I’ve long been curious to visit Africa as a tourist. Theroux’s Dark Star Safari seems to have some practical value for trip planning. Theroux reports the following facts relevant to the sightseer:
- travel by road is extremely slow and uncomfortable
- conversations with typical Africans can be interesting but only for guys like Theroux who speak several local languages
- interaction with Africans can result in severe illness and/or becoming a victim of crime
Why not address these issues by renting a small airplane? Here’s my tentative plan for a beginner’s trip to Africa:
- fly to Cape Town, South Africa and spend a few days poking around what sounds like Africa’s only livable large city (learn something about the old colonial culture in its last bastion)
- during the time in Cape Town pick up a South African pilot’s license so that I can legally fly a South African-registered airplane
- rent a workhorse of an airplane such as a Cessna 182 and load it up with bottled water and packaged food
- fly over all the interesting landscape, stopping only at public airports and exclusive private game reserves with their own strips
- venture onto roads and into towns only in thinly populated and orderly regions (Namibia?)
- return home after 3 weeks
Even in countries where crime and disorder are rampant the public airports are usually very well protected. Governments like to keep track of who is coming and going, which is essential if they are to maintain their monopoly on weaponry. In Mexico, for example, even the most out-of-the-way airport is staffed with multiple officials and an Army guard. I remember landing on a sand-and-dirt runway owned by a litte hotel in Baja. As soon as I landed three soldiers toting assault rifles came over to inspect the airplane.
One can’t see everything in a first trip to such a big place so why not start by staying mostly 500′ above the heads of all the guys who cause trouble for tourists? There is always Trip #2 for getting deeper and/or lower into things.
You forgot:
7. Drink a lot of beer.
8. Have casual sex with a lot of different women.
Sounds like an intriguing plan, and a great excuse to brush up on piloting. Step 2 is the only part I’d worry about. I don’t know much about foreign visitors and pilot’s licenses, but waiting for 2 weeks out of your allotted 3 for a license could easily ruin the vacation. Do you know that it would take only a few days from experience?
I haven’t been to Africa, but based on some videos I’ve seen, one of the hilights would be visiting the nightclubs in Dakar like the Thiossane or Baobab and hearing lots of great music.
I live in Cape Town, and would recommend the facilities here. (I am not a pilot, and I have no vested interests, though I do have an interest in meteorology).
Be sure to choose your season – winter in the Cape is wet, and summer in Namibia is very hot. Thunderstorms in the sub-tropical areas are also quite dangerous. Sep-Oct or Apr-May are my suggested months.
Flying from Cape Town to Dakar is not a realistic option. I doubt if any South African company would permit you to fly a plane north of Namia or Botswana, due to security and other risks. The environmentalist Mike Fay is doing a long trip, but the support infrastructure has to be in place.
And don’t accidentally come down in Zimbabwe.
An interesting African travel story:
http://www.petercrandall.net/africa_india/
I wonder what some South African pilot’s view of America would be if he came here and did a tour of the country, stopping only in GA airports.
“All Americans are male, white, and between the ages of 40 and 65.” 🙂
Chris: There are companies that arrange African “self-fly” vacations and their itineraries seem to budget only a few days to revalidate one’s license. So I don’t think the paperwork is insurmountable. One catch is that they seem to want to base operations in Johannesburg rather than Cape Town.
Mike: North Africa sounds fine but that’s a separate trip from seeing the animals and landscape of southern Africa. You wouldn’t feel sorry about not visiting Columbia on a planned trip to Argentina, would you? Or about missing Mexico City on your summer vacation in Alaska?
In 2000 I did a six month trip from Harare in Zimbabwe, west to the coast of Namibia, then doubled back and went north as far as Uganda. I did this completely overland by public transport except in Namibia where I was sharing a kombi van with some other tourists, and some parts of Malawi where I was driving a 4WD for a white South African guy doing a road survey.
The Namibian desert has some of the most unforgettable landscapes I’ve ever seen, especially on the skeleton coast of the north west. I got to see most of the natural attractions of each country, i.e. the national parks, Mount Kenya, the Okavango Delta etc. just by hiring local guides and vehicles in each place. Seeing it all from the air would be spectactular.
However the bits of the trip that stand out in my memory are not these sights but rather the day to day adventure of just being there in the middle of it. Africans are a remarkably happy and friendly bunch (maybe for the reasons you mention) and ordinary life is so different there to what we’re used to that you don’t need to go out of your way to be entertained.
The most surprising thing for me was the amount of english spoken. Every east african country I visited most people spoke english. Even in the most remote areas I could find someone who spoke at least some english. I remember being in one remote village somewhere in Malawi trying to ask directions to another village by pointing at a map and using charades. The two guys let us carry on like that for 10 minutes and then told us exactly what we wanted to know. Later they apologised for making fun of us and said they did it because they thought we were missionaries.
I haven’t read Theroux’s book but I formed the same kind of opinions about volunteer workers as you say he did. Most of them were a bunch of high minded do-gooders with a sickeningly paternalistic attitude to the people they thought they were helping. They also regarded tourists as a lower life form. The exception to this was a British organisation called Voluntary Service Overseas. They seemed to screen their volunteers much better and send out more well rounded individuals who could actually contribute something rather than the assortment of self important misfits most other organisations seemed to employ.
Anyway my point is that if you fly around Africa you’ll certainly see some spectacular landscapes in relative safety, but in my opinion you’ll be missing out on the best bit.
“Spending more money only builds a thicker wall between you and what you came to see.”
– Rick Steves
I credit Rick (his books actually) with taking a close minded kid from Reno, Nevada and opening his eyes to the world around him. Rick focuses on travel in Europe, but his basic travel philosophy (http://www.ricksteves.com/pressroom/travphil.htm) has guided me well in every one of the 27 countries I have visited, including India, Ethiopia and Tunisia.
You could get an airplane and it will be fun, but your experiences will be a sad sliver of what they could be. You would be much better off getting a money belt, a backpack, and Lonely Planet’s Africa on a Shoestring. Become a traveler, not just a tourist. Bad people exist, and modern media thrives by creating a culture of fear based on the actions of a few. I encourage you to step out of fear and embrace Africa and the world for what it is good and bad.
You will get scammed, you will ride in buses with chickens, children will laugh at the weird whitey. Buses will never show up, you will be served horrible food.
But…
Your mind will expand, you will be invited to dirt floored homes and spend hours talking and drinking coffee roasted over a wood fire, you will laugh and cry for people that have nothing but the everything that is love for each other. Sterotypes and generalizations will fade to the lies that they are. You will make friends that you will never see again, and you will meet people that will become lifelong travel partners. Your conversations will be deep, and seem to come from someone else. The world will forever seem different, and life back home will take on a whole different meaning.
Whatever you decide to do, I encourage you to make the most of your experience and encourage others to follow in your footsteps.
From a flying logistics point of view there are advantages to basing in Johannesburg compared to Cape Town – more aviation companies, and airports in nearby cities (Pretoria). From a scenic point of view the converse is true. In Cape Town helicopters are available for (tourist) hour-long trips around the Peninsula. There are also ex-military jets
available for short trips (probably less cost and hassle than in the US).
From Cape Town you can only fly north or east (towards Joburg), and there are very few game reserves withing day-flying distance. From Joburg you can fly in many more directions, and to more day-return destinations.
For a long trip flying over the Cape and Drakensberg Mountain Ranges would be on my list. In Namibia the Fish River Canyon and Etosha Pan National Park are popular destinations, and the Okovango Delta in Botswana is worth a visit. You might want to brush up on
http://www.photo.net/webtravel/safrica
There are regulations that you need to check up on – for example Kruger National Park does not permit overflying (there is an airport on the perimeter). Malaria is a significant factor in the north-eastern humid sub-tropical areas. The SA rand is much stronger than 2 years ago, so there is less benefit to dollar spending tourists.
To be frank I think this is a terrible idea. I just came back from two weeks in South Africa and at least in that country your three premises are completely incorrect. From my readings and discussions with others they are incorrect for many other places in Africa too.
As Mike McKay and David Chapman put it so eloquently above: its about the people, stupid.
Mike and Aloke: it may be about the people for you, but it’s apparently about the landscape for Philip. Media stereotypes nonewithstanding, the risk of having your head chopped off is still noticeably greater in Africa than in Cambridge, MA, or Japan, or even Argentina. And all it could take is one of those happy locals being in a bad mood. Granted, you may not expect Philip to contribute much more to the (computer) science at this point, but some of us would nonetheless regret to lose him.
Flying. No, not an especially good idea. You won’t get to meet people. You really would be better off backpacking.
Assuming you want to get a good tourist overview, Cape Town is a good place to start. If I was you I would take advantage of your blog, and ask anyone in CT to contact you. I’d spend more than a few days there though. There’s some good scenery. A nice mountain. Interesting shops. Penguins. The southern tip of Africa (don’t bother). Diving. Excellent wine and wine farms (3 to 4 days in itself). Good beaches. Historical spots – recent and colonial. Whales if you choose the right time. And terrific people.
The West coast is pretty barren. It’s got a cold current. But it’s very beautiful in that empty way. It’s worth going a couple of hundred miles up the coast, maybe even by plane. It’s definitely worth stopping at the small towns though – so maybe a car is better.
I’m guessing you want to go to Namibia to see desert? You could fly along the coast from Cape Town. But however you count it, it’s a long journey. The thing is that you could easily spend a couple of weeks in the desert. You should look for desert guides. You don’t mind hiking? I haven’t done it myself, but the people I know who have, think it was amazing.
Back to Cape Town – the Garden Route is lovely. Much of it is semi-tropical. But, the style of driving is more, uhhh, robust than most US driving. You are probably better off taking organised transport. You might enjoy the Blue Train – do a search – there’s a service to Port Elizabeth.
From PE, visit the Addo Elephant park. Then catch a plane to Johannesburg. (It’s not as bad as it sounds, and you’ll only be passing through.) There are a few things worth seeing in Jhb. It’s kind of LA in Africa. It’s worth getting a guide so that you don’t do anything amazingly stupid. I don’t mean a paid guide; Jhb readers, volunteer your services.
From there head towards, the Kruger National park. You can do that by train, or fly, or by car. I’d probably go by car. You do need to know though that it’s not like visiting a zoo. It’s perfectly possible to spend a week looking at mostly grass and trees. Not many people get to see the big animals. You can get bush guides there who have knowledge that’s worth paying for – they usually know where to find the most interesting animals.
Now it’s tough. I would say to go into Mozambique – it’s worth seeing how the poor world lives. Average *annual* income in Mozambique is around $200 (that’s not a typo, I meant two hundred dollars). You definitely want to go with someone who knows the ropes.
I would say to go up to Zambia, into Botswana and then into Namibia, but you’ve only got three weeks, so afterwards you should head back into South Africa. But it definitely is worth getting into Botswana if you have the time.
Okay, so that’s about 2 months or more. I may have overdone it.
You would probably like books by Obie Oberholzer. He’s done photographic essays of his tours around South Africa and through Africa. http://www.allbookstores.com/browse/Author/Oberholzer%2C%20Obie
http://www.museums.org.za/sang/exhib/photosyn/obe_obi.htm
http://www.artthrob.co.za/01july/images/oberholzer01a.jpg
I think his earlier works are best, if you can get hold of them.
And since I’m punting photography – my brother-out-of-law: mostly Africa – http://www.mikestoryphotography.com/
And finally, an ad. In case anyone reading is interested in a luxury overland safari truck. Built in Germany. Currently in Cape Town. It’s not cheap, but then it does have a boat, and a built in crane to lift it off the roof. But I couldn’t in all honesty tell you that it’s something suitable for a 3 week trip.
Jeff Veit
Those who plump for the backpacker style of tourism: I’m not saying that I’m going to camp next to the airplane every night. The idea is to see the landscape really well, which you can only do from the air, and spend time in the smaller/nicer towns rather than big city transportation hubs. Having the aircraft as a home base rather than a backpack means being able to carry 500+ lbs. of reliable food and water.
I think that I’ll meet plenty of people either way. In fact as a pilot one is often very well taken care of by the locals. I was adopted in the US Virgin Islands by a guy whom I met at the airport and taken home to his family, out sailing with his brother, etc. That wouldn’t have happen if I’d arrived with a backpack and stayed in whatever dump the Lonely Planet recommends.
As for “children laughing at the weird whitey” that is happening every day here in northern Japan! No need to get food poisoning to experience that.
There is absolutely no need to carry water. Or even purchase it. Use a filter. They are < $100 and I have used them in India, Uganda and many other places quite safely. My husband looked at me weird when I would filter, but we did not get sick, use powder gatorade to mask iodine taste imparted by filter if it bothers you. The locals are not starving and you won’t either. Basic food is available in anyplace a tourist would go through. If you are that picky (which I don’t think you are), don’t go. Of course I would not eat from a street stall in Nairobi. And I do carry cipro and painkillers when I travel. Have a great time !
Horrible idea. I don’t know where to start, but I suppose one way is by balancing your input. You’ve read Thoreaux’s book, perhaps you can now try http://url.co.nz/african_trip/, a superb travel log about an Africa overland trip.
As a tonic for your soul, pay special attention to Angie, whom the travellers meet along the way.
a
Buy Zithromax Z Pak
The blog is very useful.
hello! http://www.dirare.com/Sweden/ online directory. SMART Yellow Pages, About DIRare, Search in Business Category. From online directory .