Every day is a schoolday! (Lastpost of the South African adventure)

February 2014 

The final installment.

Well we are now back in the UK and in fact we have been back since early December.

We are in good shape as is the van and we are feeling quite self satisfied with our achievements.

I must express regret for taking so long in writing this which will be the final part of our blog.

'Our House is a very very nice house!'

We arrived back to our new home in North Dorset. As we expected we returned to find the house in darkness and no heating and no one to meet us. Of course we already knew this would be the case as it was really difficult for any one to be there to greet us. It was a bit strange nevertheless. However, we did have a little gathering of families and friends to celebrate our return during the weekend. 

A very happy reunion

Anyhow we have spent all our time unpacking the van as well as all our worldly goods which had been kindly delivered by our son, Simeon. Sadly he did not hang around long enough to unpack everything and put it all away, but I guess you can’t have everything.

We are now back on a more normal footing and it is high time I finished what I started in this blog. We have been astonished by the sheer number of people who have taken the trouble to read it. Many friends but also complete strangers some of whom I am still corresponding with by email. Just shy of 20,000 page views wow!

Our African journey has been every bit the adventure we thought it would be, and more. Not least because we found out so much about Europe as we whizzed through unceremoniously on our way home.

So, we have visited 33 countries, driven 50,000 km or 30,000 miles, used 8 tyres, 23 punctures, 2 windscreen wipers, 6 rolls of Gaffa tape and used a lifetimes worth of diesel.

Puncture No. 22

We have met some truly extraordinary people and despite being incredibly well blessed with good friends we have made some new and certainly lasting friendships.

We have been privileged to have seen close up how people all over Africa live, how they survive in some cases and even more importantly in some cases, how they flourish.

Women's group - Senegal style

During our time we have been surprised and delighted by spectacular beauty. We have on occasion seen how such beauty can be marred by cynical exploitation of tourism sometimes by individuals and sometimes by governments.  In almost all cases it has tended to reduce and negate the experience.

Amazing beauty of the Western Desert, Egypt

We have at times criticized organisations for the way in which they try to ‘help’ people and communities, but as soon as we tried to form some kind of blanket view or belief about aid programs we would encounter  people who are doing a fantastic job which is entirely appropriate helpful and often on a shoestring.  We have met people whose commitment hard work and imagination are used to wonderful effect.

Village school in Guinea

Overall the byword has to be self -determination. In other words, with certain exceptions, people should be allowed to work to solve their own problems. I feel that this applies in equal measure to both aid and   involvement in conflict. Am I qualified to comment? Absolutely not! but it is hard to leave Africa without making and changing opinions.

                Building beehives to protect elephants in Tanzania

In one area where I formed a strong view is this:

Many countries in Africa are famous for their reputation for corrupt politicians and officials.

Tribal systems operate in many of these places. Tribal divisions are so easy to exploit that may be considered a gift to corrupt politicians.

Pounding the maize

There is one area where these divisions may be benignly broken down. It may surprise anyone who knows me well to hear me say this but the answer is, FOOTBALL!

In every country we visited in Africa, without exception, there was a common theme; nearly all the male population and many women too, supported a mainstream football club. More specifically they supported Manchester United, Arsenal or Barcelona. This was true wherever we went!

Football in progress at local school

Also in every locality people played serious football. There was always a pitch of one description or another set aside no matter how impoverished the community.

We saw on one occasion a serious game being played with a seated audience as well as assorted other spectators….with lights, of sorts. It was a proper football game going on. What was surprising was that this was in the middle of a busy traffic roundabout with trucks and buses smoking their way around and in all directions.

Sometimes you will see football being played on a slope and all kind of conditions.

Does Chelsea deserve this level of devotion

Fixture list

Throughout West Africa every village has a fixture list for the major matches that are being played, posted up on trees and shop fronts which are watched avidly by people crowded round a communal satellite television.

My point here is that if someone really wanted to make a difference in Africa in a way that would very gently pass through tribal differences and conflicts and I believe genuinely help communities to grow. Then the propagation of serious well run football clubs is the way forward.

Maybe The big budget clubs might consider, perhaps through ‘enlightened self interest’, after all they already scour Africa for new talent. They could put in a little money and some technical/managerial support to help football to truly flourish in Africa.

So go on write to your club and see if you can get them to take an interest in this incredible continent.

Anyhow I have always tried to avoid preaching in this blog so I shall leave it at that but its something to think about.

Europe

I have mentioned in the last blog and touched on it here, that I was genuinely surprised at how much we have learnt in our African journey and how much we have both learnt about Europe. At the start if journey, we were talking in terms of us  driving out of Europe in order to get to Africa, and by implication the proper travelling. “ Well we will just zip across France and Spain then hop on a ferry and we will be in Africa”. I guess I was about to discover just how startlingly ignorant I was as I had absolutely no idea, and had not bothered to check, just how big France and Spain are! They are huge and beautiful, culturally diverse with all kind of travellers observations. I really should have known better and I was to learn even more on our return journey.

The very moving Holocaust Memorial Berlin,  such a symbol of oppression and turmoil in Europe

On our way back I found out about artificial borders and continual conflict,  about dictators and oppressions, religious extremism, ideological extremism, pogroms, extermination and colonisation to mention just a few of the feature of Europe in the last hundred years or so.

Jan Palach, martyr to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia

I found it strange that these are all reasons that people used to dissuade us from this crazy venture. However there they all are in what I had always thought was my backyard.

We were also often told that we should not go because we would probably be robbed, conned and all our money taken.  We would certainly have or throats cut.

Well I left London where in many areas I walk about with those matters very much in mind and we went to Johannesburg where the statistics of violent crime are impressive

It is true that while we did have a couple of incidents of this type to deal with I do not think that the threat was ever so high in the mainstream of Africa as they were in those sophisticated cities. 

These people look happy because they think they are swindling us.......  Didn't bargain for Ping

I go further, We did lose money to unscrupulous people  where because of our inability to deal adequately with their call centers  via poor or even nonexistent email we lost amounts of money to: Our Bank, our Insurers, AOL(we eventually got our money back from them, not easy from the Namibian Bush).

We bought tyres from a British company, Vass & Co. Despite having been clear about the purpose they were wholly unsuitable and let us down badly and dare I say it…….. dangerously. I wrote to their managing director who failed to respond to my communications at all. We replaced those tyres at huge expense at a South African company called TYREMART. Their workmanship was poor enough that they fitted the wrong size tubes and again they failed to communicate with us.

SO….. at length I have come to say who are the robbers and brigands. I suggest that they were not ordinary everyday folk of Africa.

I will think about this every time someone says that Africa is a dangerous place, or worse that Africans are bad people. It is simply not so!

                                                    

What I have learnt from this journey is that EVERYDAY IS A SCHOOLDAY!

Happy people living a live that is unimaginably tough

We have had some amazing experiences. In some cases we have experienced things and seen stuff that some people only get to dream about. We have been, once again humbled by the kindness of strangers.

We have survived in places where others find existing there a struggle. A struggle which some do not survive.

We have been annoyed by people doing everything in their power to get our money sometimes by charging too much or stealing and most commonly simply by asking for it!

We have been infuriated by organisations that we should trust taking our money and causing us problems when we are least able to deal with them.

Our van on board ship, thanks to great African company and no thanks to Santander's ineptitude  and bloody mindedness

We have made friends with some of the most friendly and honorable people you could wish to meet and we have enjoyed the camaraderie and support of other travelers.

There are a lot of people who we would so much like to maintain our friendship with, who I know will consider themselves to be passing ships perhaps because we only knew them for a few days, but we will only ever remember them as true friends.

What of my Esteemed Life Partner?

A couple of people have asked if Ping is somehow only in the background because the blog is only written by me. I must clear this up.

When I started writing this blog I was warned that I should keep it brief and factual. This quickly became a bit of a chore and so I gradually moved over to a kind of personal rambling style. Please make no mistake this does not mean in any way at all that Ping took back seat. Indeed She took on and she sorted out all the lovely photos most of which she took. So in many ways she did more work on the blog than I did. That however is only half the story because this journey has been entirely the result of teamwork between us. Anyone who knows Ping well will know that she is not one to take the back seat, except, perhaps to drive. What is really important to understand is that with and undertaking that has taken over a year and tested us beyond our imaginings, it must be borne in mind that we have hardly left one another’s side for more than an hour in that time. The really gratifying part of that is when things have gone really wrong and we have had to depend on each other in some really critical situations, then the teamwork is something to behold. We can change a truck wheel in 15 minutes and drive away from an engine fire in the middle of a Lion infested national park. So I think it is fair to say that she is no sleeping partner! 

What was the best bit?

So many people have asked us questions like which was your favorite country or what was your greatest adventure?

Cape of good hope, The tip of Africa

These are of course almost impossible to answer, but I’ll give it a go. As I have said over and over it has always been the people we have encountered that have made the experience so important. The chance encounters and the small interactions along the way and in some cases real friends we have made.

In company with very good friends. This is as far south as you can go

South Africa was probably the most pleasant and surprising place we visited. We met so many people who were open and friendly and frankly would have given us their last Rolo if we needed it. Like many Europeans we went there with more preconceived ideas than any other country we visited and nearly all of them were demolished.

South African hospitality, Gary and

Sheryl

 The overwhelming sense we got from nearly everyone was that SA had a future that would be won by cooperation and tolerance. Yeh, sure there were exceptions but not worthy of mention.


The wildlife is stupendous and the country is diverse and beautiful. Of course it has the magnificent Kruger Park which is stuffed full of wildlife. We spent a whole 3 months in South Africa and we could easily have stayed for a year. There is so much to see and learn and experience.

In the rest of the trip we often found ourselves on the tourist beat and I found that this was where I had the most negative experiences. In these places we found people wanted us to say nice things about their country but this was where all efforts were made to part us from as much cash as possible. We were often shocked at the amounts that were charged (it costs hundreds of Dollars to visit the major Kenyan National Parks in our own vehicle and providing our own accommodation) along the way and often little in return.

Camping beneath Kilamanjaro obscured by clouds

It was always when we left these well trodden paths that we felt relief and a sense of belonging albeit in passing.

Egypt was the place that we found the contrast more marked than anywhere else.

The aggressive way that tourists are ‘invited’ to part with their cash made it a a truly horrible experience. Having said that, we also had the astounding privilege of seeing some of the most incredible places. The Pyramids of course, and for me the Western Desert was truly mindblowing.

A wonderful climax to an awful day

We had one of the most miserable days of the journey when we went to the Pyramids but when I looked again at the photos of our van at the foot of the Pyramids it was all worth it!

Two experiences stand out for me one entirely positive and the other was quite scary.

Lost and stuck - Mauritania

Fairly early on in the journey we travelled through Mauritania which we found mildly hostile. Its main cities seemed to us to be like the Wild West. Then we took directions from someone who called himself a guide. We followed them to the letter and eventually found ourselves quite lost. We had long since run out of road and it was getting dark we got bogged down in the sand. We spent a very troubled night in the wilderness! Since then we have met seasoned travelers who have been amused at our frailty. When you take into account our inexperience it was pretty awful, but of course, we survived to tell of it.

A grand Basillica in the middle of nowhere

Inside the Gand Basillica - Sumptuous beauty , At what cost?

The good one was in Ivory Coast. We visited an extraordinary place that is the Basilica at Yamasoukro, the Ivorian capital. I have described in detail, this incredible place in another part of the blog. 

It not that which I speak of here, it is that we were accompanied on our visit by a group of soldiers from Pakistan who were the outgoing UN Peacekeepers.  There was another group of soldiers who were part of the incoming force from Bangladesh.  We were altogether on a guided tour. We were able to say to both groups that we had not only visited both their countries, but also that we knew the home towns of both.  I was aware that in about 1971 there was a dreadful and bloody war between the two nations. Privately I mentioned to Ping that I believed it was possible that this was the first time in 45 years that soldiers from these two armies had been together on a social basis. 

                    UN Peacekeepers 

Peacekeepers making peace

After the tour we were taken up onto the roof where there were stupendous 360 degree views. On the way up in the lift one of the Bangladesh officers said quietly to me ‘They killed 3 million of our people’.  A short while later we all had our photos taken together in that beautiful setting. Maybe I am making more of this than I should but it certainly made me think.

Practicalities!                                

We thought it might amuse, and maybe inform if we spoke of some of the things which made things better or in some cases, possible.

Drill. I brought with us a nice battery drill with all the trimmings including a spare battery. This was so well used doing small repairs around the van but most important little practical adaptations around the van. This was used to particularly good effect when used in conjunction with the box of bits and pieces of metal, springs and all kinds of odds and sods.

Tabitha and Rob, our friends and hosts at the Best Exotic Shoestrings Lodge. A haven of Luxury and opulance in Johannesberg! (Now with Guests)

The drill got nicked (probably through my carelessness) I was bereft. I have to say that our new, and now dear Friends Rob+ Tabitha in Johannesburg bought us a replacement as a going away present  when we finally moved on from their lodge having mercilessly used their hospitality. With my new drill I was once again armed to tackle any situation.

I was also given for my 60^th birthday a a leatherman multi-tool with a belt pouch. It remained on my belt for the whole of the trip and I used it everyday for the myriad of little jobs around the van.

Scrabble. No telly! After a while conversation had dried up so we had to do something. For reasons that I do not fully understand we had packed two scrabble sets neither of which was the special ‘travel’ set which we managed to leave at home. So very often we would while away the evening with a nice, stimulating and I have to say somewhat idiosyncratic game of scrabble, made more so by us having also left the dictionary behind.

Washing machine. On a previous trip in Asia we had taken washing machine which consisted of a large bucket with a tight fitting lid which was strapped to the floor of the van. Add water, detergent and of course washing. Then drive over a bumpy road for a day, rinse the clothes out and hey presto! Clean washing. Of course, as so often happens you meet other travelers and compare vehicles and equipment. Needless to say we met up with Oyvind (the O should be crossed out because he is Norwegian,but I don’t know how to do that on the computer) and Sheilah and found they had a better one It was a plastic drum with a large screw top lid which could be mounted on its side and so much more effective. Importantly mine was bigger!

Gaffa tape.

This stuff is so useful I took 4 large rolls of gaffa tape we used them all and bought two more. Absolutely indispensable!

Solar Shower.

This basically a large plastic bag with a small sprinkler head at the bottom. The idea is that you fill it with water, about 15 litres. Leave it in direct sunlight for a few hours. At the end of the day you hang it up and you have a lovely warm shower. It works and I soon abandoned the electric one I had brought which was a bit rubbish. It is not always practical to heat the bag while travelling . You can imagine a plastic bag full of water tends to take on a life of its own and is seriously unmanageable so hanging it in the sun as we drove soon proved too difficult. We tried perching it on the dashboard but we ended up spending more time wrestling with the bloody thing than we did actually concentrating on the driving. What we did find was that putting it on the floor over the gearbox was sufficiently warm to do the trick.

Vacuum flask. More hot water I hear you say but being plied with hot tea and coffee along the way without having to stop was sometimes very valuable. We used the flask so much that the handle broke. Interestingly it was all I could do to stop Ping taking it back to the shop after we got back to England.

Ah yes! Don’t buy Black cups.

WE bought unbreakable cups for the trip. Quite sensible I hear you say. Not so. Ours were black and it was impossible to see what if anything is left in the cup which when you are driving is quite hazardous. And the other thing is you can’t see what has landed, or taken up residence in your cup.  Mmmm nasty.

So We bought some nice expensive insulated white ceramic cups. Lovely.

Who can undertake a trip like this?

Our first taste of African wildlife

This was not a holiday it was so much more than that. Nearly everyone we met along the way hated having their epic journey referred to as a Holiday. Many also balk against being referred to as tourists The whole business is undertaken from an entirely different angle.

elevenses

I guess it is not so remarkable really. After all we had a great time doing a lot of things that were entire of our choosing which is quite a privilege. Indeed we were tested out so many times but on the whole we made a net gain. Truly an undertaking like this is not for everyone and that is a matter of choosing what you want to do. Personally I can’t bear lying in the sun with a Pinacolada.

Of course it is important to be physically fit and healthy. And once you leave the comfort zone of modern Europe you are kind of committed.

There is nothing new under the sun. This kind of journey has been done in so many ways (including walking backwards round the world!) So you have to view any achievements as for your own benefit.

Another batch of those incredible Cyclists . Outstanding people

I am bound to restate the admiration I have for the numerous people we met who were cycling through Africa. Yes there were a number of them and at various stages in their journey. Allow me to tell you that what they undertook was so much more than a very long bike ride. We have driven all the roads that they have pedaled along. Mountains, unmade roads, vulnerability, heat, non availability of food. Oh the list goes on!  We both formed a huge admiration for these ‘real’ travelers They really touched us as being special.

So yes, anyone can do it but you really have to want to do it knowing that no amount of research can make you know what you are really in for.

Finally we must both acknowledge that we are so lucky to have so many friends and relatives  who have given such support to us in our venture. Some will have done a great deal of practical help and some may feel they have done no more than be our friends.  Some have travelled with us on this journey or in a previous one so long ago.  There are even those who have only become friends through this blog and who we have never met. Whatever the perception, it is simply true that without our friends and supporters we would not have left home.

Cheers!

I guess that I can only say. The drinks are on me!!

Oh bugger did I say that out loud?

And finally!

The next trip?

Probably, but we have so far failed to reach an agreement on where we should go. South Asia or Latin America????

Ping and Noel Bowman

pingbow54@gmail.com
noelbow51@gmail.com