cossie, can you indulge me a few questions?
What were the best and worst part of all these travels?
Did you have any "personal safety" issues (vs 2016 i'm sure things have changed)?
Where would you go back to?
Where wouldn't you go back to?
I don't think there is a place I've been to that I wouldn't want to go back to. Some experiences I'd like to forget, but on the whole I have enjoyed everywhere.
I wouldn't do such a long trip again, 5 months with the same dozen people was way too long, even if I did meet the 'boss' on the journey.
I had done all my previous travel by myself or with my partner at the time. I regarded myself as an experienced tourist, some that were on the trip had never left their home countries before.
The things I didn't enjoy were getting bogged, no say in how long we stayed somewhere, Timbuktu is a prime example. I thought we spent too long in Morocco, but again, I had been there before.
Security wise, I'm a bit of a fatalist, if it's going to happen, not much I can do about it, within reason of course. People have died on overland Africa trips like this, but I met people in Tibet whose friend had died from altitude sickness on the way into Lhasa, (before the train line was built).
An overland truck was attacked in Matabeleland in 1982 and all the males were taken away and later killed.
Former army officer reveals the truth about abduction of tourists in Matabeleland - Bulawayo24 News So things like that happen, on the trip that I did, the only real security issue I had where I really felt threatened, was being short changed when buying some local currency.
Border crossings could also give problems, we had one girl rather naively take some photos at a border post, an absolute no-no, this cost us a lot of time, as a suitable penalty had to be agreed to. Generally most people, including officials were happy to see us, the police and the military you had to play their games. The driver on this trip said that previous episode was the only time he had ever paid a bribe in Africa.
A lot of time we had safety in numbers, but there were two occassions in Bamako where someone tried to get into Erlka's backpack in a market and later on some young kids tried to pick pocket me. One of the girls had her bag stolen in Burjumbura. When the truck was parked in a town, someone always had to be there to keep watch.
As I said, I'm a fatalist, for example, just last week there was a car accident on the south coast of NSW, the young driver(19, I think) a female German tourist died at the scene, her boyfriend of a similar age is in hospital here in Canberra, with life threatening injuries
Sorry, I'm going on a bit!
