It would seem appropriate that after a trip lasting nearly a year I should probably write some sort of review ; it should probably be deep and meaningful and use the words ‘magnificent’, ‘discovery’, ‘development’, ‘introspection’, ‘experience’, ‘growth’ and such.
But lets leave all that nonsense to one side for now, and start off with a few basic statistics, for those who are excited by such things… (and its easier to write!)
30,000
Approximately how much the trip cost me, in UK pounds. This excludes the cost of the van itself (about £3k), the conversion and fitting out etc which I haven’t worked out yet.
- £2,136 of this covers the initial flights to SA, to Canada, and back to the UK
- £3,670 of this was spent on shipping the van to and from Africa
- £1,140 or thereabouts was the cost of the carnet de passage for the vehicle
- £23,000 was everything else – accommodation, food, diesel, tours, park fees, etc etc.
Its hard to give an accurate estimate of a ‘per person, per day’ cost at the moment as for the first 3 months there were 2 of us on this trip and these figures include Africa and North America (quite different costs of living), but a quick calculation based on the £23k figure above comes to about £70 per day (about US$108).
If I were to remove the costs associated with the big safari trips and the diving excursions and so on, then split the spending up by region/country, this figure would come down quite a bit – but I haven’t got the patience for doing that just now.
16,222
How many miles I drove, or at least, logged – I know I forgot to log a few days here and there.
- 12,502 miles of driving in Africa – there were more, I just forgot to log them.
- 4,120 miles in the United States.
Now given that the ‘average’ mileage that people apparently cite when applying for motor insurance in the UK is somewhere around 12-15k per year, I would say that I was pretty much on par. I think I prefer the idea of driving around Africa over sitting in queues on the M25.
326
How many days I was away for (10 months and 22 days).
292
The number of days I spent in Africa, making up approximately 90% of the trip. The original plan was for a maximum of 6 months.
237
The number of nights I slept in the van – just over 80% of the time I was in Africa with it.
The first 3 weeks we were in a guesthouse, waiting for the van to arrive and clear customs (it was mistakingly offloaded in Namibia so we had to wait longer than planned), and I spent a couple of weeks in tents on organised safari trips etc. Sleeping in the vehicle (or at least, camping) definitely helped to keep the costs down (or at least, freed up money to do other things).
117
Approximately how many different campsites I stayed at in the van during my time in Africa, which means I was staying a fraction over 2 nights at each place (on average).
My longest stays (either in one go or over multiple visits to the same campsite) were:
- Oppi Koppi (Kamanjab, Namibia) – 23 nights in total from 3 separate stays
- Jungle Junction (Nairobi, Kenya) – 15 nights
- Riverlodge Backpackers / Camping (Cape Town, South Africa) – 13 nights
45
The magic number in Tanzania. This is the absolute maximum speed, in kilometres per hour, at which you should drive if is a building in sight (which seems to constitute a “built up area” in the eyes of the police).
The official speed limit in built up areas is actually 50kph or even 60kph, but even if you stay at 45kph, the police will probably still pull you over for speeding (showing you the reading on their speed gun that they took from someone an hour or so ago who actually was speeding) or make up some other non-offence and try to extort money out of you.
F*ckers.
23
The number of ‘game reserves’ I visited (rather than just passed through or alongside and barely noticed).
In the list below, [SD] means ‘self drive’ – all others were on 4×4 vehicles run by safari operators or the game parks themselves.
South Africa
- Hluhluwe-Imfolozi [SD]
- Tembe Elephant Park
- Kruger National Park [SD]
Swaziland
- Mlilwani Wildlife Sanctuary [SD + mountain bike]
Namibia
- Etosha National Park [SD]
- Erindi Private Game Reserve
Botswana
- Moremi Game Reserve and Okavango Delta
- Chobe National Park
Zambia
- Kasanka National Park [SD]
- South Luangwa National Park
Malawi
- Majete Wildlife Reserve [SD]
- Nyika National Park [SD + mountain bike]
Tanzania
- Mikumi National Park [SD]
- Ruaha National Park [SD ish – Fari took me there in his 4×4]
- Serengeti National Park
- Ngorongoro Crater and Convservation Area
- Lake Manyara
- Tarangire National Park
Kenya
- Lake Nakuru National Park
- Lake Naivasha National Park
- Masai Mara National Reserve
- Ambsoseli National Park
Rwanda
- Volcanoes National Park (walking – mountain gorillas)
12
The number of flights I took:
- Heathrow (UK) > Cape Town
- Cape Town > Durban
- Okavango Delta scenic flight
- Zanzibar > Dar es Salaam
- Dar es Salaam > Mafia Island
- Mafia Island > Dar es Salaam
- Nairobi > Kigali (Rwanda)
- Kigali > Nairobi
- Nairobi > Amsterdam
- Amsterdam > Vancouver
- Seattle > Amsterdam
- Amsterdam > Birmingham UK
Alas no, I don’t know what that equates to in terms of mileage, nor can I be bothered to try and find out.
11
How many countries I visited (excludes Holland as I was only there on a flight stopover):
- South Africa (97 days on a 90 day visa – got banned for a year for overstaying)
- Swaziland (5 days)
- Namibia (62 days)
- Botswana (8 days)
- Zambia (21 days)
- Malawi (30 days)
- Tanzania (38 days)
- Kenya (28 days)
- Rwanda (3 days)
- Canada (8 days)
- United States (21 days)
6
Shock absorbers. I replaced all 4 before leaving South Africa for Namibia, and the front 2 had to be replaced in Dar es Salaam, having wallowed my way all the way through Tanzania from Malawi over the course of a month.
4
How many times I got pulled over by roadside rozzers in Tanzania. On 3 of those occasions, they claimed I was speeding. I talked my way out of 2 of these. One one occasion the police just asked for money, plain and simple, without bothering to make up an excuse. I suspect he was the most honest of the bunch, frankly.
Also the number of punctures I picked up. 2 of those were fixable, 2 required new tyres. Which leads me on to the number of tyres I replaced in total (4), replacing 2 of my existing UK tyres before entering Namibia as I knew the roads would be more dubious.
2
The number of times the van got stuck – both times in sand. One took a few minutes to dig out, the other time took several hours.
Also the number of traffic fines I paid – one for speeding ($20 in Tanzania) and the other when spot checks by the roadside rozzers revealed that my not-quite-self-adhesive-enough white reflective tape had come off my front bumpers in Zambia (another $20).
0
The number of times I wished I was back home and at work, even when I was running low on funds towards the end of the trip.
Around the World in a Campervan 