Peculiar

Starting with the GOOD STUFF – A few experiences while Hitchhiking in Africa:
(Keep reading for more info and tips)

 Uganda: After eating my own cooked food (vegetables and pasta) for quite a few days, three guys from Tanzania pick me up while they are going right after the border with Kenya, and they offer for me to have lunch with them in a nice restaurant. I had a delicious vegetable curry with rice. Yummy!

Uganda: A small bus (van) stops and tell me they can take me half away to my destination. When I tell the young man, who owns the bus, that I cannot pay for the ride, he tells me I can come anyway. Once we arrive in Kampala, he drives me towards outside the town, and buys me a bottle of water.

Tanzania: Actually, a boathiking when I had to cross a river to enter Mozambique. A local who was going back home, offered to take me to the border, where I could camp for the night and enter Mozambique next morning.

Mozambique: I got a lift with a lovely German young couple, Fridtjof and Mandy, and we camp in a beach for the night. It was the first time I camped with people who picked me up. Uhull!

Mozambique: Angelo not only offered to drive me all the way to the border (even though is quite a lot out of his way), but he also invited me to visit Ponta de Ouro, a small and beautiful beach just before the border with South Africa. He told me that I could not leave Mozambique without seen it. He also invited me for a delicious meal! Yummy!

South Africa: Mareska and Trudi are super smiley and lovely girls! They invited me to spend a few days with them, in Sodwana Bay, which was not on my plans but I accepted anyway. Mareska asked me if I wanted a beer. After a few minutes she came back and gives me a 750 mL bottle of the Black Label beer and say: “Welcome to South Africa!”

South Africa: Eban and Fred stop by a Sports Shop and buy me a pepper spray. “Just in case you need” – they say to me. They also invited me to stay overnight in Eban’s house, with his wonderful family, because tomorrow morning he will put me in a bus to Botswana.

Botswana: Jan, from South Africa, and his helper, Peter, from Botswana, give me a lift in the back of their jeep. Super cool! Later on, Jan offers me to camp by his camping site, which he is building. At night, we could hear the lions’ roar as they were just outside the camping. What an amazing experience!

Botswana: Daryl, a very elderly man who owns a Safari Company, pick me up and we drive across Chobe National Park. At the entrance of the Park though, I didn’t know you have to pay to “use the road”, something around 10 Euros, so I when I was about to come back to take a road which goes around the National Park, Daryl very kindly paid for my entrance. During this trip, I see, up close, my first elephants (two metres from the car) and a couple of lions in honey-moon (15 metres from the car).

Botswana: Jakob picked me up in Maun. We both were going to Windhoek in 9 hours driving. I had planned to stop and camp in the border with Namibia, so I wouldn’t have to travel at night with a stranger. But me and Jakob got along so well that I even asked my Couchsurfing host in Windhoek if he could come over and also stay with him. The two of them had the same profession and became good friends. The three of us became good friends and had wonderful 3 days together.

Zimbabwe: Many taxi drivers gave me a lift without charging me!

Zimbabwe: A truck driver was to make a delivery in a hospital and stay there overnight. He asked in the hospital if I could also pitch my tent for the night.

Rwanda: The manager of the King’s Palace allowed me to pitch my tent in the gardens in front of the King’s Palace. Fancy me! Later on, the secretary who had left earlier, came back to bring me a pillow and a blanket. How sweet!

As you can read, people all over Africa were amazing to me! I love Africa immensely and truly miss that land! These are only a few stories of my experience in Africa! Now go make yours!

Hitchhiking in Africa

Before I went to Africa, I had to hear some terrible stories from a lot of people. Including some travellers who seemed to be detached of the ordinary society life. The stories were always about bad incidents with foreigners in different countries in Africa; about women who disappeared; so basically, how dangerous the continent is.

Apparently, we tend to always talk about bad things which happen quite rarely, and not about the good deeds which are happening every single day and a lot. It is the same about Africa.
The countries I visited in Africa were Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia. And apart of Mauritania, I hitchhiked in all the others.

When I first came to Africa, I didn’t have much experience with travelling and hitchhiking. I was on the road for about 8 months. But I had read a lot of travel blogs about travellers who had actually been there, so my cultural shock would not be that big, and I could be prepared for some unexpected situation. So that’s my first tip for you: Research. Before going to a foreigner country, read about it, but from real sources, travellers, and not the media.

The element of surprise is good but, depending on the person, can make your experience last pleasant. I have read travel blogs from people who complained about certain behaviours from locals, like in Morocco, for example, where there is quite a lot of harassment towards the tourists. Now, that is something you will find in many countries, you cannot change that, and you shouldn’t let that spoil your idea of the country or to make your experience less pleasant. Once you are prepared for that, you tend to keep a certain state of mind and deal with it. And Moroccan people are, in general, very sweet and kind people, always ready to help and take care of you.

My second and most absolute tip is: positivity. Keep only good thoughts in your had and try to avoid, as much as possible, negative thinking and fear. Believe that only good people will stop for you and that you will get in the car with some really good people. Believe that somebody will pick you up and you will arrive to your destination. Good attitude is very important and makes all the difference.

Together with that, you have to keep your awareness always on. Listen to your instincts or sixth sense always. If when a person stops the car, listen to your feelings, to your heart, and check how you feel about that person. Usually, that happens immediately and you look at them, so don’t think too much, just feel it. Some people might have never used their six sense (intuition, instinct, call it how you wanted) before, so they might think they don’t have it. I don’t believe on that! I believe we all have it and are capable of using it.

In many countries in Africa, the locals do hitchhike in a softer way. They go from village to village or from town to town. But they still might get confused when they see you, standing by the road with your sign. Many of them would ask me what I am doing, where I am going, and why I am standing there like that. Be patient! Remember that you are an outsider for them, someone they see quite rarely (at least if you are travelling a lot in the country side, like me), so of course you will awaken curiosity on them. Answer the questions politely and just let them know that you are OK and in control of the situation.

Lots of times, these same locals would tell me that hitchhiking doesn’t work, that nobody would take me for free. Don’t believe on that! I have always got lifts for free in all these countries. But why would they say that? Because in Africa, when the local do hitchhike, they pay a small amount of money to the driver. It is very common. So that’s why you always have to tell the driver, before you get in the car, that you cannot pay for the lift. Some of them might not take you, that is there right, but most of them will be OK with it and take you along.

The locals also tend to tell you that their country is very dangerous, and you shouldn’t travel like that. Mostly if you are a woman. In many countries in Africa I have heard that. Keep your positive mind and good thoughts. Believe that you are protected against any harm which might come into your way, and that you will be safe trough all your journey.

I believe that people take in consideration the way that you dress. You have to find a balance between not showing too much skin (otherwise people might think you want something else than just a lift), but still wear what you like / feel comfortable. During my travels in Africa, most of the time I was wearing very comfortable / large clothes, but that is because I don’t care by how my clothes looks like, or what fashion tells me to wear, or what people will think. But in somehow, I believe that this behaviour of mine, kept some of the men away from bothering me.

In Africa, trucks are not allowed to take passengers in the cabin, but that doesn’t mean they don’t do it. In quite a few times I was travelling in a truck with up to 15 people, sitting all together in the cabin, and I was sitting in the floor, between the driver’s and passenger’s seat. All those people give the driver some small money. So, AGAIN, before accepting a lift in a truck, tell the driver you cannot pay for the lift.

That is only a bit of my experience in Africa! Now go make yours!