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

Post by zardo » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 5:34 PM UTC

pmarreck wrote: post #157

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…

There is a little bit of cognitive dissonance in this post, and I'll explain why. "Adventure" is what you get when you don't get what you expected. Such as breakdowns. ;)

Post by shitgoose » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 5:42 PM UTC

mb_72 wrote: post #140

enraged_camel wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, Australia is home to some of the most poisonous snakes and spiders on the planet. And outside of major cities, they crawl into people's homes and cars on occasion.

Australian here. What you say is true, but avoid long grass (snakes) when out walking and check under the toilet seat (spiders) before sitting and you'll be fine. More importantly, make sure you look up constantly when around gum trees to avoid sudden and violent drop-bear attacks. The exact number of deaths and injuries caused by drop-bears is keep secret by the Australian government to avoid putting off tourists, b…

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 5:50 PM UTC

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…

Post by riboflava » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 5:50 PM UTC

forgotpwtomain wrote: post #121

todd8 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 d…

> There are international builds where you travel somewhere and work on building homes in areas where there isn't adequate low-income housing. I highly advise against this. There is no shortage of unqualified labor in underdeveloped countries. Most of these projects are just 'feel good charity tourism'. If you want to make a difference you are much better of donating 20% of a US salary which will employ many more und…

Post by overcast » Mon, Sep 19, 2016, 5:54 PM UTC

sangnoir wrote: post #155

pyre wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, this is about travelling across Africa rather than visiting a specific locale, that makes it more likely that you will need to pass through some of these "dangerous areas". Much as the other commenter here was mentioning getting robbed in Philly.

> To be fair, this is about travelling across Africa rather than visiting a specific locale Africa is really, really huge - it has almost 4 times the landmass of the contiguous US. Avoiding specific locales is pretty easy.