171–180 of 264 posts
I also quit my Software Engineering job, and I'm driving around Africa right now! I decided I didn't want to sit at a desk for 30 years to pay off a mortgage, so I'm not going to. Dumping my life savings into this likely means I'll never have a new car, big screen TV or new iPhone, but I'd rather have this experience than those things. In 2009 I spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina too. The details on the…
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Camping in Africa sounds amazing, right up until there's a hyena sniffing around the other side of the tent canvas. Then it's not so much fun any more.
You've missed their meaning. https://www.drivesouthafrica.co.za/images/home/slides/landy-...
I also quit my Software Engineering job, and I'm driving around Africa right now! I decided I didn't want to sit at a desk for 30 years to pay off a mortgage, so I'm not going to. Dumping my life savings into this likely means I'll never have a new car, big screen TV or new iPhone, but I'd rather have this experience than those things. In 2009 I spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina too. The details on the…
So many questions. I'll look through your website tonight. This is awesome
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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.
It's like 4 times above South Africa which would be my guess for "highest gun homicide per capita" rate in Africa.
There's simply no way this is even close to a continent wide average.
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…
This echoes my thoughts about travel. While I love being in transit, the idea of just seeing (or hearing/eating/etc) a bunch of things just isn't all that appealing. I've lived in a few places in Asia and really liked that. Spending a few months to a year in a place, making friends, getting to know the locals. It felt good, though it limited the kind of work projects I could do. (I was an English teacher rather than…
I also quit my Software Engineering job, and I'm driving around Africa right now! I decided I didn't want to sit at a desk for 30 years to pay off a mortgage, so I'm not going to. Dumping my life savings into this likely means I'll never have a new car, big screen TV or new iPhone, but I'd rather have this experience than those things. In 2009 I spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina too. The details on the…
installing diesel instead of perfectly fine gas engine looked like typical mistake of a software engineer - we don't really need it, but it would be sooo cool to try!:)
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…
Reread your first paragraph, then reread your second paragraph. To paraphrase them both a bit: "You would like to experience some real adventure, but getting stuck in the mud doesn't really appeal to you". Hmm?
The only way you will experience something that is really fulfilling to you in this way, is if you go do something that you are not really all that comfortable with. Go do it and feel how you are not only a better version of yourself, because you know that you can now "do this too", but it also changed your view on the world just a little bit. It broadened you character and your perspectives a bit and THAT is fulfilling.
It doesn't have to be mud in Africa, but it does have to be one of those things where some part of it doesn't really appeal to you. The only fulfilling adventures are the ones that change you, and an experience can't change you if it is designed to only give you what you already know and like.
You don't have to do that one big thing. You can do a series of smaller things instead. As long as they challenge you it will be fulfilling overcoming that challenge.
I also quit my Software Engineering job, and I'm driving around Africa right now! I decided I didn't want to sit at a desk for 30 years to pay off a mortgage, so I'm not going to. Dumping my life savings into this likely means I'll never have a new car, big screen TV or new iPhone, but I'd rather have this experience than those things. In 2009 I spent two years driving from Alaska to Argentina too. The details on the…
Software engineers make pretty decent money, and can work from anywhere. If you want an affordable mortgage, all you have to do is move out of range of the big cities. I'm also a software engineer and I am fully aware that we have a job that has one of the highest satisfaction rates AND pay in the world right now. I have no sympathy for you lol But enjoy your time away, the creature comforts will still be there when…
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Same I've been to Philly and Barcelona, and live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed. I guess at the risk of being downvoted for victim blaming, "don't be stupid." It wouldn't surprise me if people let their guard down when they felt they were in a "safe" area.
> I've been to Philly and Barcelona, and live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed. Maybe you don't know what the feeling is like? I mean, how long have you lived in Oakland? If you grew up in the city with the 3rd highest crime rate in the US, maybe your barometer isn't calibrated the best?
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…
An old truck is a vastly more practical vehicle in Africa than a landrover - LRs need a lot of maintenance, whereas trucks generally just keep going. The only major mechanical issue they had was caused by dirty diesel, and if they'd had some sort of pre-filtration setup they could have probably avoided this. Their major issues were simply down to the weight of the vehicle and poor route selection.