Overlanding Novices leap into the unknown

Growing up you’re encouraged to dream and have aspirations. I’m baffled as to where the desire to travel overland by truck sprang from. But with our deposit and trip balance now paid, it’s way too late to contemplate the whys and start to face up to the reality of exactly what we’ve signed up for.

We’ve purchased more kit than we ever imagined and the time taken comparing suitability for our aged bodies, prices and availability has been exhausting. A two day camping trip enabled us to check all our kit in advance, for comfort and practicality. Delighted to say that it all passed with flying colours. Jabs have been scheduled with almost military precision to ensure that arms had sufficiently recovered in time for the next round. Safe to say we’re mightily relieved that neither of us have a phobia to needles.

So with trepidation we’re about to embark on a 22 day adventure from Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe to Cape Town in South Africa in an enormous truck with Oasis Overland and 16 strangers. We keeping everything crossed that they’re patient with our cooking, partial to a few beers, willing to teach us a new card game or two and not too horrified by our eclectic taste in music. We were assured when we visited the www.oasisoverland.co.uk stand at The Destinations Show, Olympia at the begnning of the year that this is the best introduction to Overlanding for beginners. Keeping everything crossed that they weren’t being too liberal with the truth.

The Trip Notes for the “Deserts & Gameparks” tour tell us we will “Experience the incredible diversity of Southern Africa – from the abundant wildlife of the Okavango Delta & Etosha National Park, to the breathtaking scenery of the Namib Desert & Fish River Canyon. Try your hand at white water rafting & bungy jumping at Victoria Falls or quad biking & dune sledding at Swakopmund. This truly is a trip to stun the senses.”

Going Overlanding, means we’ll be expected to take on our share of daily duties from sweeping out the truck, setting up table/chairs for meals oh and cooking!! The cooking element includes shopping in a local market, food preparation and the ability to cook a tasty nutrious meal for the group about once a week. We’ll be put into cook groups of around 3 people and we’re keeping everything crossed that our respective group contain at least one experienced overland chef. Sensibly Brownie and I will go into separate groups. Despite dreading this bit, we’re both looking forward to the challenge.

We’ll be travelling in a large truck built specifically for these types of trips for up to 12 hours a day. Oh forgot to say that if we’re not camping overnight we’ll be staying in simple lodges. We’re responsible for our own tent set-up and take-down. Trip is 80:20 camping so we’re going to get plenty of practice and I’m already having nightmares about local wildlife snoozing outside our tent. I’m thinking maybe we won’t go and watch The Lion King before we leave.

However, being the softies that we are we’ll arrive at Vic Falls, 3 days before the overlanding commences. We’re going to pretend we’re like Meryl Streep in “Out of Africa” in our luxury safari tent at www.vicfallsrestcamp.com/ in order to ease us into the world of camping. We’ll be staying very close to the infamous thundering falls perfecting our best “Dr Livingstone I presume” impressions!!

We’ll keep you posted along the way, internet permitting. It’s going to be so far removed from our comfort zones but it’s time to make the leap and explore.

Wish us luck. Sellsey & Brownie