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I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

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Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#91

Post by barking »

gambiting wrote: post #86
barking wrote: post #36

Is this the 21st century equivalent of big game hunting? Driving around africa in a truck for 19 months isn't exactly environmentally friendly. How many miles to the gallon do those things do?

I've said this before, but I'll say it again - I'm 99% certain that my local supermarket stocking fresh cherries from Chille every day(I'm in UK) damages the environment more than someone driving a truck in africa. It almost makes me angry that someone mentions that this sort of adventure shouldn't be done because of environmental reasons.

The odd person driving a truck around africa won't cause environmental damage. Killing a few elephants won't endanger the species. Are you in favour of allowing people to shoot elephants?

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#92

Post by knodi123 »

ythl wrote: post #26
wil421 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, because those cities have genocides and civil wars going on from time to time.

The USA is a police state where gun deaths exceed the rest of the civilized world combined.

That's cartoonishly exaggerated.

The gun homicide rate per 100,000 is 3.43 in the US, and 37.16 in swaziland. We have a big population in the US, of course we're going to have more of lots of things. But in terms of disease, violence, and vulnerability to official corruption, the US is way ahead of africa as a whole.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#93

Post by SonicSoul »

jonstewart wrote: post #70

There have been so many of these self-congratulatory I-quit-my-job-to-travel-the-world posts that the New Yorker published a satirical piece on it: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/why-i-quit-my-jo... . TFA doesn't even have any geek discussion of build details, design trade-offs, problems encountered on the road and how they were solved, etc.

thanks for this link. such a fun read.

My first few months roaming the world were life-changing. Every day, I updated my Instagram with photos of my favorite sights: cones filled with scoops of glistening gelato; my hand lightly resting on a café table, near an early edition of “On the Road”; selfies of me hugging depressed tigers too stoned on sedatives to drown themselves.

i hate to admit this but im a photographer and have been dreaming about quitting and traveling just for opportunities to take photos. not sure i'd ever put photos of food/sedated tigers though.. but still hits close to home

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#94

Post by ftrflyr »

I have spent the past 10 years doing this with Engineers Without Borders and conducting independent research. My experience is similar to yours but I didn't buy a vehicle - I used busses and trains.

My research in Africa was around Energy and the many forms it presents itself. I only encountered a handful of negative experiences:

[1] Getting jailed at the border in Mozambique for refusing to pay a bribe.

[2] Nearly getting kidnapped in Musoma, Tanzania by the biggest Tanzania I have ever seen in my life. He proceeded to grab my arm and pull be down and ally proclaiming I was to come with him and play the drums.

[3] In Nairobi during one of the worst storms in the past 25 years.

I just spent that past 11 months backpacking South America. This time, my research was focused on Drones and Last Mile Distribution.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#95

Post by barking »

jsaxton86 wrote: post #62
barking wrote: post #36

Is this the 21st century equivalent of big game hunting? Driving around africa in a truck for 19 months isn't exactly environmentally friendly. How many miles to the gallon do those things do?

On /r/travel the OP said 4 km/liter

Thanks. I think that works out at about 18 mpg which is better than I thought it would be.

I thought it might have been single digits

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#97

Post by todd8 »

lasfter wrote: post #67
nathan_f77 wrote: post #55

This looks like a nice experience, but I'm realizing that I don't want to do anything like this. I thought I did, but I guess not. That includes driving an RV around America or New Zealand, hiking the Appalachian trail, or any other kind of journey where you travel from A to B and see a few things along the way. I do want to visit Africa, but all of this driving and getting stuck doesn't really appeal to me. I do wan…

Perhaps try Doctors Without Borders? It is more of a long-term kind of travel, but you will be doing real good and definitely living an adventure. They need people with all kinds of backgrounds, not just medical, so it might be worth a look.

As a simpler, less ambitious adventure, suitable for people that don't want to quit their job, you might try Habitat for Humanity.

There are international builds where you travel somewhere and work on building homes in areas where there isn't adequate low-income housing. You get to meet and work with locals for a couple of weeks. I went to rural Hungry. I had one friend who also went on the build. He talked me into doing it with him, and I'm glad he did.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#98

Post by someone7x »

jonstewart wrote: post #70

There have been so many of these self-congratulatory I-quit-my-job-to-travel-the-world posts that the New Yorker published a satirical piece on it: http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/why-i-quit-my-jo... . TFA doesn't even have any geek discussion of build details, design trade-offs, problems encountered on the road and how they were solved, etc.

> self-congratulatory I-quit-my-job-to-travel-the-world posts

Hit the nail on the head. It's all quite amazing and awe-inspiring as well; I don't want to take away their achievement. However I can't deny how self-congratulatory it feels.

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#99

Post by sangnoir »

overcast wrote: post #3

I envy this sense of adventure, but a lot of Africa is such a volatile place. The countries there are consistently in the top 20 most dangerous places to visit, and placed on do not go lists. Definitely takes a special person to deal with all of that, on top of all of the obstacles they ran into. Looks like they could have avoided most of the transportation issues, by investing in a true land rover type vehicle, inst…

> I envy this sense of adventure, but a lot of Africa is such a volatile place.

This generalization is so broad as to be useless (akin to "America is a racist, xenophobic place"). Africa is 54 countries and 1 billion people and countless cities and neighorhoods, painting with a broad brush is unhelpful. Only a handful of countries have active conflicts or instability, it is easy to avoid them on a trip such as this one.

[Edit] Here's a fun game that was featured on the Daily Show: see if you can you tell if a photograph was taken in Africa or the US[1]

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHO1a1kvZGo

Re: I quit my job, bought an army truck, and spent 19 months circumnavigating Africa

#100

Post by donretag »

clydethefrog wrote: post #89
donretag wrote: post #74

You want crazy? Try going around Africa via public transportation. I would not recommend it. ;) No matter what kind of bus ticket you get promising a luxury bus, it will be anything but that. Try getting a small group together and do like the author did. I loved Africa.

I loved reading the story about "the lunatic express", the Nairobi-Mombasa train. https://www.1843magazine.com/features/the-lunatic-express

I took a train from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Slow and decrepit. No first class even if you wanted to. However, they sold beer on board at prices that were cheaper than even a supermarket. We finished their entire supply. Opted not to take the train in Tanzania. There were no other options for trains at other times.
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