the same standard. They will find it funny that the girls are not there solely to be wives, cook, and clean, and will point this out, but they won't get offended if your girl laughs at them and calls them backwards. Girls do get hit on, but it's not too bad. Many Africans' idea of hitting on a white girl is to ask them to be their wife--in all seriousness. I mean, that shit is funny, not threatening.
Your girl might get tired of some of this bullshit (we did) but in the grand scheme of bullshit you'll encounter it's pretty minor.
The ONLY way I would do this trip again is with my girl.
Picture very related.
Anonymous
>>563545 i'm really glad to hear this... I was hoping to bring her, but was worried she would end up hating it cause of all the shit she would presumably catch for being a chick. I didn't want to have to be in guard mode all the time either... she's a cool chick and can roll with the punches but call me old fashioned but my jimmies get rustled if some africans were to start belittling her all the time.
if you get down to melbourne sometime hit me up
Anonymous
>>563545 I couldn't resist, I'm sorry.
Anonymous
>>563546 Hard to pop by Melbourne considering we're posting on an anon board, eh? ;) But yeah, I've a couple mates down your way and hope in the next couple years to do a round-Aussieland roadtrip. First, though, I'm looking into Alaska-->Peru :) Your girl will have no real issues. 40-50% of the people overlanding down there are female. Our group was about 40%. See the pic.
>>563626 Hahaha I need to show her that when she gets back from Tokyo tonight. She'll love it.
pic: Grubby in the Congo.
Anonymous
>>563628 that blonde girl really seems to have an urge opening her legs
Anonymous
OP, awesome trip dude, respect.
Anonymous
Listening to this song made reading this thread even more awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtQAW_jLHGw >>563638 look
>>561533 I can hardly believe you're better off with a company discovering africa for yourself, but I'm just gonna roll with the original poster here
Why did and why are you dating some flat faced flat chested bitch?
Anonymous
Do you think that Africans would treat a white person visiting more positively if he or she went with another African? My roommate's from Cameroon and talks about African culture and lifestyles, and every now and again I think about asking if he'd be interested in the two of us going there for a few weeks.
Anonymous
>>563737 not OP, but doubtful. they'd just treat your friend like they'd treat you: a rich oddity, and a walking vending machine. there will probably be some jealousy and awe mixed in. i guess it depends how long he's been gone and how westernized he is.
Anonymous
archive request: 2 votes down, 2 to go.
Anonymous
>>563636 Hahaha, you can't even imagine.
>>563638 You're -currently- doing Istanbul-->CT? How did you do Syria? Or what route to bypass? Are you signed up with a company, or going solo?
My official advice regarding anti-malarials is to take them, they are cheap in Africa and there's no excuse not to. Malaria sucks and you don't want it. My actual experience, though, is that I did a shit job taking mine and quit halfway through the trip; never got malaria. If you aren't taking anything you NEED to cover up and spray down EVERY night. Only takes on bite. Four of our guys got it at one point or another.
On solo, see:
>>561533 And especially:
>>561613 Not driving? see:
>>561619 A few notes on MY budget, see:
>>561520 pic: Dakar, Senegal
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>563965 Cont'd
A budget under those circumstances is difficult to guess. What you need to understand is that dorms don't exist in 90% of Africa. For there to be hostels there must be tourists, and most of Africa just doesn't get tourists. Campsites are cheap, but not especially common in certain areas (i.e, zero between Angola and Ghana; uncommon anywhere there isn't a major tourist attraction; and very difficult to get to without your own vehicle in many cases). Also, if you plan to camp outside of campsites, security becomes a major concern. Africans WILL jack your shit if they can get away with it, and if it's just you or a couple people ... they can get away with it. Then there's hitching. It doesn't exist as you know it, because in a lot of Africa it's just 'the normal way to get around'. As I mentioned in my public transport reply that I linked, it would be hell. And possibly expensive. The main issue is that there just aren't any private vehicles doing long distance travel in most parts of Africa. Only trucks and bush taxis, and each are going to charge you. White man's prices, too. Local food is cheap, but it's the same thing almost everywhere. Eh.. I can't really give you a number. A trip like that has way too many variables, way too much that could go wrong, would have way too many delays... It could be on the cheap side, it could also be hell. Probably both. And unless you have your own wheels, that "freedom" you mentioned won't really exist. It's like being "free" in the USA doing a cross-country trip without a car. I wouldn't call that freedom. But shit, try it. I promise it'll be the hardest fucking thing you've ever done, but you'll feel awesome if you pull it off.
Pic: my home for a year
Anonymous
>>563640 You're only better off budget- and frustration-wise I have never used a tour company before this. I organize my own roadtrips all the time (see pic attached). I've self-driven and self-planned over 150,000km of roadtrips. If you had your own wheels, the Africa trip would be far better--just a fuck of a lot more expensive, and a fuck of a lot more frustrating. That's my only point ;) I plan to go back and do it myself, but I need the $$$$ (+ even more $$$$) first. Like I said, half the independents we met didn't make it: vehicle issues, visa issues, etc.
>>563651 Are you trying to ... rustle mah jimmies?
Pic: trekking mountain gorillas in Uganda
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>563737 >>563741 I'd agree a bit here. If he's westernized, no difference really. Africans can tell the difference between 'African' and black. Or between one tribe and the next. That said, if your friend knows the ropes in Cameroon he could be a great help in logistics and planning (public transport, food, getting better prices, etc). Africans will look at him like he's your guide, though.
>>563952 Yes, please. Working my ass off here ;)
pic: two-star African dining
Anonymous
>>563968 Forgot to attach this. Roadtrips I've done myself. I've also driven in Iceland, S.A., and Kenya. I definitely prefer doing it independently, but Africa... man, it's a different world. Doable, but you need the patience of a God and a budget to match. (Of course everything could go swimmingly and you could have zero problems and finish with just a few thousand bucks, but I'm not one to play the lottery.)
Anonymous
>>563968 No I'm saying that there are more than enough yellow fever faggots on this board already and there are always threads on "How do I get yellow pussy?" or "Will I get yellow pussy when I'm in China/Japan/Korea etc.?" So you posting a picture with your real life blow up doll (An Asian slut who can't stick with her own kind) offends me.
Anonymous
>>564009 Is clearly a roody-poo
OP is solid as fuck.
I can only hope one day I have the balls (and finances) to travel through West/Central Africa like a boss.
I'm jelly.
Anonymous
>>564009 This dude is the most jelly weaboo neckbearded never-gonna-get-laid-ever faggot in all the land.
Anonymous
>>564015 Because seeing OP and his Japanese gf brings out all of my repressed feelings and anger for lack of said gf. Enough to post shit in an otherwise awesome thread...
...Oh wait that's you!
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>564019 Meant to link the faggot
>>564009 Sorry
Quoted By:
Asian girls are for beta faggots and pedos in denial, and OP seems to be neither but apparently appears to be either one or both.
Anonymous
Let's just pretend noone saw the asian girl - I know it's a touchy subject - and talk about Africa goddamnit.
Anonymous
>>564014 >>564015 >>564019 >>564027 Cheers guys. Ignore the angry neckbeard and let's keep this shit on track :D
Story time: Lots of concerns about visas here, and they can be a serious headache in this part of the world. As I've mentioned, Angola was the worst and nobody from our group ever did get the visa (necessitating a flyover and abandoning the truck in DRC under the care of some random Congolese dude that tried helping with the whole situation). The main issue was that they simply did not want to issue a transit visa—Angola was worried something would happen to us and they’d get a bad rap. The heart of the problem is that no one official wants to take the risk of OK’ing the visa because of shit happens, people will ask HIM the questions. Although our applications were perfectly valid and legal, we get fucked around as a result.
(cont'd)
pic: 'Merica, fuck yeah. (Mali coke brand ;p )
Anonymous
>>564045 Anyway, we had already tried and failed in Abuja (Nigeria) and Pointe Noire (Congo, Rep.). As I said, this company isn’t exactly a “tour” company, at least not for the Trans-Africa. What other company would say, “Visas are fucked, guys. Anybody want to go back to Dolisi [300km away by shit-dirt roads] and check with the consulate there?” I mean, we’re paying customers, and being asked to work out our own 1) transportation (no mean feat) 2) lodging and 3) way through a bureaucratic nightmare. Of course I volunteered, fucking awesome man.
All the cool kids went (four of us) and after four fucking guys demanding bribes (well, one was a woman, but she had a fucking beard so…), one of which was swinging an AK around after what was obviously a few too many drinks, we made it via bush taxi to the little town of Dolisi (actually third biggest “city” in Congo).
Got drunk the night we got in, my buddy starts hitting on these MASSIVE Congolese girls, and, although he never committed to it (luckily), we did get hooked up with one girls younger brothers who headed up the towns “English club” and agreed to translate for us the next day. Fuck yeah, we don’t speak French for shit ;)
pic: On the way. Three breakdowns.
Anonymous
>>564046 Next day huge headache at the Angolan consulate. Told us the consul was in Angola (a lie, we watched him pull in through the gate) and told us the town of Dolisi would issue us transit papers to get us through Cabinda. Our driver was sure we could get a visa in DRC, and there was basically no good way through from Congo to DRC otherwise (not easy to put a 20 ton truck on a barge, plus Kinshasa is a shitshow anyway), so we tried it despite the entire story seeming like bullshit.
We meet with some higher-up dude in the town hall, and I get called into the office with one of the local kids as translators. Seems like it’s going well, until he starts coming up with fake bullshit about how our Congo visas are invalid. He then confiscates all the fucking passports (our lives, essentially) and says until we buy new visas from him personally for $75 USD each (hahaha) he can’t return them. I basically tell him we’re not going to pay, now or ever, and explain very carefully that the visas are valid. He basically was trying to tell us that the visas were only good for 30 days from date of issue, when in the entire world visas are nearly always (and this IS the case in Congo) good from 30 days of entering the country.
I call my driver, he’s raging, he goes down to immigration in Pointe Noire, gets those guys to verify the visas are valid, but by the time this happens it’s closing time and the dick in Dolisi locks our passports in his drawer and walks out of the building sporting the biggest fucking troll-face I have ever seen. Ever. “You guys staying here? Alright! Have fun!” What a dick. That night we had dinner with the Congolese kid’s family, was pretty good: cassava, bread, fries (just for us, they didn’t want them haha), and meat-in-sauce (no idea what it was).
pic: four grown men in a tiny fucking taxi--Africa styley. This is the visa crew.
Anonymous
>>564048 Next day we’re down there bright and early. Driver tells me immigration will be calling him, that they confirmed our visas, etc. With this info I’m not worried at all. And I’m fucking pissed at this dude. After 3 meetings in the morning in which he basically says the same shit over and over (“buy from me, it’s easy, don’t you want your passports?” Etc) he gets a call in the middle of our fourth ‘meeting’. His face goes fucking WHITE. I think, ‘Finally, his boss tore him a new one.’ And wouldn’t you know, after a 15 minute break I’m back in his office and he says “I’m willing to give you back your passports; all you need to do is apologize for causing trouble.” Hahahaha. Of course I refused. I knew those passports were fucking ours.
Fifteen more minutes and I’m back in there for like the 10th time in two days. He’s giving me this big speech. “In Africa, when you want something, you must be humble, do not try to be big around people who have more power than you, …” etc etc bullshit etc. Our passports are sitting in a stack. I ask if I’m free to take them. The kid translates. The dude says something in French and kinda nods, I grab the passports before the kid can translate what he said. The kid starts looking really nervous, saying “No, no, he wants to give them to you personally… Stop…” My heart is fucking racing. I finally have them, and a quick count reveals they’re all there.
pic: killing time inbetween meetings. These kids had a friend (not in yellow) who they literally called "black shite" and he couldn't understand even the most basic card games.
Anonymous
>>564050 I’d been WAITING for this moment. I was almost shaking with excitement and anxiety. I stood up, I looked him in the eye, and I said to his face, gesturing with my bottle of coke (fuck da police) but directed to my Congolese translator kid, “You tell this guy he’s a Fucking. Cunt.” I turned and walked out of his office. The kid was fucking rattled. I could hear the dude yelling shit in French but I was out of there. I rounded the corner to where my 3 buddies were waiting and we fucking booked it out of the office.
What the kids said next I’ll always remember, it was so awesome. “Mr. [Anon] is a very brave man!” Hahaha, what a day.
Anyway we never got our visas. We wound up taking the shittiest road imaginable (we literally had to level sections of it by hand), crossed the Congo on a rickety old ferry, and were some of the first white people that immigration (a shack in a village) on the other side had ever seen. We were the first overlanding company to use that crossing, ever.
pic: One of the worst roads I've ever been on, inbetween Congo / DRC. We averaged 20km a day for two days driving 12+ hours each.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>564051 This story leads into another--when we got to Matadi DRC and got denied again, our driver again asked for volunteers to go to Kinshasa. I naturally said yes. But that's for another time ;)
pic: This is the ferry we crossed the Congo on. It fit our truck. Only. (That is not our truck in the shot, however... haha)
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>564051 all these experiences, dat jungle, jesus christ
this is fucking living
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>Awesome pictures >Awesome stories >Disregarding trolls
Anonymous
OP, when this thread hits too many posts and dies, please make another one.
Anonymous
haw can I help archive this awesome thread?
Anonymous
>>564181 It's already been done (thanks everyone). Check it out here:
http://chanarchive.org/4chan/trv/38365/africa Another story, but first a small background story to get us started.
>be good mate's last night on the trip >he's going home very early, personal issues >fancy dress party >borrow annoying guy's fishnet rainbow wife-beater that he ACTUALLY WEARS EVERY DAY >borrow aussie mate's short-shorts >shave handlebar mustache and goatee into 5-day stubble >also lamb-chops >maximum gayness >everybody insists I keep the stache >their-face-when I actually fucking do it >yfw no face >mfw 3 months later Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>564244 your fancy dress was "homosexual"?
Anonymous
But this isn't about gay fancy dress parties, this is about Africa.
Anonymous
>>564253 Anyway, Africans just can’t get over facial hair. We had three guys on the trip with MASSIVE beards. They had been getting called “Jesus” since Mali. And not in a clever way. I mean like, Africans would come up and point in their face and be like “Jesus, haha” and would laugh as if they had made the most incredible joke in the world. This happened every 1-2 minutes. They hated life. It was even better driving in our huge truck. All you heard as we drove through cities and villages is Africans yelling “JESUS! HAHA IT’S JESUS! HEY! JESUS! YOU LOOK LIKE JESUS!” at the top of their lungs. (A small variation on this in some areas was “HEY! OSAMA! OSAMA BIN LADEN! HAHAHA!”)
Anyway, these guys had huge beards. I understand. I mean, we call people with huge beards and kinda longish hair Jesus too. But then there’s me. I had a fucking stache and lambchops and a god-damned goatee. Gay porn star? Sure, why not. But we get to Matadi and all of a sudden THEY START CALLING ME JESUS. I mean what the fucking fuck—how many pictures of Jesus have you seen where he’s done up like a 1970s porno actor? Zero, right? I mean, it HAS TO BE zero, right? But what starts off as a couple giggling asides soon turns into fullblown shouts echoing down the street “JESUS! JESUS! HAHAHA IT’S JESUS!”
I tried to get some veggies and meat at the market. Women literally screamed “JESUS!!!!” into my face and started laughing hysterically. I like… couldn’t complete the transaction because they were too busy yelling about how much I looked like Jesus. It took me several tries to buy tomatoes. I HAD TO REPEATEDLY -TRY- TO SPEND MONEY. IN AFRICA.
pic: Matadi's market
Anonymous
>>564254 Shit got really serious our second day in Matadi. In Africa, you buy shit cheap and when it breaks (it always does) you either get it repaired for cheap or else buy a new one as cheaply as possible. Flip-flops are no exception, and they’re all I wore. Anyway, one of mine breaks as I’m walking down the street to get some money changed. Luckily, this being Africa, there’s a dude who fixes flip-flops right down the street sitting behind his flip-flop-fixing-table. $1.00 USD and he’ll glue the soles back on, no problem. Awesome, but I still need to get that money changed and I don’t want to sit here for an hour with fucking Africans yelling Jesus at me and I don’t have the patience to talk to the 10 or so people who are going to come ask me the same 3 questions and try to get me to buy god knows what over and over and over again and my friends are already walking away so…. Fuck it, I’ve been in Africa for 5 months and my feet are tough, I’ll go without shoes.
The entire town went Fucking. Insane. One thing you need to understand about Africans—appearance is everything. If an African can afford either a bed or one nice outfit, he’ll take the clothes. For us, a curb is an alright place to have a seat and enjoy the view or have a coke. An African would never, ever sit on the street unless he was poor, homeless, and possibly dying. And here I am, a white dude (all white people have millions of dollars, you know), who evidently bears a striking resemblance to Jesus, walking down the street, barefoot.
pic: The beards, month 3. Only one survived the entire trip.
Anonymous
>>564255 It was as if Jesus himself had descended on a white pillar of smoke—all eyes, all shouts, everything was directed at me: “JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! LOOK, EVERYBODY LOOK, JESUS!” It was like the funniest joke that had ever been told in the Congo. People were literally doubled over with laughter. And here I am, trying to smile, trying to stand up straight, chest out, under the weight of 100 people screaming at me, my friends all laughing hysterically at me, as I attempt to dodge piles of trash, shit, and god knows what walking barefoot down the filthy street of a filthy town in the middle of the Congo.
It got worse. We went into the market (the street into which was literally paved with mud, trash, and various rotting organics that I could not identify) to try and finally find some money changers. There weren’t many kids out on the main street, but every child goes to the market with their mother. Now, in addition to everybody yelling at me from every conceivable direction (including out of windows), kids start running up behind me one or two at a time. After 10 minutes I have an entire screaming, squealing hoard of kids grabbing at my shorts, my hands, my feet, anything they can. So there I am, a proper fucking Jesus, including entourage of half-naked poor African children.
pic: counting out the money we had been after the entire time.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>564256 AS IF ALL THIS WAS NOT BAD ENOUGH, we passed by the section of the market where shoe-salesmen were located. Oh. My. Christ. Somehow, some way, they managed to combine shouts of “JESUS! JESUS!” with sales pitches about their various flip-flops and other excellently designed, rugged, durable, stylish, awesome-in-every-way foot-ware. I had grown African men literally go down on their hands and knees and RUB THEIR FLIP-FLOPS AGAINST MY FEET. As if somehow that, more than anything else, would convince me to buy them. ‘Oh, you’re right, now that you rub the flip-flops on my feet, I DO want them! I know I just said “No.” to 50 of your friends, but you’ve convinced me now!’ …Jesus.
No money changers with good rates in the market. Although I was more than a little rattled by all the attention at first, I’m used to it now and am more enjoying my friend’s embarrassment at the amount of attention we’re getting. As we walk out the same way we walked in, you’d think the very same Africans would have grown tired of the joke. Nope. More and more shouts about Jesus, mostly in French, but still, Jesus’s name is every second word out of every mouth on the street. We FINALLY pass the flip-flop dude I had fix my ‘flops. He gives me a funny look—“you went with no shoes??” Man FUCK YOU. “Yeah, I did. Are my shoes done? Please say ‘yes.’”
If you don’t like attention, shave your shit before you hit Africa. Trust me.
pic: All good things must end.
Anonymous
>>564051 I noted this picture on the b post, but I think it's important to point out to the /trv/lers that the guys are holding shovels while the girls are holding cigarettes... bitches!
>>564161 I second this anon, make a new one when this hits image limit.
Anonymous
>>561511 >OP acts like a hardass for getting driven across Africa Bitch, you aint no Kazimierz Nowak
Anonymous
>>564301 Haha it's a lot of work keeping this up, we'll see. Not all the girls were useless, and some that were hard workers were fucking cunts because of it (for instance, one of the girls there is -usually- elbows deep in whatever needs to be done--but only so she can give others shit for not helping out; her favorite activity in the whole world is being an insufferable whore).
>>564313 Never claimed to be. I'm just a regular dude who had some irregular experiences--some of which I would describe as being difficult, yes.
pic: Bamako, Mali
Anonymous
>>564313 Lol, where do you even know that name from? you also a polfag?
>>564051 Is that guy wearing a kimono or did I drink too much rum tonight?
Here's an image for OP and all the other yellow fever guys on this board. So long, losers.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>564319 ye, nobody likes those kinda women
they can rustle your jimmies real hard
i bet she didnt touch any bud
Quoted By:
>>564339 funny how none of them have even remotely similar facial structure in the before and after pics. i'd say asia has less attractive people than europe, but to suggest there aren't any beautiful asians is dumb. check out boxer's wife!
Anonymous
>>564254 >A small variation on this in some areas was “HEY! OSAMA! OSAMA BIN LADEN! HAHAHA!” I lol'd heartily at this
>>564253 >Shisha and bushcamping Oh shit, this is the part of overlanding I miss the most. Regardless of what goes wrong, sitting around a campfire with warm cans of god-knows-what beer and a shisha at the end of the day makes it all worthwhile.
Anonymous
this thread cemented that i will never go to africa
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>564384 fair enough. not everyone can handle it... don't worry, there's still Disneyland and the Barbie aisle of your local toy store for people such as you.
Anonymous
>>564319 Liked , +1 , 9/10 for the cool response to the hating troll.
Still 10/10 only if you dont respond at all the next time.
Anonymous
op are you ever gonna go back to Africa?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>564325 He was mentioned in a couple pieces I read; I've always wanted to find more info on him but half-hearted googling doesn't yield much (in English). That 'dude' is a woman, haha.
>>564383 Fuck yeah, man. I was so bummed missing out on Sudan / Egypt specifically because of the shisha. When everything else was shit, the day could still end on a good note so long as we had some shisha and decent coals (sometimes we spent half the night trying to get ONE fucking piece of alright coal--jungle wood is shit!). I miss it but here in Japan 1) people assume it's like inhaling heroine 2) head-shops don't exist in my area 3) the tobacco is insanely expensive regardless.
>>564384 Don't confuse W./C. Africa with N. Africa or S./E. Africa. All very different places. You could have a very chilled vacation in Ghana or get knee deep in the shit in Kinshasa. S. Africa and Namibia are highly developed countries with good roads, modern infrastructure, and everything you could want or need. E. Africa mixes a lot of this together, and N. Africa is a different world entirely.
>>564397 Cheers.
Pic: Just driving down the 'road' (this is actually very good road, comparatively speaking) in Gabon. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Anonymous
>>564443 Eventually, sure. I need a break for a while though. It'll be a while before I step foot into central Africa again.
Tanzania-> S. Africa is super easy and super-doable. All those countries have very easy customs and visa-free/visa-on-arrival entry. Honestly if you want to go bigger and have the time/money, even Cairo->S. Africa (THE classic route) is not unthinkable. Get a carnet. Arrange Sudanese/Ethiopian visas before you leave. After that, you're pretty much golden. I have read that Egypt has a ridiculous deposit for temporary vehicle imports, though. Something like 4x the value of your vehicle. It's a deposit, so you get it back, but that's still a chunk of change. Could always just say your bike is worth $500 ;p Our 20 ton, new(ish), fully customized and outfitted Scania was listed as having a value of $1000 on the carnet. Nobody gives a fuck.
Pic: Village in Nigeria
Anonymous
>>564893 did you actually say hello to the villager or just stare at them like animals in a zoo?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>565090 Hahaha stare at THEM like THEY were in a zoo?! A couple things. First- Africans stare at you, and don't give a damn if you look back. It's perfectly normal and accepted behavior to stare in Africa. And stare they do. We had entire CITIES not just staring at us in our truck but yelling and gesturing and ... well, you name it. We were the attraction, not them.
Second- Come on man, the trip was a year long. The first few villages were cool, but trust me, on month 5 and village #1328, you not only don't care but it you don't even think about it. It's just normal. I felt bad for some of the new people who joined after Cape Town. "Oh cool look at the village!" ... "Who cares?" They didn't get to share their excitement because all of us were tired/bored with it.
pic: They'll even stare from 5 feet away. Nobody cares. I think this was in Nigeria.
>>565090 did you even read the thread? OP was the animal in the zoo, he couldn't take a shit or cook a meal without some African watching his every move like it was the most interesting thing ever.
Anonymous
bump for more stories and pictures
Anonymous
>>565349 Thanks. Kids these days ;)
>>566018 I don't mind continuing the thread as long as there's interest. If not, no worries, it's archived and the info's always here :)
Anonymous
Awesome thread, OP. I want to visit Mozambique and I sure could use some info. I do speak Portuguese so the language won't be a problem.
Anonymous
There still is interest, man!
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566160 Annnnnd it's early and I forgot a photo!
pic: Dogon dancers and some goony white dude
I actually got horribly sick on this trip. I don't think it was the food because nobody else got ill; it must have been something I picked up from the very, very filthy kids who were hanging all over us. It was supposed to be a 7km "trek" between villages but in Mali this time of year temps are 40-50C and I was throwing up every 10mins. Eventually the village chief--only dude who could afford a motorbike--was called via cell phone (which they charge with car batteries, which they in turn charge with no-effin-clue; anyway, there's no power out here) and he gave me a lift to the next village. There, the next chief's idea of medicine was coca-cola. It cures everything, especially horrible stomach illness. Riiiiight. So he hands me a hot (not just warm, but hot) coke, sits me down in the shade, and there I pass out for several hours. And, after waking up, I FEEL BETTER. Coke, man, it works.
Anonymous
>>566171 We actually didn't go through Mozambique. BUT, that area of Africa in general is an alright mix of comfort and traditional. If you've never been to Africa you can spend 5-6 days just taking it all in. Walk around the market, the downtown, etc. Anyway, check out a LP or ask around for specifics. Yes, if you speak the colonial tongue you're all set.
>>566177 Not much to say about CT and Joburg because, honestly, SA in general is so un-African that nothing interesting really happened ;) We all got completely smashed and made fools of ourselves on a winery tour in Stellenboch (famous wine region about 30km north of Cape Town); bought some cheap coke that literally did less than an energy drink (shame too because I'd never tried coke before); did all the touristy stuff in Cape Town (actually I'd really recommend it all, especially Table Mountain--it's incredibly beautiful); and I rented a car and drove around the Cape (also recommended); and in Joburg I just hung out at the campsite drinking all day. We treated South Africa like a vacation, because we had just come out of Central Africa and were relishing the feeling of ... not being in Africa!
pic: Cape of Good Hope
Anonymous
>>566184 >so un-African that's some imperialist mindframe shit right there. so a degree of progress and development means they're "unafrican"? i get that you're using it shorthand, but that's a pretty shitty way to use the adjective.
>coke in SA well what did you expect? it was probably more baking soda than anything. also, i actually thought you meant cola at first... lol
no offense OP, but you kinda sound like the ADD "libertarian" prick that every classroom had.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566201 You're kinda sounding like that easy to butthurt prick that every classroom had.
Not OP btw.
Anonymous
>>566184 Sounds great
How are the prices for booze?
Did you sometimes buy in bulks and stored it in your big ass Scania because you were about to travel through no man's land?
Have you felt like you were in danger at any point during your time in CT or JB? Or was it way more relaxing than any other part of Africa since its considered more civilized(and way more white people livin there)?
More photos from CT and JB are encouraged
Anonymous
Hey OP, I was going to ask and kept forgetting... Did it ever get boring on the trip? How did you guys pass time? You said that after seeing a few villages the next ones weren't all that exciting. But did it ever get so boring that you thought "why did I go on this trip" ?
Anonymous
>>566201 Really not too sure what you're on about (libertarianism? wat?), but some points to address:
South Africa / Namibia are NOT the Africa of your imagination. The same holds true for North Africa. They're literally different worlds. Above the Sahara and you're out of Black Africa and into a land where Arabs have held sway for a millennium. Southern Africa is a little different, as the flavor of Africa is still there, but it's still radically different. Some imperialist shit? No, if anything I'm being anti-imperialist: the only reason Southern Africa is a different world as compared to the rest of sub-Saharan Africa is that imperialists have had three hundred years to mold it to their liking. Southern African is not un-African because of it's level of development, it's un-African because the Boers, the Germans, and the English have radically altered the socioeconomic and cultural landscapes such that it's barely recognizable compared to the rest of Africa. At any rate, when I say un-African it should simply be read as 'not resembling Africa', "Africa" being defined as simply what is most prevalent. Have we sorted out our little political correctness tussle?
pic: Cape Town by night. There is not a single city in all of Africa between the Sahara in the north and Namibia/SA to the south that looks even remotely like this.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566222 Beer prices in SA are about US-average. Maybe a touch cheaper, but it really depends where you go (just like in the US). In general SA feels a lot like the US (outside the townships anyway): big cities plotted on grids with good roads, fast food, gas stations everywhere, etc. It felt really good after half a year in the shit. Beer was never more than a couple km away in SA, but in general yes we would often buy beer by the slab. This got much more difficult as we got into central Africa as all bottles have deposits and Africans do NOT want to let you keep the bottles (even if you offer to pay extra). Canned/one-use bottle beer goes away after Morocco and doesn't return until Namibia. And it goes away again as soon as you get a bit further north on the East side, too.
I never felt endangered in SA, but I didn't get drunk in the bad parts of town at 3am and go outside wandering around, either. The cities have reputations, somewhat deserved, but common sense will take you a long way. Just like at home. As far as relaxing goes -- proper bars, proper restaurants with actual menus, fast food, actual convenience stores, all the western goods and products you could want... Everything is clean, organized, and functions... Nobody staring at us, harassing us, trying to scam us... We were in paradise.
pic: one of the many, many incredible views off Table Mountain
Anonymous
>>566260 Of course. I mean, the company has a zero refund policy. And most of the costs are paid up-front. 5 people left the trip early, one after only two weeks, one after a couple months. That's pissing away thousands of dollars. It's not a vacation, and sometimes it's fucking hard. You'll have some of the best parties of your life, but then you'll spend literally a MONTH trying to get one visa. A month in Bamako, with summer temperatures hovering at 45 degrees Celsius and occasionally peaking close to 50C. Wake up, stumble to couch, lay under fan for 16 hours, try not to spend your entire trip budget on beer to kill the boredom, fall asleep soaked in sweat, repeat. x30. I mean, after Benin there's no more activities, no more awesome tours or sights -- just several thousand kilometers of bad roads, filthy cities, and a complete lack of almost every creature comfort you can imagine. But fuck, you're there, you're waking up in your tent on the banks of the Congo river. Sure, you haven't showered in three weeks and you almost forget the taste of milk, butter, cheese, steak, hamburgers, chocolate, etc, etc -- but these people have lived their whole lives here, and will continue to live there until they die. It's easy to conceptualize, but once you experience even a taste of it you can start to understand it much more meaningfully. Don't do a year in Africa if you want to go on holiday; I spent 6 years in the army -- there were parts of the trip where I couldn't decide what was more challenging (physically, emotionally, spiritually): "touring" Africa or Basic Training. That said, I had some of the best times of my life, too :D
pic: Sup Africans, how you doin'
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566266 Fuck they look silly.
I'm wondering if I will ever end up in Africa like you. The thought gives me feels
Also I can only repeat myself: thats freaking living what you experienced
Thanks for all the stories and pictures, please never stop
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566266 So how did you all entertain yourselves, other than by drinking?
Did you just read a lot and play cards? run rape trains on the blonde girl? shoot at the locals out of your truck? run after lions in the savannas?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
How were the little girls there?
Anonymous
>>566261 and yet... all those thing ARE in Africa. making them resemble Africa. See?
I can more or less agree with you on the geography distinctions... I've been to north africa, and I consider it the "Middle East", not so much Africa. Maybe Morocco or Algeria can claim slightly otherwise, because of the Berber and colonial elements. And yea, southern Africa in general has had a stronger colonial element. How about Zanzibar that was influenced by arabs for centuries? Swahili IS basically an african-base language that's been heavily inlfuenced by arabic and some later colonials... Madagascar has millions of people whose origins are in Indonesia.
it's kinda like what you're implying is that in your imagination Africa should be some land of, I dunno... shitty roads, garbage everywhere, bad food, oogabooga people staring at you, people asking for your shit, corrupt officials, poverty, ignorant villagers. See, YOU are proscribing upon these people what they should be according to your stereotypes, to fulfill whatever images you had or something. And when they are not, they're stripped of their "Africanness"? (Or could it be there is no such thing as an "Africanness" at all?...)
It's like if I went to land of US and A and a met a bunch of chinese hippies in Seattle and said "whoooa! tai-chi doing, vegan, hackey-sack playing, didgeridoo players who live communally with no shoes, hate guns, ride only bikes and are upset state of american politics" SOO UNAMERICAN.
ya feel me?
still enjoying the stories and pics. just saying maybe you should think about how you're using the term... it's just weird man, that's all.
Anonymous
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>you will never be as handsome as OP
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566319 >2012 >buying into a bullshit glossy charity fauxtivism scam to support the Uganda military who are just as bad as Kony >ishygddt Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566201 op probaby bought got cat instead of coke both powders look similar dealer just screwed them over
Anonymous
>>566317 I'm fairly certain that if you DID go to Seattle and meet a bunch of:
chinese hippies in Seattle and said "whoooa! tai-chi doing, vegan, hackey-sack playing, didgeridoo players who live communally with no shoes, hate guns, ride only bikes and are upset state of american politics"
and called that un-American - Noone would get as butthurt as you seem to over his characterization of SA being more existentially colonized.
He even went and printed out a nice politically correct paragraph just for you.
>"At any rate, when I say un-African it should simply be read as 'not resembling Africa', "Africa" being defined as simply what is most prevalent." >it's kinda like what you're implying is that in your imagination Africa should be some land of, I dunno... shitty roads, garbage everywhere, bad food, oogabooga people staring at you, people asking for your shit, corrupt officials, poverty, ignorant villagers. If you read the thread, the majority of Africa that OP experienced WAS exactly as you say he "imagines Africa to be."
But good job sticking up for those defenseless Africans on the inter-webs. Pricks like you are what makes taking any university arts program unbearable.
Anonymous
>>566426 I don't know why I'm feeding the troll in any case.
Anonymous
>>566427 >>566426 >If you read the thread, the majority of Africa that OP experienced WAS exactly as you say he "imagines Africa to be." Which is why I mentioned those, genius.
I don't think it's butthurt (I don't care too much in the grand scheme whether OP is one more fool on planet earth, or not) nor getting politically correct to call OP on bullshit.
this is hardly the first africa travelogue I've read. true to form, it sounds like it was written by a /b/tard who was previously ignorant of anything outside the bubble of his small world. but i don't mean to pick on OP, i'd still give him a brofist and buy him a beer.
i have a few south african friends where i live, i dated one for 2 years many moons ago, and they would also probably take issue, which is maybe where my "butthurt" comes from.
people were astonished when they said they were african. "BUT YOU'RE WHITE?!" etc. etc.
i'm just saying "african" encompasses a lot of things, not just poverty-stricken ignorant villagers festering in their own shit. even if it's what's prevalent, i don't think evidence to contrary makes something "un-african". that's all.
>what makes taking any university arts program unbearable. i actually have an econ degree under my belt, now working on an MBA. but keep rewiring motherboards in mom's basement, bro. don't let the chronic masturbation-hands ruin your work.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
OP, dont hesitate posting more stories and pictures. You dont have to write long stories to pictures if you dont want or dont have the time to, pictures would be cool too.
Anonymous
>>566433 You missed the point of my OP quote, he's not saying that his use of "un-African" characterises the continent as a whole. He's simply saying that it doesn't fit the stereotypes and generalizations that said "/b/tard" would have in Central/West Africa - we are on fucking 4chan after all, jesus.
This has nothing to do with that anyways, I object to assholes like you coming into a clearly awesome thread (in this festering shithole of a board) and pulling the "Well ACTUALLY...." P.C. bullshit.
I had a friend in High School that was born in Zambia and lived there until the blacks kicked them off their own land. He calls himself African, loves the idea of Africa - but would agree that alot of it is "booga booga" to quote you.
>i'm just saying "african" encompasses a lot of things, not just poverty-stricken ignorant villagers festering in their own shit. And the award for the obvious goes to!...
I have a degree in Politics from one of the most liberal universities in Canada and I fit right in there with the stoned out white womyn with dreads. However, I come to 4chan to escape the bullshit that you're pulling here.
At least we can agree that we'd buy OP a beer.
Anonymous
>>566449 well, why pander to /b/tards? why pander at all to anyone's stereotypes? fuck that shit, no need to frame your own mindworks on the lowest common denominator. OP said he's not a /trv/ regular, and it sorta shows. hence.
and pull the ginger-bulb out of your anus, bub. you're only overreacting to some PC strawman of your own creation. maybe because of too much time around stoned white womyn with dreads. sorry for you, but luckily that's not my cohort. and sounds like we probably think more or less the same thing anyway. this is stupid.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>561595 >We've had village chiefs be greedy cunts and demand stupidly high sums of money and you just paid them?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566470 >this is stupid. This is the first intelligent thing you've said so far.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566651 OP, this is how I feel about nig... um, black people in the united states. I swear I wouldn't be racist if it weren't for all of them.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566666 Why didn't you find Kony?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
Any advice for someone thinking of doing the same trip OP?
Anonymous
>>566682 Awesome thread, will try to read through it all when I've got a chance. Be warned. this is a dumb question.
What is your experience with camels? I intend to go from Petra to Cairo on a camel. I'd be interested in knowing whether you think this area would be worthwhile to travel through (is it empty?), if you know anything about the price of a camel and if I could resell it easily, etc. Would I need two camels, to share the burden?
Pic unrelated but I like it.
Anonymous
>>566691 Haha, holy fuck. Well I uh.. I ... let me try :D
If you read the thread you'll see I chucked in the towel after Uganda. But I've spent a couple days on a camel in the Sahara. Camels are funny animals, they make the most amazing and incredibly irritating sounds. They're grumpy. They smell. But you must know all this. Riding isn't too uncomfortable if you sit side-saddle.
Is there an established trail? What about logistics? You don't actually intend to ENTER Cairo with a camel, right? That's like rocking into Detroit on a donkey.
I've heard they go for $100-200 in Sudan, not sure about Jordan. As long as you don't have too much shit, you should be fine with one... I think? What about water? How often can you get it?
Man, that's a seriously wild plan, I'm coming up with more questions than answers.
pic: Mali (yes, there is both a motorbike AND a cow in that boat)
Anonymous
I don't know many minutes it took me to read the entire thread, but it was amazing. The site is
http://www.africa-overland.net/ , right?
Anonymous
>>566733 No trail as far as I'm aware. I'd have to plan it out based on where water was available I assume, as it won't all be populated. Then I'll confirm the water's still there with locals whenever possible. When I say Cairo what I really mean is Giza. I'd be going between what I consider to be the two greatest sights in the region.
Uhm, I'd probably need to ride into city centres, yeah. Or stable(?) the camel outside, if possible, then taxi in. Not sure about this. I don't have a great interest in cities, so if they were avoidable then that would be fine.
$100-200 is nothing. I wouldn't even mind giving the camel away for free after, if it would be quicker and I could find somebody worth giving it to.
Plan's in its infancy but I've had the idea for a long time.
Anonymous
>>562445 I know that giraffe! That two-timing whore!
Nairobi temporary resident checking in. Did you also hit up the elephant orphanage (it's near that giraffe center).
Also: I'm bored! What else is there to do in Kenya besides hang out with wildlife covered in tourist germs?
Anonymous
>>566907 Actually, I'm also planning a trip to Jo-burg and Capetown (mostly for the capetown beaches). Any specific beaches to recommend?
Do their beaches have the beach boys like Mombasa (random locals trying to sell you stuff)?
Anonymous
>>566733 In mali, did you get to see jenne, gao, or timbuktu? Any guides for the historical shit or do you kinda have to look on your own?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566770 That's a good site, but it's not the company webpage. Just google African Trails, should be the first page up.
>>566876 As far as I know that region is pretty empty, but there may be a lot of villages out there in the middle of nowhere--connected by camel trails. Seems like it could be a really awesome trip. You might consider a guide--they are dirt cheap in that part of the country and he could be a huge help finding routes, water, translating (unless your Arabic is good), camel stuff, etc.
That said, as long as you're careful with water, whats the worst that could happen?
Go for it man, awesome for you :D
>>566907 Hahaha yeah, she's rather slutty. Didn't get a chance to hit up the elephant orphanage. I wanted to, but we had already seen thousands of elephants and I just didn't have too much time. Most of my time in Nairobi was spent inbetween the US and Sudanese consulates. A bunch of dicks, all of 'em. As for what to do... well, my version of what was awesome will differ from yours ;) For me, going to the malls and the movies was fucking AMAZING because we rarely got awesome things like that. BUT, Masai Mara is definitely the biggest thing in Kenya. You might also take a trip west into the mountains or down to lake Victoria. Really, really beautiful. Uganda is close too, and one of the most beautiful countries I saw in Africa. How are you liking Nairobi? Doing NGO stuff?
pic: Uganda
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>566924 It won't be nearly as bad as Kenya and they will have a lot more respect/courtesy. But yeah, there's still people wandering around. And for best beaches my favorites were honestly ones I found just driving around the cape. Beautiful spots EVERYWHERE and totally empty (usually). Closer to Cape Town I really liked Camps Bay--lots of great beaches there. I'd rent a car and spend a couple days cruising for awesome spots. Also weed is cheap as fuck in CT.
>>566947 We did Jenne and Gao. Really really beautiful cities (I'd also check out Mopti as well). As for guides, you will have to fight people off with a stick. The best way NOT to get harassed is to have a guide with you, because then the 5000 other guides will leave you alone. I personally am not much for guides, so I got harassed the entire time. But yeah, absolutely no problem finding someone to show you around.
pic: The market in Jenne
Anonymous
>>566924 and
>>566907 here
Hmm, I have been meaning to go to Masai Mara and Victoria. Probably make the latter a fishing trip.
Definitely gonna check out Camps Bay and just look around for beaches while in Cape Town.
Nairobi is, ok. Traffic is amazingly terrible, if you actually need to go into the city proper for any reason. It's got a weird combination of all the western comforts but the Kenyan way of life. I mean hell, you can get freshly made sushi. But that dude is going to take foreeever to make it. Gotta finish his nap under a tree first.
Also everyone is wearing business casual. The guys doing road work have dress shoes on. Totally makes me look like a slob.
I'm actually here doing GO work. So uuh, sorry about the problems you had with the US consulates. Not my department though so I'm pissed at them too! We have a combination of US federal HR employees and local hires, which combines to create the perfect storm of lazy and incompetent.
I'm actually looking for NGO stuff to do. Not much going on in the city, and it's hard to go out to volunteer to dig a well or something when you could get 3 locals to do it for $10.
Sorry I couldn't reply sooner, but the internet has been off and on ever since that dude dropped an anchor on our main underwater fiber.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>567197 This is the slowest moving board on 4chan; this thread has been up for like 2 weeks. No worries on slow replies ;)
African cities in general are business casual. If an African has a little bit of money, he/she will spend it on appearances. You hear all the time stories about people choosing a suit over a bed to sleep on. Then of course we rock through looking scrubby as shit in filthy clothes and greasy hair. It honestly blows their mind--white people are supposed to be rich, and rich people DO NOT dress like idiots and *gasp* sit on the ground. (Literally, they gasp, not joking.)
Nairobi is something else. I actually did get sushi while I was there, and it was pretty good ;) Traffic was absolute shit. Two hours on some days to get into town to the consulates.
I can't imagine working with local hires. Or government types, either, I guess. I mean, for US people overseas you've got a bunch of employees who NEED structure and clearly-outlined goals/regulations/etc. That just doesn't exist in Africa. And trying to get the Africans to follow any sort of structure at all...
pic: Namibia
Anonymous
Story time:
Anonymous
>>567413 Anyway, he apologizes profusely [challenge accepted] and comes back the next day with new cakes, for free. The last ones were weak as, so instead of splitting them in halves we all (three of us) had whole ones.
30 minutes later the guitar sitting next to me is playing itself. I'm giggling like mad. I can't quite get out the words. Everybody is staring at me. FInally in a huge burst of laughter "THE GUITAR ... IT'S PLAYING... ITSELF!!!" They might know I'm high at this point, I'm not sure.
I go to breakfast with our driver (who does not smoke and hates that we do) and a bunch of others. Nobody else was high. I somehow got sat at the head of the table. I sit there, for what seemed like hours, gently rocking in my chair staring at the ocean. Somebody told me to eat my food. HOLY FUCK THERE'S FOOD IN FRONT OF ME?
I stumbled back. I was so close to losing my shit. I couldn't take it anymore, I climbed up somestairs to this treehouse place and laid down staring at the trees. I kept thinking somebody was going to find me, so every 10 seconds I had to check the stairs to make sure nobody was there. This went on for hours.
pic: sometime during that afternoon. I don't remember well.
Anonymous
>>567414 I have never, ever been so fucked up. And I've been slipped (good) LSD. I finally stumbled down around dark to get me a hamburger from the bar. I think I was literally drooling. I didn't feel 'right' again until the next day.
My friend--the pothead--fared a bit better. He spent like 6 hours bodysurfing. Nobody knew where the hell he was. My other friend spent the ENTIRE DAY sitting in a beach chair staring at the sand, giggling to himself, rocking so much he kept falling off the seat.
pic: tame monkey playing on the giant-cock-swing.
Anonymous
wow that's soo cool xD you did drugs in africa xD
Anonymous
>>567419 Looking for any reason to hate OP because you know you'll never have such an amazing trip, are we?
Anonymous
Anonymous
Just read the whole thread, amazing! I've travelled a bit myself but never anything nearly this extreme. To be honest, I wouldn't really like to do this trip, but I definitely want to go to Africa one day. Which countries would you recommend for a 1-2 month trip? Something that's really African, but not overwhelmingly tough for an independent traveller.
Anonymous
Spent a few days reading this whole thread. It is by far one of the best written threads I have seen on /trv/. OP should write a book and I will personally fund the publishing. My only question is: What are you going to do next?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>567418 It was really mixed--half the day was great, half the day was awful. Hilarious link, I love that guy. That was pretty much me until I retreated to the treehouse =\
>>567419 Troll harder.
>>567511 Cheers.
>>567519 Perhaps in the sense that it depicts Africa, but this isn't a thread about foreign policy or international politics.
>>567568 I wouldn't say I entirely enjoyed it either, but that's no reason not to go! If you're looking for something more accessibly, 1-2 months is great. Eastern Africa is really what you're looking for: going from Kenya to South Africa/Namibia takes about 1.5 months, shows you a ton of Africa, is full of activities and sights, and is set up for tourism. You can do it independently, or over a dozen over-landing companies run truck through there. It's definitely African, but it isn't so African that you're going to have a really difficult time.
pic: Okavango Delta, Botswana
Anonymous
>>567833 Thanks a lot, I've put a lot of work into this over the past couple weeks and I'm glad people are getting some use / entertainment / inspiration from it. I had never given Africa too much thought as a travel destination, and it's too bad because it IS possible and it's definitely a worthwhile experience. If I can convince other people of that, great.
Next I've got to save another chunk of money. I'm living in Japan about to start teaching ESL at the moment, and after I save ~$30k I plan to drive from Alaska (Deadhorse) to the southern tip of Argentina ... and back (well, to Seattle). I've driven to the Arctic before, and all through Mexico. I know enough Spanish to get by. Most of the countries are visa-on-arrival. It's a trip traditionally done on a motorcycle, but I want to drive. The only really difficult bit is arranging the shipping of my car around the Darien Gap. But yeah, that's the next big one in the works.
Pic: welcome to the Belgian Congo.
Anonymous
>>567851 Where are you originally from OP?
Anonymous
Did your anti-malarials give you nightmares?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>567920 I grew up in central Pennsylvania; the first time I left the country wasn't until I was 23 or so. I went out to Washington to go back to school (the choice of state involving a girl) and lived about 80 miles east of Seattle for 4 years. That original move is what started me on travel, especially over-land travel. A 3,000 mile trip turned into a 23,000 mile roadtrip through 3 countries. Every summer break we took the car out for 10-15k+ miles--usually to Mexico :D
>>567926 I was on generic Larium and although I didn't get nightmares, my dreams were certainly more intense. It doesn't really change what you dream about, it just magnifies the content of whatever you normally dream. The effect wears off after a while though, which kinda sucks because my dreams were awesome.
pic: central Namibia
Anonymous
>>567926 Not OP, but man, I hate anti-malarials. Important note! One makes birth control (the pill) not work! I'm sure someone out there has a hilarious story about a baby named Doxy Cycline Smith.
I've noticed that the upset stomach side effect is less severe if you take them after a decent breakfast. Perfect excuse to eat a bagel in Africa. (Ok the bagels aren't very good, but the cream cheese is!).
I'm looking forward to trying Mefloquine (Larium) next time. Now that I'm in-country I can probably find it pretty cheap.
What the fuck is with the dreadlocks? Dreadlocks are ugly as fuck if you're not black.
Anonymous
>>568007 Don't ask OP, he's not the one with dreads..
Anonymous
>>568007 >my opinion is fact Go to bed, dad. Get drunk watching football or something.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>567952 Yeah, Doxy can fuck with birth control. It's also a pretty heavy wide-spectrum antibiotic which kills as much good stuff as bad. And makes many people sensitive to the sun. And gives you an upset tummy if taken without food. And you have to take it every day... but it's cheap, I guess!
Larium is nice as it's once weekly and very few side-effects. The worst being: about 10% of those who take it report debilitating psychological distress. It's been a factor in a number of murders and suicides. I had great dreams :D Yes, it's much cheaper in Africa. I paid ~$80 for a 10 month supply.
>>568007 wut
>>568102 Haha, actually, in the middle of the Congo after 1.5 months of not washing my hair, I started to dread up a little bit. They were full of dirt and god knows what else; I freaked out and one of the girls washed them out for me. Literally handfuls of old, loose hair came out, it was crazy. And the water was literally dark brown. Ahhh, Africa.
>>568105 This.
pic: Fixing another road in the Congo
Anonymous
Anonymous
>Druggie faggot hipster >should have stayed there
Anonymous
Holy shit, tried reading thru but couldn't.
Anonymous
Anonymous
>>568597 Haha, never been called a druggie or a hipster before. Cheers.
>>568599 Where are you from that you have much experience with Africans?
Small bit of advice time: Anybody considering doing any part of West/Central Africa, arrange the necessary visas at home. A lot of our issues came from applying for visas from outside our home countries. In Mali the Nigerian embassy would only give visas to Malian residents; in the end we all bought (illicitly) 5-year Malian residency in order to sidestep the issue. It was a problem we bumped into repeatedly. Even if you won't reach the country you intend to visit before the entry date passes, every embassy told us it was easy to change the entry date / expiration date on the visa--only getting it is difficult. So pay an agent and get the difficult ones done at home. It might save you a lot of trouble or possibly an aborted trip.
Pic: Northern Mali
Anonymous
>>568803 Did you go up there?
Anonymous
Pretty fucking cool OP. What kind of medical care/immunizations did you take before hand?
Anonymous
>>568809 Yeah we walked all around these villages. It was pretty rough for me cause I got some kinda stomach bug off (I presume) one of the kids (they're constantly hanging on you). Spent a lot of that day feeling like death. Really amazing places, though.
>>568817 Yellow Fever is required for many countries. I would have just gotten that and called it good (no medical insurance), but my mother is an RN and flat out refused to let me go without a full suite of immunizations: Hep A/B, Typhoid, Tetanus, Meningitis, and a couple smaller ones I don't remember. As long as she was paying, they could stick me with as many needles as they pleased :D
All up it was ~$500, but the travel nurse cut me a few deals: "Do you have a history of drug use? <wink>" "Uhh.. yes, I used to love... crack. Yep, crack is really nice." "Great! You qualify for free Hepatitis B through blah blah government program!"
Before the trip I would have said not to worry about it, but a lot of people came down with some weird shit. So. Get the immunizations if you can.
And of course anti-malarials.
pic: Eastern Senegal
Anonymous
Quoted By:
If OP was willing to spend 20 grand or so to go to Africa, it wouldn't have hurt him in the wallet too much to pay a few extra dollars for a better looking fucky sucky slut.
Anonymous
>>568828 that pic man, that fucking pic
what about wild animals?
those pics where you are repairing the streets right in the jungle, is there a chance that a tiger could jump right at you?
Anonymous
How many different currencies did you need during your journey? How hard was it to gauge what the exchange rate was and where you needed to go to make the exchanges? I would also assume that there were not too many ATM's around there, so did you carry large amounts of cash on you?
Anonymous
>>568828 What's the story with that pic? Is the bridge partially flooded?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>568900 For the most part all the dangerous shit has been killed off outside the reserves. Of course there are still leopards and such around, but they're not going to attack a group of people. An elephant could fuck our day up, but they aren't so common in that part of Africa.
95% of the stuff I worried about in Africa was visas and bureaucracy ;)
pic: berber family in the mountains near Todra Gorge in Morroco
Anonymous
>>568906 Every capital city, even in the most isolated areas, had ATMs. Of course, that still leaves 2-5 week gaps with no ATM access. Not to mention the fact that the capitol could be in the south and we'd cross in the north--so yes, large sums of cash.
I was backpacking in Europe before the trip with $7000 USD in a hidden wallet. Needless to say, I was a little concerned. On the truck there must have been something like $80,000 dollars cash at the start of the trip between our local payments to the driver ($3500 each) and personal funds. The driver literally literally had a dozen places in the cab (behind the dash, door panels, roof liner, etc) where he stashed cash; we had a hidden locked safe in the back.
Even though it's about 30 countries, a huge portion of West Africa uses the West African Franc, and there's also the Central African Franc (both pegged to the Euro). Morocco, Mauritania, Ghana, and Nigeria have their own currencies. After Central Africa it was a new currency every border crossing.
Up-to-date exchange rates don't mean too much in most of Africa as they don't fluctuate as much on the street. Many places the money-changers (dudes on the side of the street with chunks of cash) paid above market value for hard currency. Our driver never worried about actual exchange rates and knew the rough rates almost everywhere--we usually just followed his lead. Sometimes I lost, sometimes it was in my favor. It's also hard to plan because some countries like certain currencies more than others (e.g., West Africa likes euro, East Africa likes dollars).
pic: N. Mali
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>568907 There was another, more modern bridge but it was only for longer-distance truck and bus traffic. All the locals still used that one. Although, most of the people you see in that picture are doing laundry and bathing. I watched for about half an hour... it was nuts watching those POS little 4-door sedans crossing. It looked like they'd be swept off the bridge and carried off, but they'd just gun the gas and push through.
Of course, there was a lot of bridges just like that with no bigger bridge to count on as well. Shitty picture, but you get the idea. Somewhere in Cameroon. This is a "major highway" :)
Anonymous
>>568933 when looking at that pic I hate myself for sitting in my chair
great stuff man
Anonymous
Would you go to any black country ever again (there are plenty in Africa and in the Caribbean) if you said being in Africa was very emotionally and physically draining?
Anonymous
How did you obtain drinking water or drinks in most of Africa?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>568939 Easy enough to get out of that chair :D
>>568942 I've spent several months in Mexico, although that's a fairly wealthy, developed country and it's easy enough to travel there. So yeah, this is basically my first. The issue primarily was the length of time spent. I could easily go back for a couple weeks almost anywhere and enjoy myself with friends--it's just that spending close to a year was difficult. Now, you shouldn't equate "emotionally/physically draining" with not worth doing" -- it was an incredibly amazing experience BECAUSE it was so difficult (at times). I have no regrets whatsoever. I'm not the type of person who really enjoys "vacations" and who rates an experience on how pleasurable it was. I'm after -new- experiences first and foremost, good or bad. Some of the experienced I value most in life most definitely would not consider fun. If you're only in it for the fun, go to Europe. Me? I'll try homelessness for a few months just to see what it's like. But first I want to drive to South America.
Advice? Read this thread, I guess. Read other, better organized travelogues if you want. But for me, I rarely do much research and tend to dive right in. I'd say just got for it. Learning everything you can before you go can only prepare you for so much, and you're going to learn it all once you get there anyway :D
I'll go back and go all the way around again someday, but not for a decade or more. Too many other places to see and fresh experiences to grow from.
pic: Matadi, DRC
Anonymous
>>568953 Drinking water: The truck held ~800 liters of water so we'd fill up where it was safe and use it sparingly. We carried fresh water for cooking and not-so-fresh for cleaning. "Safe" could be a village well, or purified water from a nicer hotel in the capital city. Many countries tap water isn't terrible. We also bought loads of bottled water whenever possible. You stop stressing so much about clean food and water once you get there--or rather, your idea of "clean" changes drastically.
Toilets: Nonexistent. Or, on the rare occasion they did exist: if it was outside, it was literally smeared with shit. Indoors was a gamble, but unless it was at a nicer hotel it would probably be awful. We did everything on the side of the road or in camp. Sucks to be shy.
I've seen loads of people do things in public, both us and Africans. There's actually signs in some places that say "Do not shit here." People usually will duck into alleys or bushes, it's not a big deal.
Eh, Africans have their own customs and norms, I wouldn't place them any closer to monkeys than you or I? I mean, I personally find them fucking annoying in large part, but not ...ape-like?
Most of Africa is covered in trash. Just look at every photo of cities I have posted here. SA / Namibia / Morocco aren't bad, but they're different worlds.
pic: At a well, somewhere in Congo
Anonymous
Which African country did you like most and why? I think you hinted South Africa.
Anonymous
>>568964 Are you good with kids? :P
also that girl reminds me of pipi longstockings in the photos youve posted
Anonymous
>Did you ever witness an actual chimp out? You know, where blacks stop imitating humans and act more like gorillas? >Would you go to any black country ever again (there are plenty in Africa and in the Caribbean)?
Anonymous
What kind of clothing and shoes should people prepare with to go to Africa? Are long sleeves and long pants necessary in Africa?
Anonymous
Since black Africa has few man-made attractions (beuatiful buildings, historical remains, cities, etc.) compared to other parts of the world, did you ever think being in Africa wasn't worth all the money and hassle if you say that black Africa more or less feels and looks the same?
Anonymous
How often did the words "FUCKING NIGGERS" slip through your lips or the lips of your tour mates? Even if those words weren't spoken out loud, how often did that thought cross your minds?
Anonymous
>>569024 >he thinks Africans and African-Americans are the same Anonymous
Did you see any hispanic looking latinbros in Africa?
Anonymous
>>561594 ...So they're like white people?
Anonymous
Sweet Jesus this coffee is good. I had tinned African instant coffee for the entire trip, and along with cheese and butter and chocolate, good coffee is something I missed terribly. This Japanese stuff isn't wonderful, but it's amazing compared to what I drank in Africa.
Anyway, on to replies:
>>568974 I don't really ever like to deal in 'favorites', nor can I really name one place that was 'the worst' (although, most people on our truck would say Mauritania was). South Africa is a favorite, but you have to take that in context of the rest of the trip. How about, places I would definitely like to go back to: Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, DRC, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda. If you read the thread you'll see I got denied entry to Mauritania, but most of the truck hated it.
>>568980 Kids like me (a lot); I don't like kids all that much. I just got a job here in Japan teaching English to kids (aged 8 through 16)--we'll see how it works out haha.
>>569024 I'm here to provide information, not confirmation of your very odd view of the world. I would go back to Africa. I would go to any predominately black non-African country as well, because what the hell does that have to do with Africa? I never once in this thread said BLACK PEOPLE are annoying, I said AFRICANS are. You seem to be confusing the two.
pic: furniture for sale in Ghana.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>569025 I wore shorts, a tee, and flipflops 19 days out of 20. I also wore the same set of clothes for 1-2 weeks at a time. The whole truck did. You also will need a pair of long pants (can be bought in Africa) for nighttime if you don't want to get bit up. And a hoodie for colder days. Morocco and Namibia can be freezing (literally around 0-5 degrees C) so a real coat helps. Also one set of jeans/slacks with a button-down shirt and closed-top shoes for embassies. They won't let you in if you look like shit (seriously).
Lots of people packed way too much shit, myself included. Pack less clothes is the biggest thing. I had two different sets of tshirts/shorts on rotation for like months. I packed clothes I NEVER wore in Africa.
I don't burn easily (or rather, I am good about slowly building up a good tan). I never used sunscreen and was pretty dark (still am 6 months later!) even though with no sun or travel I am not a very dark person. If you need sunscreen, bring it. You cannot buy it anywhere south of Morocco until SA. If you do find it (resort areas), it will cost $15-20. The same goes for bug spray.
Temps ranged from below freezing to 120 degrees F in Mauritania and Mali. In Mali, where we got stuck for a month, it was between 110-120 degrees every day. If it got down to around 100 it actually felt pleasant outside. Third time in my life I've felt 120F/50C temps. You don't get used to it.
pic: market in Kumasi, Ghana
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>569282 >P1012509.jpg my sides
Anonymous
>>569026 There's a lot of similarity there, but there's also enough change to keep things interesting. It's also a challenge, which is motivating in itself. I'd never call what I did a waste of time or money. If you're the type of person who thinks "not fun" and "not worth doing" mean the same thing, you might not enjoy a longer trip through the more inaccessible parts of Africa. For me those two statements are very, very different things.
>>569030 The word 'nigger' does not cross my mind unless I'm on a forum like this reading it. I'm a pretty liberal kid and racism (and the trappings of racism) are abhorrent. What DID cross my mind (and lips) multiple times every single day was "Fucking Africans." There's a big difference.
>>569033 I keep running into this failure to distinguish 'black' from 'African'.
>>569052 Not many, but don't sweat it. You're foreign, so you get treated the same as everybody else. Many Africans don't know where the rest of AFRICA is, let alone Latin America or Spain or India etc. Of course it's different in the cities where people have more education, but honestly nobody gives a damn if you're hispanic or white: either way, you're not black, and you're not African! In the Congo we got mistaken for Chinese all the time, because Africans there only ever saw Chinese (they are building some roads there) and thought all foreigners were Chinese. It's ridiculous.
>>569069 Hahaha.
>>569073 eh?
pic: Benin
Anonymous
One thing to keep in mind here guys: I am not now nor was I then nor have I ever been racist. Many Africans (not black people in general--how the fuck can you say "in general" about a skin color which spans continents?!) are possessed of some cultural traits which I personally find annoying or troubling. I've posted this a few other places and I'll post it again here. It's from my journal, circa month 4 or 5, in the Congo:
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>569287 the blond nympho mustve gotten all wet seeing those abs on that gentleman. do you know if she had consensual sex in the missionary position with any african on the trip?
also protip: everybody has abs, even your grandma. they get visible when achieving low bodyfat%
Anonymous
>>569290 I think what may be at issue here is that in much the same way you were "fucking africans" after being surrounded by them for extended periods of time, many of us that are in the southern US amongst the most dense black population are like "fucking southern black people" which gets shortened to "fucking niggers." Obviously everyone doesn't fit a stereotype, but we're quite capable of making observations about the majority of a population that we're surrounded by, the same way you did with black africans. I take no pride in having racist thoughts, but when 2 out of 3 people I meet with black skin show me every reason why the stereotypes exist, it's hard not to develop an opinion. I maintain every effort to recognize the civilized nature of the remaining 1 out of 3 however. For the record, the 5 years I spent living in upstate NY showed me firsthand that it was indeed significantly (though not entirely) in a cultural/regional difference, as the majority of blacks I encountered there did not fit the "nigger" stereotype.
-White conservative from the southern US
Anonymous
Anonymous
>>569312 I agree with this post. I lived in the south for more than 20 years and was never the slightest bit racist until it was shoveled upon me because a black person had to sit next to a "white cracker". In the south, blacks are given the same opportunities and education in every city, yet it is more often than not, the whites that choose to better themselves. I live in the north now and see that many blacks and other ethnicities function as a whole. While some areas remain culturally divided, it is nothing like the south, nor is Africa anything like the United States. I am also unbiased to conservative/liberal principles. I would like to say that I think OP is a very dignified individual with class and humility. We could all use a little more of each.
Anonymous
Hey OP, did you ever see any African men, women, or children running around naked or being almost naked? Did you ever get to see for yourself if the "big black dick" stereotype was true?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>569323 Don't be so butthurt from the one time a lowly black person called you a cracker when you were eating at Burger King.
>racism was shoved upon me, i didn't start it Anyway, back to more stories from OP please.
>>569373 See, OP knows what I'm talking about.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
So basically OP spent a year travelling around a giant shithole and survived to tell us about it. I wouldn't call it an accomplishment or something to be proud of.
Anonymous
Why is everyone trying to troll OP? eh is a pretty cool guy. Great thread OP, don't pay attention to these trolls.
Anonymous
<---------------Number 1, /pol/ is thats way
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>569648 Why do /pol/ and /int/ faggots always take their cancer to one of the best boards?
Anonymous
Quoted By:
Dont fucking go to that shithole. Dont do it. Africa fucking sucks.
Anonymous
>>564253 You do realize that you will be killed in most places in Africa for this. Africans are very stupid and bigoted. Just as they constantly mocked you for looking like Jesus and Osama, they will kill you for looking homosexual.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
400 years of moustaches
Nairobiguy
>>569787 Not if you're foreign. White guys do silly things, remember? That includes acting gay for laughs (there's always a gay dude in the African soaps, I assume they find them a hilarious caricature still.)
If you're an actually an African in a village chasing penises around that may or may not end in death.
>>569442 Oh, we told our banks first. I dunno if they didn't believe us or what, but credit cards still didn't work when we arrived. They fixed it once we called from Kenya to ask to pay for stuff, haven't had an issue since then.
Foreign transaction fees for me were generally $3 or less, not a big deal. Free currency conversion, straight from a check to local cash at our embassy is nice.
>>569346 Nairobi airport (the big one) is actually pretty nice. There's tons of carriers that fly there (KLM, Qatar air, Virgin, etc.) and the local ones are decent too (Kenya airways and Jetlink; 540 is kinda poop). Obviously I can only speak for Kenya though, I haven't been hoping around the rest of the continent like OP.
You'll have to fly and do resort/boutique hotels if you're trying to do a traditional vacation. OP pretty much did the opposite of that. Aside from the local bribes, sleeping in a tent by a truck is a pretty budget way to do things. . .
I'm going to ignore pretty much all of the 'grr black people/ boo racism' stuff since
>>569290 summed it up so well.
Culturally Kenya has been a similar experience so far to what OP has described, just with more city. Oh, also we have Indians; the British imported a middle class to Kenya (because they also had trouble working with the locals. . . ).
Anonymous
>>569811 White, foreign gays, and some percieved as gay, have been murdered in Africa. Acting gay is something you don't want to mess with.
Nairobiguy
>>569865 Oh yeah, I forgot about the Muslim countries in the north. Could happen there, I guess.
I really don't see that kinda thing happening in sub-Saharan Africa, which is my main experience with Africa.
Nairobiguy
Quoted By:
>>569865 Aight, so I actually tried to find some info on this. All I ran into online was Ugandans killing gay Ugandans and South Africans killing gay South Africans. Oh, and that apparently most of the African countries do have laws making homosexuality illegal. So, while they obviously aren't the most accepting people, I really don't see an obvious tourist dressing up like it's pride parade day in San Francisco getting into any kind of trouble.
That's like an 1840's stage actor wearing black-face getting beaten for being an escaped slave.
Anonymous
>>569891 At this time in history, african christians are competing with muslims to be the most anti-gay. It's a fairly new and growing problem caused by christian missionaries. In East Africa, Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Sudan are becoming more aggressively homophobic. In West Africa, Nigeria and Ghana are increasingly hostile to gays, especially western whites whom they see as perverting their country and praying upon children.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
I've been busy gearing up to start ESL teaching these past couple days so I haven't had much time for this thread. There's also the fact that--with a few exceptions--it's steadily going to shit (most of which I will ignore).
>>569312 >>569323 I understand the point you want to make, and in substance I can even (partially) agree (with some of it). However, the way you express that point is important, and it's hard to do so without making it into a race issue (with all its associated problems). Ethnicity is not a causal agent, at least not in the sense that most racists make it out to be. Anyway, neither of you are trolling, so although I don't think this is the place for this discussion, I won't lump you in with the rest of these idiots that I'm about to skip over either.
>>569346 Most Africans are fairly modest (especially in rural areas); only a few tribes still commonly go without much clothing. The only times I saw boobies were when we first entered Cameroon via a tiny little-used crossing (immigration = shack) and the entire village was yelling and screaming greetings at us, and some 15-16 year old girl was jumping up and down with absolutely nothing on. This is not normal behavior.
The other time is one of my most memorable moments on the trip (though not for any prurient reason). In Namibia the Himba are famous for wearing very little and smearing themselves in red mud. Anyway, we're in a proper supermarket (although it was quite small) and a Himba couple come strolling up the aisle. The woman is pushing a cart full of groceries, her husband is talking on the cell phone. They're clad entirely in leather and mud, and the woman is topless. It was such an odd juxtaposition.
pic: Gabon
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>569346 Flying depends a lot on where you fly to/from.
>>569811 covered Nairobi pretty well, and I also flew into/out of Morocco, Senegal, DRC, and SA. Casablanca is a slightly aged but entirely normal airport. SA airports are fully modern and quite nice (especially after World Cup!). Senegal was a bit like Nairobi--you can tell you're in Africa, but everything works like you'd expect. DRC was a shitshow. You couldn't really tell the building was an airport. There are literally about 15 manual security checks, placed at random, and if you don't want them EACH to search your bag for 15 minutes be prepared to hand out a little money. Of course if you plan for this and put on your poker-face, you won't have to pay shit (as is true for nearly all bribes in Africa).
I didn't bring any checked luggage through DRC so they couldn't say much to me. There's no order or signs or proper flow in the airport, and the Congolese (just like a lot of people in Africa) don't give a flying fuck about lines or common courtesy. There was a guy there who's sole job was to watch our line and try to make sure people didn't jump (unless they paid him a few francs, in which case it was fine).
It's so bad that almost every airport in the world will make you go through security again when you land.
You can get around by bus/bush taxi, but it's a pain in the ass. See
>>561613 . It's true that there aren't budget places in most of Africa, but some of the hotels are within budget pricing (they will be absolutely horrid, however). Almost everything else will be $30-200 USD a night, depending on location. We couldn't find anything in downtown Kinshasa for under $40/night at the very cheapest/crappiest.
pic: Dakar, Senegal
Anonymous
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>>569442 The website gives a good base for packing. I packed too much and basically never needed much. Important if you're doing the full trans is a wide range of clothing for cold/hot/rainy weather. And a lot of bug spray, because you will run out and you won't find more. ATM fees were never too bad, but it depends on your bank. Mine doesn't charge foreign ATM fees so for me it was usually only a couple bucks with the exchange fee / local ATM fee. It's a better rate than any official bureau du change so just don't worry about it. Most of us also brought the biggest chunk of cash from home. It's far more useful to have a huge amount of cash (USD and euro) that you can easily change than to rely on ATM withdrawals. Exceptions are countries with tons of ATMs, like Morocco and Namibia/SA. We always, always, always kept our passports and cash locked in the truck. It's a heavy duty metal box with two padlocks tucked away under the floorboards.
>>569585 Like I said, left after Uganda/Kenya. I've heard they're pretty cool, though.
pic: roads in Cameroon; we had to wait for these trucks to be pushed/towed out of the way before we could make a go at it
Anonymous
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>>569787 I agree entirely with Nairobiguy on this one. It's possible you could get in trouble in some places, but foreigners are held to an entirely different standard than Africans. You wouldn't want to be actually making out with / holding hands with your gay partner, but just looking gay is probably indistinguishable from looking like any other badly-dressed hilarious white person. That said, that picture was taken in a private campground at a private party.
>>569984 There is truth to all this, of course, and I'm sure if you're not careful you could wind up in a bad situation. But it would take a lot of purposefully flaunting it, and even then it would be exceptional if you were anything more than harassed. We had gay couples on the truck for a couple weeks, and they were careful about it. If I were actually gay, I'd be careful as well. But I wouldn't be paranoid about it--avoid publicly groping your partner and you'll almost definitely be fine. Unless you're actually living long-term in an isolated rural area, but that doesn't really apply to anybody here.
pic: one of very few crossings between Congo and DRC.
Anonymous
>>569811 Thanks for picking up the slack. I agree entirely with everything you've said. As an aside, I had incredible Indian food in Nairobi :D
Small bit of advice for everyone:
If you're going to spend all the money on airfare and all the other major costs to come to Africa, do it right. Safaris are fucking expensive, especially if you stay at the lodges. But they're very, very worth it. It's incredible seeing these animals up close in their natural habitat. Lions, leopards, cheetah, rhino ... you name it, we were lucky enough to see it. I would never consider a trip like this unless I had the extra cash to really make the most of it. Of course I try to save money wherever and however possible, but the big-ticket items like game drives are non-negotiable (and for me, a must). Of course, you can still sleep in a tent and laugh at the wealthy brits away on holiday in their $200/night rooms.
One tip is to go to some of the smaller parks. They will have a lot of the same wildlife (although seeing big cats is something you can only really do well at the bigger places) and cost about half the price. On the other hand, you'll spend a lot more to get there.
pic: Chobe National Park, Zambia
Anonymous
>>569995 keep in mind that going on a safari doesn't mean you'll see everything. We spent three days out there and never did see any lions.
Anonymous
>>570010 Thanks for keeping up with the thread OP.
In the exif data I see you were packing an Olympus E-500, what kind of lenses did you bring? Any tips for Africa specific photography?
Anonymous
>>570232 Slavery doesn't mean what you think.
Modern slaves are just low paid workers. They get accomodation, food, and some money to send back home.
Chain rattling niggers are no more.
Hey OP, could you email me, I'd like to ask something that needs a long reply, thank you!!!
Anonymous
Great thread. Thanks for posting it. I've told a number of people about your trip. Everyone was very interested.
Anonymous
normally i'd be jealous as fuck of a person like you, op. but after reading this thread and enjoying your pics and stories, you seem like a damn nice guy. like one of those people who SHOULD win the lottery.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
Did you go to Kampala? What was it like there? Can you remember the names of any good bars?
Anonymous
>>570417 In Uganda? I thought Uganda was generally safe?
Anonymous
How rare are the 2 things we usually take for granted--electricity and running water--in Africa?
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>>570442 Obvious troll is troll, and you're probably a troll too... or a samefag.
Anonymous
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>>570417 I've enjoyed this thread, but I have to say this picture looks shopped. I thought I could trust people on this board. Sigh.
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>>570417 >>570608 I'm glad that morons like you only reached the thread after OP more or less finished with it.
Great thread though OP. I've been following this almost every day since you posted it.
Anonymous
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I'm now the owner of a brand new $1000 smartphone--free with two year contract in Japan. What the fuck, how do I internet with phone? Anyway, morning coffee, new phone, and a very uninspired imposter.
>>570010 Yep of course, I did say "lucky enough to see" :D Even without seeing big cats, it's still incredible. What park did you go to?
>>570136 E500 is quite an older model; I wanted a newer camera but just didn't have the cash for it with all the other expenses. Regarding lenses, I have a 28-110mm wide angle zoom that I basically never take off. I also brought an 80-300mm for the game parks. Basically, a fast wide-angle zoom lens will get you through almost any situation.
>>570232 Not sure if troll. Living in Japan.
>>570249 This. Highway workers in Central Africa, hired by Chinese corporations, were making 50 cents a day plus room and board. That's tiny even for Africa. They always screamed at us to give them beer and cigarettes.
>>570320 You'd need to provide an email, first. But yeah, sure :)
>>570332 >>570390 Cheers guys. No lottery, just student loans and savings :D A lot of people drink their student loans, some go to god tier colleges--I spent five years traveling with mine.
pic: Morocco
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>570445 Electricity in every city, of course. But most villages outside the city don't have it. Since we were bush-camping out in he rural areas a lot, we of course didn't have it either. The same goes for running water. Wells only. Even in many cities there was no real running water, and when there was it didn't work half the time. I -could- have showered in Yaounde, but the water was freezing cold and it was actually chilly there to begin with. Aside from that, we didn't sleep anywhere with running water for two months. Of course an independent traveler sticking to cities would have far greater access to both power and water, but it still isn't great. And you need to leave the cities eventually!
Everybody in Africa has a cellphone, basically. They are cheap and credit is all pre-paid (and also cheap). I was sending international texts for between 15 and 30 cents (usually on the low end of that). And getting SIMs in Africa is usually as easy as flagging down one of hundreds of credit sellers and buying it for $2. Only a couple countries require any sort of registration.
There are internet cafes in all major/minor cities and they are always full of Africans checking facebook. If I was really motivated I could get internet access quite frequently (in cities), but I didn't really bother for most of the trip.
As I said, I' not going to do a country-by-country rundown here. Oftentimes there just isn't a huge difference between two countries, and my rating for one would probably have more to do with what activity/sight I happened to visit or what food I liked a lot than with any subjective experience of the country as a whole. I already mentioned which countries I'd like to see again, take that as a "favorites" list if you absolutely must.
(response cont'd)
pic: Rhumsiki, Cameroon
Anonymous
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>>570445 Entertainment on drive days for me was just watching Africa go by and snapping the odd photo. Many people read a lot. In camp it was bullshitting around the fire and early bed-time, unless we were in a site with a bar. Also cards. In cities we usually went out.
I got food poisoning twice--once in Morocco and once in Mali. After that I never really got sick. It wasn't very common, but a lot of people did go through weeks of bad stomach upset. And you know how everybody is doing, too, because in order to shit in a bush-camp you need to get a shovel off the truck and walk into the bushes with a roll of toilet paper. Awkward as hell at first!
Africans eat stupidly huge amounts of food when they can. The issue for most isn't so much quantity but quality. Many don't eat much more than the local staple (manioc/casava, rice, barely, etc--depends where you are) plus a salty sauce. Then they bust their ass all day. I've seen all sorts of weird shit--driving through the jungle men will hold up dead (sometimes alive!) snakes, lizards, monkeys, and other mammals for sale. Africans love bushmeat. One time on our way back from Dolisi to Pointe Noire in Congo the taxi driver pulled off and bought a dik-dik for like $40 (quite expensive); we then got to spend the next two hours in a tiny cab with a dead deer bleeding all over the floor and smelling of death. Some of the shit offered could have been endangered, I'd have no idea.
pic: Victoria Falls, Zambia
Anonymous
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>>570445 We often saw Africans who'd never seen white people before, but these aren't the people you really spend any time with. Usually this is tiny villages in the middle of nowhere and we're just driving through. Even so, the most ignorant Africans are still aware of the fact that white people exist, so you're not really going to get asked many questions about the fact of your whiteness alone.
They're more interested in where you are from, why you are in Africa, what you do for work, etc. It's basically the same exact conversation everywhere you go. We have gotten some pretty hilarious ones though.
>"I only see 5 women and 9 men--where are the other wives?" >"If you have so much money, why don't you sit at home and watch TV? It's stupid to come here and live a hard life. Waste of money. TV is much better." >"Why are the men cooking? Aren't there enough women?" >"Why don't you have families? You should have a family when you are 18, you're all way too old to not have wives and children!" etc. A lot of confusion about gender roles, about what we were doing in Africa (many Africans have no concept of 'tourism'), and about the fact that none of us were married or had a partner on the trip.
pic: South Africa
Anonymous
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>>570794 You are the worst troll on 4chan. At least try, how fucking sad are you to write the shit you write and hope to actually accomplish anything by it...
Anonymous
Awesome. And they say /trv/ is dead. :)
Anonymous
On a more serious note, did anybody hookup with any African chicks while on the trip (black or white)?
I forgot but did you go to Zanzibar?
Also -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCca5mPMp9A Anonymous
Quoted By:
I'm still checking this thread every day. Thanks to whichever mod cleaned up the past few posts!
>>570870 Eh, you get used to it. Power wasn't so bad, because there are DC outs in the back of the truck. If I wanted to I could charge my MP3 player / phone / laptop. But you honestly just don't feel too strong a need for that stuff after a while. Running water / flush toilets etc -- again, you just get used to it. The hardest thing for me was the monotony of diet. You simply can't get a lot of stuff in most of Africa, including very basic things like butter and cheese. Africans sound nothing like that.
>>571670 Happy to share :)
>>571688 Somebody hooked up with a Moroccan girl, but that doesn't really count. Another guy wound up sleeping with an African girl who then essentially moved into his hotel room and didn't leave for two days. Coincidentally, this happened while the rest of us were in, yes, Zanzibar :D
Haha, Toto. Oh man.
pic: Morocco
Anonymous
hey anon, i have a question more about how you swung you student loans.
Anonymous
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Just scrolling through the thread, I have to say thanks again to the mod who cleaned this up--nearly all the shit posts are gone, and there were a lot of them. I really appreciate it (and I'm sure others do/will as well).
>>571723 Think about school as a way to improve your life through education (as much an eye-opener as travel) and future opportunity, not as a way to travel--it's not a very efficient way of going about it, haha. That said, if the ultimate goal is getting out of Canada, a degree is a big step on that path.
That said, without student loans a lot of my travel would never have happened. But they are LOANS, and I still owe $15k on them. If you look at
>>563983 none of those trips would have been possible without loans either.(in their entirety, anyway--I could certainly have done abbreviated versions). Loans are only half the story though. I also worked my ass off and got a few scholarships ("For educational use only" haha) and state and federal grants. There's a lot of state money out there for poor students.
I'd say 20% student loan and 30% grant money were put aside for this trip; 30% savings (part-time jobs all through uni); and the rest was a little complicated but let's call it severance pay from my ex ;) This was scraped together over the course of about a year, and I ran out of money twice on the trip and had to use my credit card (which I did not want to do).
pic: Ghana
Anonymous
>>571723 (cont'd)
I have BAs in history and philosophy. Regarding ESL work, the more developed Asian countries (notably Korea and Japan) require you to have a degree. Most Chinese jobs do as well, but you can find private schools that don't care. At least in Japan, you can't get a work visa without a degree, period.
As to how I got the job, I flew to Japan on a tourist visa, put in my resume at a bunch of schools, and crossed my fingers. Got replies within two weeks. Hired in three. It was a gamble, but it's worked out alright!
Africa isn't going anywhere. I grew up poor as shit, didn't have any real money for years, spent my early 20s living at home playing MMOs and pretending that the National Guard counted as a job while doing absolutely nothing with my life. Then sometime around 23 I realized my life was shit and I had no friends or future. Went back to school, friends, relationships, travel, etc--it all just happened naturally after that. In my senior year I was 27 years old; there were 17 year old kids in some of my classes. Point is--you've got plenty of time. You just need the motivation.
pic: round into Matadi, DRC
Anonymous
>>571733 OP, you genuinely sound like a decent fellow. Would send you a beer if I weren't 7000 km away.
Rock on, you crazy bastard.
Anonymous
>>571733 this is just one of the many posts that got to me
thug life, op
Anonymous
>>561514 > how I scammed 45kg of gear through an airline where only 20kg is free! HOW??
Anonymous
Anonymous
OP, I've been following this thread daily since the first day it went up.
a) Probably the best thread I've ever seen on this festering shithole - great pictures, great info, cool dude.
b)
>>571733 I'm in that "early 20s, realizing my life is shit" phase currently waiting for my raid in WoW to fill while I write this as a matter of fact. Dropped out of Uni after finishing first year because I got depressed as fuck and couldn't get out of bed.
I aspire to do trips like this, just need to find the motivation to do so. Anyways, this thread has helped stoke the flames quite a bit.
Thanks, keep being awesome.
(and keep posting if you want, I'll be following till it 404s ;)
Anonymous
>>571946 way to go dude. keeping going. I was like that for a few a years. Finally went back to school and finally graduated. Moved out and am starting to look for good jobs. Buying a motorcycle soon and gonna start riding around the West Coast. Africa and Europe are on my list of where to visit soon.
Anonymous
If you say running water was very uncommon in Africa, then how did you and your tour mates brush your teeth? Did you let your teeth become covered in plaque and let yourselves have terribly bad breath?
Anonymous
>>561511 Hey OP, samefag asking about your degrees and whatnot.
I've been slightly depressed, and felt absolutely almost zero desire to go on. It's not that I'm not trying to find work, or get into school, but it just isn't seeming to pan out.
I'm looking into Journalism, I wanna do some freelance work.
Area's of study to include: Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, Theology, Physics and a 2nd language. I've done the math, and I'll need about 7k a year, minimum of 4 years. I don't know how much longer I'd have to stay to go from a bachelors to a doctorate.
Anyways, I want to write about politics, free lance, and human nature, and why collective human nature as a hivemind is psychotic and sociopathic.
Anyways, what I was trying to get at here, was that you mentioned Africa was a life changing experience, more so than horizon broadening.
What were the major things you took from this journey?
Anonymous
Hey OP I am just barely half way through your thread.
Anonymous
>>572008 He said there is no RUNNING water, not NO WATER. It is entirely possible to brush your teeth with a bottle of water you know.
Anonymous
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Hey guys I'll be back in to answer questions at the end of the day. Busy as shit today--I'm about to start training for my ESL job and I'm about to see more white people than I have in the past four months combined (which was a grand total of like 6). Wearing a god-damned suit and tie.
Anonymous
Anonymous
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>>571738 Haha, cheers.
>>571757 Just human like everybody else :)
>>571939 Use a backpack for carry-on, maximum allowable dimensions. Load 15kg of shit into it. Stand up straight, nobody checks backpacks for weight (in 20 or 25 flights they've only checked mine once). Get a huge coat with an inner liner. Cut a slit up top near your neck. You now have one huge pocket to stuff with whatever you want. It doesn't matter if they "catch" you--it's not against policy as it's the same as having it in your pockets. My coat weighed 11 or 12kg. Pack the rest in checked luggage and you're bringing double the weight allowance for no additional cost!
>>571946 Thanks a lot, it's posts like this and the couple above that I keep coming back to this. Of course I don't mind answering questions at all, but I'm really here to show people that trips like this are possible for normal people living normal lives--not just the wealthy and travel writers.
pic: "MAKE MY PICTURE!!" Benin
Anonymous
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>>572003 I spent three years traveling North America (to include Mexico) and there's still so much to see. Too many people spend all their time wishing for Europe (etc) when there's incredible places which are way more accessible and way more affordable just waiting for a bit of motivation. Get that bike: road-tripping around the West is a world-class experience.
>>572008 As
>>572047 said, we always had tons of water on the truck. You just can't count on plumbing etc. You can always fill bottles at a village well.
Contact lenses are fine if you get the kind you can leave in for a few days. I mean you could change them daily, but it would just be troublesome. Far better not to worry about it for a few days.
Lots of light-skinned Moroccans. Not so much blatant hateful-type racism; Africans are certainly racist, but more in the way your grandmother might generalize about other cultures. It's just ignorance, really. That said, we got a few "fuck you"s and some middle fingers. I enjoyed this greatly. Others were pretty offended.
Cigarettes are insanely cheap. One dude smoked 60-80 a day every day for the whole trip and spend almost nothing. Alcohol is cheap if you buy local shit (but it really is shit). I mean, $2 500ml bottles of whiskey. You might die, though :D
Food staples in Africa are cheap. Locally produced stuff is cheap. Anything imported (and almost everything is in many places) costs way more than you'd pay in the US (although the US is a very cheap place to live).
pic: Tanzania
Anonymous
>>572022 Don't go into journalism expecting to make a living off freelancing. I mean it could happen, but definitely be prepared to work at a newspaper or local station if you can't get the cash/work you need and have to pay your bills. That said, a degree opens a lot of doors (here I am teaching English overseas) and it's best to get one regardless--just choose something interesting and run with it.
It's difficult to answer your question for a number of reasons. First, it's an intensely personal question and the answers to it wouldn't make all that much sense unless you knew me well. I struggle to make sense of a lot of it myself, I struggle even more so to make sense of it to my best friend(s), I'm damned sure not going to do a good job explaining it here. What I will say, though, is that it taught me a lot about myself. I value this tremendously, as I value self-knowledge and self-exploration as necessary steps toward any understanding of anything at all whatsoever. I hit what I would consider to be some important milestones in my own personal development, and what specifically allowed me that sort of growth I couldn't even begin to say.
pic: Tanzania. Male ostriches turn bright red when they want to fuck.
Anonymous
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>>572428 (cont'd)
I know I'm dancing around the question, but I just cannot distill the entire experience down to a few bite-size servings of wisdom for mass-consumption. Possibly: the world can be (and always has been) a hard, shitty place and there's nothing you or anybody else can do to change that--one needn't feign empathy or compassion when one can't even claim understanding. People will sometimes say to me "Oh wow, a year? Didn't you feel so sorry for those poor, poor people? There must be something that can be done..." I've nothing to say, and there's nothing to be done. There's no order to this world, no cosmic justice or over-arching sense of brotherly love, and it's sheer ignorance (or delusion) to imagine otherwise. That's not to say I've given up on humanity or that the world is shit and nobody should bother--only that humans will be human (we're all loving, brutal, compassionate monsters; animals, through and through) and there's no escaping that very basic fact. Put a bunch of humans in a hard place where survival and playing nice don't always go hand in hand (e.g. Africa), and it's little wonder you get the sort of fucked-up headlines which we read and pretend to feel remorse for every day.
pic: This right here, this is what we all are. The Serengeti, Tanzania
Anonymous
>>572038 Hey bud, yes I remember. Well, it depends what you're interested in. If you're sold on Africa, it can be done much more cheaply. You can do a couple months on a truck like I did or you can do it independently. The plane tickets (especially from AK) are going to be insane, but once you get there you can do it cheaply IF you plan well and have set goals.
If I were you, though, I'd just head south and do the western US or even go to Mexico. I'd drive down, too. Summer road-trips are pretty much my favorite activity, ever, and although fuel ain't cheap it'd be pretty hard for you to spend a round-trip ticket to Africa's worth in gas. You could also take the dogs :D
But really, it just depends what you want to do. Lots of stuff can be done cheaply and still be epic.
>>572383 Haha, I was going to wait till morning to update the thread, but with this sort of support I suppose I'm obliged to do it now!
pic: for AK dude, a small break from Africa: Grand Canyon--classic, American road-trip. We drove around the US (my ex and I) every summer for years: in all my travel, nothing beats the western United States for pure natural beauty. And it's a hell of a lot cheaper than going to Africa. And most Americans see very little of their own country--a pity :)
Anonymous
>>572428 truth be told, i'm not too worried about paying bills. Who leaves with what they took anyways? I guess personal morals are a different experience, you know?
Fuck it, I been homeless in a Canada blizzard... If I can eat in a day, I'll make it. Some days I can't? Well shit, that happens sometimes too.
"Every man believes himself to be right in his own eyes. Ponder the heart."
I hate to paraphrase, and if I mentioned where I got that quote from, nobody would bother to try to hear anything I'd ever have to say.
Like I said, I find the human psyche fascinating, and for how much faith we put in this "advanced intellect" of ours, and how we still miss the point, that we're just animals,
no matter how much pride we harbor, or how much we stand at odds against any difference in opinion.
anyways, I've lost the point to what I was saying, so I'll get back on point. I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your stories, you've been a wealth of entertainment, wisdom and inspiration.
Keep it up bro.
Anonymous
I'd be curious to get your thoughts on a book called "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn
AK
>>572432 >>572432 Yeah I have thought of that. A friend of mine goes to Death Valley in the winter quite a bit.
I grew up in the West though and I guess it makes me feel like the Africans that told you to just stay home and watch TV.
It is human nature to want to see new things and have new experiences.
Anonymous
>>572464 I'm not one to worry about much of anything, and I've been asked at every step how my current plan of action is supposed to lead toward a more secure life. Those who know me best have stopped asking--it'll all work out, one way or another. Study what you want, do what you want; all that matters is that you're satisfied.
>>572465 I briefly looked into a summary. Although I've not read it, the book deals with a lot of ideas common in literature. This isn't really the place for it, but I'd question any work which takes as a basis the idea that anything humans do can be understood as unnatural or extra-evolutionary. Evolution, broadly understood, is merely a causal unfolding of events (played out in action and culture as much as genetics, if we can even separate these spheres of causality at all) and the human drive to worldly domination/subjugation or even to suicide is as much a natural inclination as that of the spider to spin its web. How do I know this is so? Because it -is- so: nothing can extricate itself from the evolutionary process, and thus nothing can ever be considered 'unnatural' (as if there is some "natural state" which exists in the world--No, that's simply the present flavor of morality being read into the extra-moral state of things). This is not a defense of anthropocentrism or an attack against environmentalism; I'm not taking a stand either way.
>>572478 Then keep heading south ;) When I started wanting something bigger we tackled Mexico. A fantastic country, and, what's more, a totally different world and very much an adventure--just south of the border! (But keep driving past that border else you might get shot eh?)
pic: northern Cameroon
Anonymous
Achievement unlocked: Keeping a thread open on 4chan for a month.
AK
>>573061 >>573061 I'm afraid Mexico is done for me.
When I was fifteen (decades ago) I ran away from home and made it all the way to Mexico.
I think I got my stripes for that adventure in spades.
No thanks. Been there done that. And that was before the drug war.
What amazes me most about your adventure OP is the lack of getting your ass beat that you encountered.
I am a pretty good sized guy myself and have been in a lot of altercations just walking around in different places.
You may just have a guardian angel following you on your journey. You ever feel like that?
Anonymous
dont mind me, just bumpan for more of the glorious original poster
Anonymous
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>>573129 Heh no shit? I haven't been keeping track!
>>573143 I'm a pretty fit dude, but I'm not massive or anything. I dunno, I'm just never one to get into anything. My jimmies are pretty hard to rustle, at least to the point that my first reaction would be throwing a punch rather than laughing or walking away. Probably just my demeanor--I very rarely have anybody act aggressively toward me, and when I do I never really reciprocate. What on earth could I get mad enough with a stranger about to get into a fight? I can't really think of anything! Anyway, the US-MX border is not the Mexico I was talking about--I meant the rest of the country where parents enjoy dinners around the central square while kids run around until midnight. It's a really, really peaceful country despite the shit you see on the news.
>>573328 Hey there :D
pic: Morocco
Anonymous
Small story time. We were in Nigeria, at Wiki Wiki Warm Springs, which is basically a thermal-fed stream which ranges from super-hot to just warm. The water is insanely clear and tinted blue. But this isn't a story about the springs, it's a story about baboons.
Anonymous
>>573466 It's not a 'he', it's a 'she', and she has a baby on her back. And she's got a huge loaf of bread the size of a basketball (our only bread for two days) clutched between both clawed-fists, taking HUGE slobbery bites out of it with her fangs. She sees me, doesn't care, keeps devouring our bread. I'm pissed. It's totally irrational, but that fucking baboon is eating OUR BREAD. Like, it's covered in spit and slobber and baboon hair, and I WANT IT BACK.
I start yelling and screaming at her to drop it (as if she's a dog and is going to listen?) and take a couple steps toward her. She freaks out, goes charging for the door, only to have it slammed in her face by probably the dumbest fucking person to ever step foot on our truck. I'm standing literally right next to the door with no escape and a baboon glowering at me with exposed fangs. She grabs my leg, hauls herself past me, her baby's eyes spinning like mad (poor thing was probably extremely confused), and flings herself against the vinyl side. She falls outside, STILL HOLDING THE BREAD, and goes running off down the parking lot.
I come down, everybody's relieved to see I'm alive, and we all start asking the muppet who slammed the door why what the hell could have possibly been going through his mind. No real answer, wasn't thinking. Moron.
Pic: BABOON ARMY
Anonymous
>>573467 The guards, meanwhile, are chasing the baboon around the parking lot with AK-47s. I don't think they intended to shoot, but they were waving the guns around and the baboons seemed to have some idea what they were. Eventually one guard comes back with our mauled, filthy, half-eaten loaf of baboon-bread. The park administrator laughs and says that we obviously don't want that back. No fuck you, yes we do, that's our god-damned dinner.
We had to keep a 2-person guard detail on the truck for the rest of the day. One person on the roof with a large stick, another walking around on the ground throwing rocks. The baboons never left, they kept probing for weak spots, trying to find holes in our perimeter. It was crazy.
That night we cut off all the disgusting parts and had baboon-bread-pudding. Nobody got sick and died. However, we threw all the scraps in some bushes and these kids were watching us (there's always random Africans outside/inside our camp staring at us) and ran over to grab the bread. Must have thought we were crazy for throwing it away. We couldn't explain that it was all slimy and gross for a reason, and they took it home like a prize. I can't vouch for their health after that...
pic: Some of the kids who probably died as a result of baboon-related illness.
Anonymous
Quoted By:
>>573468 I lol'd pretty hard at that last comment - however my laughter was tinged with sadness because I had to flip to page 15 to find this thread again.
MUST
RESUSCITATE
Anonymous
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I love you OP, keep up the good stories. What would you suggest for a shorter trip, maybe 2-4 months. Morocco to South Africa vs. Egypt to South Africa?
Anonymous
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Shit guys, I think this thread is in autosage. Someone PM a mod and save it.
AK
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Bumpen for later. My service provider is being an asshole again. Shuts down every couple of minutes.
Anonymous
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bamp for the longest lasting post in 4chan history. keep it going, keep it going, keep it going full steam.
