We’re usually never one to pass up a challenge but since the notion of travelling through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania on our own filled us with apprehension more than excitement, we decided to book a tour with Nomad, an experienced tour operator that is proudly ‘100% African owned and managed.’

They offer budget tours where we’d be sleeping in tents, travelling on a bus/truck, and helping with meals. There are many things we loved about this way of travelling, from Cape Town in South Africa to Nairobi in Kenya, on a custom-built truck with twenty-something other travellers of different ages and nationalities and fantastic guides, drivers and cooks who looked after us extremely well and gave us invaluable insights into this amazing unfamiliar continent.

We made friends that we’re still friends with years later and memories that are vivid and touching to this day.

Our means of transport for the long-distance travel in this demanding environment was a converted, customised truck, fitted with seats, large windows, and lockers for storage. It however lacked air-conditioning, sunshades, or any suspension whatsoever (while we couldn’t see the potholes peppering the road through the windscreen, we could feel every single one of them, jolting up through our vertebral discs).

After less than a half hour behind the glass in the blazing sun the stifling heat soared to a suffocating crescendo and the steppe-like landscape devoid of shade-giving trees and the cloudless sky provided no relief. Desperate for any sort of cover, we jammed towels between the window slits but were still drenched in sweat when hours later, we arrived at Marcuskraal Camp near Citrusdal in the midst of lemon trees and imposing red sandstone formations.

On day two, we spent 10 hours on the truck covering 600 kilometres to Orange River, the border river between South Africa and Namibia. As tiring as that drive was for us, we were just sitting there watching the landscape whizz past outside the window, while it must have been awfully exhausting for Morrison our guide and driver, and Davidy our cook, who were working the entire time. In the evening gathered around the campfire – or African television as Morrison put it – we finally encountered African wildlife, just not the kind we’d hoped for.

It was the kind that loves irrigated campgrounds in the midst of an arid desert where small puddles form underneath the rocks surrounding campfire spots. A small scorpion (albeit much more poisonous than its bigger versions of their species) darted between our legs and while ear-shattering shrieks from our travelling companions echoed across the campsite, Davidy caught it in a soup ladle, totally unfazed, like it was just any old ordinary spider.

The next morning, we crossed the border to Namibia and embarked on a six-week road trip across 7 countries: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania.