An Overland Tour: Cape Town to Victoria Falls

For the next part of our trip we decided to join an overland tour, we thought it would help us to get our African adventure going with a little hand-holding; to prepare us for some solo journeying later on. We had researched travelling up through Namibia with a hire car, but with some warnings about road conditions and being caught out in the middle of nowhere with car trouble, we felt it more sensible to go with a tour.

As mentioned in our Cape Town blog, we utilised the services of Detour Africa on Long Street just near our accommodation, Louise was helpful in guiding our vague ideas into a cohesive plan for an overland tour and gave us 3 options of companies that had tours leaving across the next ten days. We took these and went and did our research, finally deciding on Nomad tours; mainly because they were African owned and operated, had dates of departure that fitted our plans, was heading in the right direction (via Namibia and Botswana), the best value for money regarding activities, and they had good reviews online. Another thing was that they had trucks with windows that opened, this may sound like an odd one but when you consider the number of times we would safari on the truck, it was a key consideration.

Our tour began on Castle Street, at around 6:30am when there were still many interesting characters roaming the streets of Cape Town; here we began to meet the 22 other people and 3 crew that would be our family for the next 3 weeks. It was a very mixed age and nationalities group, with ages from 18 to 65+ and 13 countries represented. We all got talking pretty much straight away, which we were told by the Nomad team on site was a good sign for the rest of the trip; and they were right. We were both a little apprehensive about being cooped up in a truck for this period of time with 22 strangers, camping, not having access to hot water or proper toilets (not being a princess, but these things were part of the thought process). We were lucky, as it was such a mixed group there were no cliques, and everyone got on well and there were no blowout moments or stand up arguments; not everyone would be as lucky when taking one of these tours, human nature will always deliver some drama in these kinds of situations, Endemol have made millions out of it!

We will cover the places we travelled through on separate posts, what we will cover here is:

• The tour overall.
• The truck.
• The guides.
• Our fellow travellers.
• Comfort.
• Putting up your tent.
• Meals, meal preparation; and cleaning up.
• Staying in towns – make the most of it.

 

The tour is a whistle-stop trip from Cape Town, up the West Coast of South Africa, through Namibia, Botswana; eventually ending up at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. You spend your time travelling in a converted truck, and mainly camping in tents that you put up yourself each night, and take down each (quite early) morning; cooking and general assistant work will be rostered throughout the times you are camping, there will be stops where you stay in lodges in rooms and may eat at a local restaurant so these days will be skipped from rosters.

The truck is relatively roomy (I’m 6’ 4’ with very long legs and survived!), has 2 USB chargers in each pair of seats; our truck had four seats around the freezer box at the front of the truck – which nicely doubles as a table for cards or your feet! At the back of our truck we were allocated lockers (bring your own padlock) to store your backpacks, don’t bring a rigid suitcase as it just won’t fit. I had a 70l rucksack that fitted well, even allowing for storage around it which meant that with some forward thinking, I could arrange one of my packing cells to hold everything I would need between stops that had accommodation; where I could rejig my stuff in space and maybe get some laundry done. All of the tents, cooking equipment, chairs, etc. are stored within the frame of the truck so won’t impact on your space. Bring podcasts or music for the long driving days, as you will want to look at the scenery but it cuts out some of the general driving drone of the truck.

Our guides/family leaders consisted of a driver, a guide, and a cook (or mama as she introduced herself). These guys will keep you on track each day, whether it be providing the details of what your next 48 hours will look like, preparing your meals, driving those long straight roads that would send most drivers to sleep; and trying to maintain the delicate balance of 24 strangers from different backgrounds in a confined space for 3 weeks – and camping with early starts! Our team were all from Zimbabwe, were all really friendly, funny, and knowledgeable; and will help you understand more about the areas you travel through so make time each day to talk with them – it’s very rewarding and helps build binds between you.

So, a bit about the other travellers; but as they may be reading this I will have to be diplomatic… actually I won’t, as I mentioned earlier we had a very balanced and great group. We had people from England, Australia, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Spain, South Korea, China, Brazil, Argentina; and of course Zimbabwe. We had ages from 18 to I think I can say over 65 with impunity. As there were many ages in between this ensured there were no cliques formed and everyone ate together, drank together; and took part in the activities together (sometimes going to weird house parties, or braving hostile Afrikaans bars together). There were no flare ups, no arguments, no screaming matches; we were very lucky – I am not sure all groups that take these tours can say the same.

In terms of comfort it was ok, the truck was comfortable enough as there were regular stops to see things, or have bushy-bushy (toilet breaks). Ladies, you will not be greatly catered for on some of these but there are regular stops at service stations or towns that have toilets and the truck has ample supplies of spare toilet tissue.

Some of the seats on our truck (Bowie, all the trucks in the Nomad fleet are named after dead singers or musicians) leant a bit which can be a bit tough on one of your cheeks on a long bumpy road. The seats at the front can be cramped for those of you with long legs, they do cycle through seats each day to make sure that any good or bad spots are enjoyed by you all; and of course if you don’t have a full truck it can be easier on all of you. The roads in some parts of Africa (Namibia, I’m looking at you!) are gravel, and will give you what is known locally as an African massage; it’s all part of the fun of the adventure though so don’t let this put you off. By the time you get to the rougher terrain you will be in tune with truck travel and be going with it.

The tents we were given to use were pretty roomy (I could even stand up in it), and the mattresses comfortable to hide the terrain underneath; if your group is less than full try to snag one of the spare mattresses each night to double that comfort. If your tent gets wet then be sure to keep the flaps open as long as possible when it dries out, this will keep the mustiness to a minimum. We heard a story about a lady who kept the flaps open one night when they camped within a game reserve, she awoke to find a lioness clawing at the thin mesh trying to get into her tent; so use a little common sense with the above advice! The tents become easier to put up the more practice you have, and you will have plenty; sometimes in the cover of darkness so ensure you have a head torch in your travel kit, and don’t lose any of the parts in the dark!

The meals we had were above our expectations, the quality is pretty good considering the facilities at hand for the chef; and the quantities are more than enough for the hungriest of traveler. Be warned though, you will need some self-control to prevent having double helpings of every meal; I confess I may have eaten 8 double hot dogs in one sitting, but that could just be a legend… You will be rostered on to help set-up/clean down and prep the food for one day in 7 but this just becomes habit after a while and again helps to bond the group.

When staying in a town, or in bedded accommodation make the most of it. Use that laundry, charge everything and download anything you need while you have decent Wi-Fi; and have that extra long hot shower, because even though life on the road makes you more accepting of things not being just-so, it makes you appreciate lifes little rewards all the more, you will see what I mean. Also, being told when to eat, when to sleep, when to get up, can feel a little oppressive at times so you may just want to enjoy being your own boss for a little while. It only happened to me once, but I was more than happy to have my morning coffee away from the group, grab my breakfast and lunch on the road; and try to have a little me time for just a little while.

 

All in all, the trip was a great way to dip our toes into our first Africa-proper experience, I hope what I have written has given an even-handed view of the experience. Sure, some of the time it was cramped, dusty, with long days and often a cool shower at the end of the day; but a lot of the experiences we shared along the way really brought us together and cemented some life long memories for us all. There is no easy way of seeing this amount of Africa in such a short amount of time, but in our opinion, it is the best way to do it.

Africa tends to be a little rough around the edges, some things don’t work as you would expect them to, and some parts of it can be tough, and that’s part of its charm; so why would you want your experience of it to be different…

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