One rainy day in Sydney, I started thinking about my time in Southern Africa. It was the most stunning driving I had ever experienced in my life, through a continent exquisitely beautiful, dangerous at times, misunderstood by many, and utterly alluring.
I opened my computer in my bedroom and began typing in a crazed frenzy of clicking and clacking iMac keys – absolutely everything that I could remember about the adventure. After a couple of days, it was all there; a huge story about my travels in southern Africa.
It was all there, from my thoughts about the moonscape deserts, the night we heard lions outside our tent, the motorbikes on Zanzibar that didn’t have brakes, the machine gun-wielding soldier who inspected our car in Mozambique; even the dodgy hamburger we ate in Maputo. It inspired me to start this blog when I departed on my round the world trip.
We were driving from dawn til dusk almost every day, a colossal distance of about 12,000km (with all our many detours included). Point to point, that’s about the same as driving from Cape Town to Paris.
The route took us through never-ending highways shimmering with midday heat, insect-filled wetlands, tropical paradise beaches stolen from postcards, stomach-lurching mountain passes, and thick jungle that slapped the windscreen as we drove through it.
StickyMangoRice 
I really can’t wait to read your adventures in Africa!!! Talking about the devil pool or the safaris you guys did!!!
Ouai! I’m looking forward to doing some writing this year – back into the travel spirit!
Very exciting. Africa fascinates and scares me at the same time. I hope your stories will make me see it in another light 🙂 Can’t wait !
There are a lot of assumptions about Africa; diseases and guns and dangerous snakes and all that stuff. But it’s much safer than people think (well, in the southern countries that I visited, anyway). I hope you enjoy my articles!
Derrick, thanks for your visit & comment. Sunsets & sunrises are the focus of my blog! I found one on your site from Namibia. Do you have others? I feature different sunset or sunrise scenes, a new one each month as a featured header (with a mini-bio of the contributor). December was a special honor for a pianist blog follower- friend. I’d like to feature you for February 2017, with your permission! January will feature a photographer from Romania. Please let me know. Your site & travel theme is very interesting. I also like your writing style! Happy New Year! 🎆 Christine
Hi Christine, thanks for your interest in my blog! I’ve got one sunrise photo on this post https://stickymangorice.com/2014/03/21/what-can-you-learn-about-a-country-from-just-seeing-the-airport/ and another sunset here https://stickymangorice.com/2016/12/08/one-luxury-hotel-on-a-rough-camping-trip/ and a third here https://stickymangorice.com/2013/03/01/trek-it-out/. That’s the ones I remember off the top of my head, hope you like one of them! Thanks 🙂
Thanks Derrick! I’ve copied them into my gallery, All very beautiful. Let’s see how they crop for the header. I’ll choose the best one. Your travels are amazing. Love to read your blog entries. Happy New Year! 💛Christine
Thanks very much! Happy new year to you too