blast from the past - nearly 30 years

[free85]

and what possible other way could it go!!

Some... other... way

That is a seriously amazing story. I haven't had an opportunity to do anything like that just yet but if it ever presented itself I can only imagine that the experience of it all is life changing for sure. How'd you organize the trip? Was it kind of a whim or did you have some friends who wanted to do something similar?

[Mr.T]

What an incredible adventure! Thanks for sharing those lovely stories. As I read it I felt like I was reading a Paul Theroux book. And it also took me back to my earlier days. I have a soft spot for Africa and Kenya in particular. My family spent 9 incredible years in Kenya and 3 in the Ivory Coast. I went to middle and high school in Nairobi. I've had a few adventures like the ones you experienced in the Serengeti. And I can't tell you how many people would ask if we had lions in our back yard!

[Ken Gargett]

Some... other... way

That is a seriously amazing story. I haven't had an opportunity to do anything like that just yet but if it ever presented itself I can only imagine that the experience of it all is life changing for sure. How'd you organize the trip? Was it kind of a whim or did you have some friends who wanted to do something similar?

it was actually a semi-organised trip. you basically sign up and trust to good luck you get reasonable people and a good driver. in those days, no gps or satillite phones or internet. i think i didn't speak to home for 6 months. just letters sent to post offices you'd hope to collect. i used a mob called encounter overland. spent a lot of time investigating the various different organisations. they seemed as good as any - the main thing i wanted to do was see the gorillas but the trip just kept growing.

we were lucky with our driver. a sparkie from townsville who was a top bloke. now lives in switzerland and writes about the world's most expensive watches. still keep in touch with a number of the other people. of course, jamming around 20 people into a tiny space and tough conditions for 7 months would expose tossers and lead to some fairly severe "disagreements". but overall, we were lucky. we did have a canadian doctor and his wife who left half way - after we had a sit down with everyone putting forth their views on the pair. basically, everyone detested the pair. strange - he was an intelligent bloke but utterly paranoid and seemed determined to hate every minute of the trip. and even attacked one or two of the others without warning or provocation. they had to go. for our sealbasher friends, i might add that we had quite a few canadians and the rest were terrific.

we had a pair meet on the trip and get married. really diverse group.

we met many people who'd left their trucks (going both ways, doing similar things) because of hassles and fights. overall, we were extremely lucky with our group.

the secret, i am convinced, is the food. a lot of trucks work on a kitty system. it leads to massive fights as some people want to eat well (you buy your food in the markets every day and cook yourselves) and others are on the shoestring budget. for EO, it is part of the cost and our driver would go over budget all the time as he knew how important it was to keeping everyone happy. we were also incredibly lucky to have, purely by chance, two professional chefs on the trip. one i mentioned - from chez panisse. the other a dutch bloke who had worked in various 2 star michelins in france and by christ he could cook. we would do it in teams. i jumped in and just worked as his assistant. learnt lots. much more fun than simply doing the usual stew or whatever. and we had a couple of massive feasts. he was a bit tempermental. saw him throw a caving knife at one bloke who put tomato sauce on one dish. but a very funny, very dry guy. he was huge when he joined us and lost 30 kilos in the first 3 months. he was also the only one of us not to get seriously ill at some stage.

i absolutely loved africa and spent a lot of time post the trip looking at ways to get back there permanently.

looked up the net - didn't know they even still existed. here are some photos from their site.

https://www.google.com/search?q=encounter+overland&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=nBj-VMKsAsHemAWPkoDQDQ&ved=0CDcQ7Ak

[Fuzz AI]

Actually, Ken. EO has gone the way of the Dodo. They have a Facebook page for people to reminisce.

[CaptainQuintero]

It's sad the world has turned to the extent that (For the time being) recreating that trip would be nigh on impossible due to a serious case of getting your head lopped off our nations simply being so much less innocent.

It sounded like an immense trip

[Ken Gargett]

It's sad the world has turned to the extent that (For the time being) recreating that trip would be nigh on impossible due to a serious case of getting your head lopped off our nations simply being so much less innocent.

It sounded like an immense trip

i remember about 2/3rds of the way through, a few of us went and sat on a hill and were just talking and we all agreed how lucky we were that we had done the trip when we did. because we all were convinced it would become so much easier from then on. we assumed borders would become easier to cross - and not take a few days at times, roads would be upgraded - we went months on dirt roads, some with potholes as big as the truck, bridges would be built, wars would be fewer. communication and mechanics improve.

how wrong we were.

fuzz, have often wondered. the trouble in doing so many of those trips these days must have crippled the company.

and to the gentleman who said redford, what an eye!!

[WarriorPrincess]

we think he looks like Peter O'Toole ;-)

[Fuzz AI]

we think he looks like Peter O'Toole ;-)

What was that? You say he looks like a tool?