Into Africa: Why we chose to do an overland safari tour
Our African safari starts today! This wasn’t part of the original itinerary. The more we discussed our trip, though, the more egregious the omission of Africa seemed. Like most people in the developed world, we viewed Africa with trepidation and suspicion — what was out there in that vast dark continent? There was only one way to find out.
Africa, to us, meant one thing: safari. Figuring out how to swing this on a budget was a challenge. Safaris are expensive! You could easily spend tens of thousands of dollars per person caravaning between private luxury game lodges. On top of that, there are myriad African safari companies to choose from. Who’s reputable? Who’s safe? For us, it came down to two choices:
- Go on an “overlanding” tour with a budget-oriented company
- Rent a car and do it ourselves.
We went with Option 1. Specifically, we decided to join the Dragoman Deserts, Deltas and Game Parks overlanding tour from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to Cape Town, South Africa. (You can read more on their website, but “overlanding” basically means you drive from site to site in a large truck, camping along the way). We are typically anti-tour, preferring to travel as independently as possible, so we wanted to explain our logic for other travelers exploring their options.
It’s way less scary and a whole lot easier.
Joining a tour meant putting the work of planning an itinerary, booking campsites, figuring out supplies, transport and food, etc. on someone else’s plate. We usually relish this stuff but we had several compelling arguments against it this time:
a) Africa isn’t Thailand
We can’t just hop on a bus to the next place and book a decent hotel when we arrive. We’re going to be out in the wilderness, setting up camp, dealing with wild animals, and driving long distances out in the hinterland. The idea of doing all this by ourselves, and the serious repercussions of screwing up, made us uneasy. With a tour, we get a driver and crew who (assumably) know what they’re doing.
b) We were lazy
After five months of independent travel, we were ready for a break from the constant planning that our preferred travel style entails.
c) Less junk in the trunk
With a tour, we just had to bring along a sleeping bag and ground mat. They provide everything else. If we’d done it ourselves, we would have had to hire a Jeep, rent all the gear we needed, figure out gas and food, make sure we actually knew where to go (I can see it now: “Which direction do you think to Botswana?”). Just thinking about it makes my head hurt.
We wanted to meet other people
A big reason we chose a tour was so we could (hopefully) meet like-minded travelers. (Although the other travelers may wish we’d made a different decision if Jordan makes good on his promise to start every morning with a rousing rendition of “The Circle of Life.”)
But what about …
There are downsides to the tour, of course (other than our loss of traveler street cred). Because it’s a budget tour, we’re mostly camping and we have to help with chores. But if we’d gone independently we’d still be camping and doing ALL of the chores. We may get a terrible guide or an annoying group. On the other hand, we may get an informative guide and a great group.
You may notice that we didn’t mention one huge factor: the cost. That’s because we found it to be a toss-up. From the research we did, the costs would (probably) have been about even. It was going to be expensive either way. Might as well go with the one we were more comfortable with.
The next few weeks are sure to be full of adventures and surprises. I have literally never even camped in my own backyard and don’t know which side of a tent is up. (Good thing I married an Eagle Scout!) We’ve never seen wild animals outside of a zoo. We’ve never lived and traveled in close quarters with strangers for three weeks. We have no idea what’s in store for us. And we can’t wait.
Editor’s Note: Because we don’t expect much Wi-Fi in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, we won’t be posting about our encounters with the Big 5 until we get to South Africa in July. For those people who actually read posts as they come up (Hi, Mom!), we’ve queued up a few more posts about India to post periodically in our absence.
