Road Trip!
Trip Start
Apr 21, 2003
1
14
34
Trip End
May 07, 2004
Vilanculos,
Mozambique
Sunday, July 6, 2003
It was our first experience travelling in a car since Nairobi. And after months on buses with crazy locals and manic drivers, it was quite the revelation for me that there were only four of us that had to a) decipher where we were going, and b) decide when to stop to eat/sleep/stretch our legs.
It was our African Road Trip at long last. I'm not sure that we had any concept that we'd been missing out, but *WOW* were we excited that it was happening!
I got shotgun and/or got to drive a lot of the time, which I thought was rad (you can tell this is part of my 2005 vocabulary, because I didn't use rad until the December after I was in Africa, when I met Jimmy in Argentina).
But how often does one get to drive a 4x4 truck through Africa? I think we're all glad that no elephants or lions crossed in front of me while we barrelled down the roads at break-neck speed, however, in the back of your mind it's cool that when you're driving from Malawi to almost South Africa, one's chances of running into a leopard were probably greater than running into a raccoon.
Plus, I just love driving. Edo often had to fight me for a turn behind his own wheel, and it was a reluctant pass-over to Emma or Nassim for me. Okay, wait. I see now that if you read the entry after next, there's more on Mozambique, jammed into an email about Australia and South Africa too.
Let it be known, however, that two years later, I still know that I love sitting around on beautiful beaches with other travellers who love doing the same thing. And diving with manta rays. And going on crazy snorkelling adventures that are followed by an invite into the lovely home of some very typical Afrikans families that preach to you about the perils of travelling in Africa, after you've already done so for three months.
Why would you go to Kenya? In South Africa we have safaris AND infrastructure!
...I was in Malawi once, I wouldn't go back - not enough infrastructure.
...You paid those men to take you snorkelling? Crazy travellers, you must really miss infrastructure, get to South Africa immediately!
No argument or explanation could convince these mental cases that we actually _wanted_ to experience other countries in Africa. That sometimes the lack of their prized infrastructure is what gave other bits of Africa it's charm, in our opinion. To them, we were just a bunch of crazy white people, at risk of being ripped of by black Africa at every turn.
It's with a fond memory that I recall not being sure what we were in for once we crossed the border into all that infrastructure.
