In which I go against my travel nature and join a group tour for three weeks.

In all of my years of travel, I have never done a group tour. I have done day tours, of course, and the odd overnight tour, but nothing more than that. But now, having arrived overnight back in Cape Town for one more night, I was about to embark on a three week tour from Cape Town to Victoria Falls through Namibia and Botswana. Both countries have populations of about 2.5 million, and are large countries, so getting around by public transportation is pretty much impossible. As I had no interest in driving by myself, I decided to join an overland tour.

Before the tour started, my credit card arrived at the hostel. Unfortunately, the pin was not reset and my old one didn’t work, so I’m still down one credit card for the trip. Add that to the growing list of things I’ve lost on the trip…

The night before we were to leave we started off with a group meeting, getting to see who would be on the tour, at least for the first segment, as some were getting off in Windhoek, Namibia and some continuing past Victoria Falls. At the meeting, I was relieved to see a wide range of ages and nationalities, as I had been dreading a tour full of 20 year olds, as I was on the cheapest tour I could find. Apparently the accommodated tours (ours consisted solely of camping except for two nights) attracted a much older crowd, so I had been a bit apprehensive, but was reassured after the meeting.

With an early start the next morning of 8am (which turned out to be quite a late start compared to every other day), I was unsurprisingly one of the last people on the truck so sat up front and got to know everyone pretty well by the time we reached our first campsite about 5 hours later near Springbok in the northwest of South Africa. I got to know them better after the wine tasting that night.

For those who have not done overland tours, they are very popular in Africa, due to the difficult nature of traveling in many regions in the continent, and are quick ways to see highlights. Our truck was full with 24 passengers, making it a bit difficult to pack in the mornings, but also meant you got to know others really well. Cheaper overland tours like mine was with Africa Travel Company means you are also responsible for setting up and taking down your tents, and helping with chores most days (the roster rotates).  You also have a smaller crew, with one tour leader, a driver and a cook. Ours were all really great. It also means like you, others have chosen a no frills tour, and should therefore be on the same wavelength.

A typical day looks something like: 5am wake up call. Pack your bags, sleeping bags, mats and tents in the truck, eat breakfast, clean up, pack up the truck, drive 250-650 km, arrive at the campsite, set up the tents, eat a very late lunch, and have a small excursion before dinner and drinks by the fire. A variation might add a supermarket/beer stop to the tour, or a full day tour of sightseeing. 

Anyway, after Springbok we headed just south of the Namibia border to the Orange River, where we spent the afternoon/early evening kayaking down the river. Being a large group, the excursion took a lot longer than planned, but it was a gorgeous float at sunset anyway. The next day we headed to Namibia.