Overlanding in Africa

Malawi Kids

Ernest Hemingway, a great lover of Africa, said in his book, True At First Light, a testament to the wonder , harshness, beauty, and strangeness of Africa, “Those who do not see the world, don’t deserve to live in it.” People come to Africa to experience a place that cannot be imagined until one has seen it and be rewarded with a memory that will not ever be forgotten. Overlanding is a unique way and infinitely rewarding way to travel and see Africa that provides an unparalleled perspective of Africa’s landscape, its animals, and its peoples. It is like boarding a spaceship to a whole new world that holds the secrets of our own mysterious past, that harbors an endless, varied landscape dotted with the creatures that have haunted our dreams and nightmares since we were little children, and to see a world balanced precariously over the chasm that separates human triumph from human tragedy. No travelling experience is more enriching then stopping to view so many varied places and vistas with their own unique ecosystems, tribes with their individual fascinating customs and languages, and becoming immersed in a world that once was known as the Dark Continent and now must surely be known as a destination of Endless Possibility and Light.
 

Delta Mokoro Station

Overland is an experience not only of sight but of touch, taste, hearing, and scent. When one hikes the Okavango Delta and feels the brush of a hundred different grasses along one’s legs, tastes the salty air on the shores of Zanzibar, smells the thick musky scent of ten thousand wildebeast during the Serengeti migration, or hears the unforgettable sound of the Maasai warriors singing as they spring into the air during their tribal dancing, these sensorial experiences will indelibly be imprinted in both the hearts and minds of all passengers. It is this delight of all the senses that makes people fall in love with the continent like no other.

Rather, perhaps, it is simply people travelling together on that aforementioned spaceship into the depths of Africa to see the origin of all peoples and their primordial roots that creates an unforgettable lifetime memory. Perhaps, it is the bonding that occurs between peoples of dozens of different countries when they experience together the untamed wildness of Africa that gives seeing a place a whole new level of meaning. Africa, in this way, rewards any human being with the beauty of seeing and understanding our tenuous existence. It makes a person appreciate at every moment exactly what one has back on the other planet called civilization or home where ever that may be. Overland in this sense, is like the perfect reconnaissance mission that allows travellers to get snapshots of experience that will inspire and draw them back to this continent again, again, and again.

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