Gap Year Experiences

An extract from Jake's Overland Journey through Southern Africa

Tuesday 14 September 2010

Jake was part of a great Gap Year group that spent two months in Cape Town earlier this year. At the end of the trip, Jake jumped on an Overland Tour and headed up through many of our absolute favourite spots in Southern Africa; the Namib Desert, the Okavango Delta and Lake Malawi. Below he gives us an insight into one of his more eventful mornings on Tour! Thanks Jake, see you back in Cape Town soon!

I woke up on the beach to the sound of miniature waves flopping and pulling back on the sand near my feet. It was coming up to 6am and weak sunlight had pierced the uppermost canopy of the mango trees imprinting on the sand a jigsaw of white and orange. I lifted my head slowly so as not to disturb the troop of scavenging baboons who seemed to be almost within an arm's distance of me... 

These creatures are NOT sweet little monkeys who eat bananas and sit on your shoulder wearing a fez. They are the fearless, rabid and flesh eating lords of the monkey underworld and they stop at nothing! Aaaaah! I quickly dismissed these thoughts and considered my options... a) stay still until they leave, b) somehow procure from within me the courage to get up and run, or c) slowly slither backwards into the lake and swim along the shore back to my campsite. 

This was my first morning waking up in Malawi and I loved it. I was roughly 4500km into my trip from Cape Town to Nairobi with the Acacia Overland bus and our bumpy ride had led us to the shores of Lake Malawi sometime around St. Patrick’s Day. Since my departure from Cape Town (a city which I will live in one day), I had ventured through the rugged Namibian landscape, where I climbed Africa’s largest dunes as the sun crept into the night’s sky. I had spent 3 days trekking through the Okavango Delta in Botswana under black clouds, thunder and lightning. I had thrown myself screaming from a bridge in Zambia into the gorge of the Zambezi River with the mighty Victoria Falls at my back. I still had another month and three countries to go.

Adrenaline binges and beachscapes are that much more impressive having a group of like-minded people to share them with. I lived with nearly 35 people over the course of our trek and aside from a few minor squabbles we thrived like a family. Day in, day out on the same bus and each night on different beaches, bar stools and jungle floors we all experienced something that I still sorely miss; being in Africa. I really cannot wait to go back.

Some pretty incredible images

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Red Bull recently ran a competition to find the best action and adventure sports images from around the world. We reckon they uncovered some pretty special gems in categories ranging from 'energy' to 'wings' and 'experimental' to 'spirit'!

Have a quick look to see which one was voted the overall winner, and skim through the other 22,000 or so contenders, if you've got a lot of time on your hands!

The Braai - a South African Institution

Monday 6 September 2010

The art of the barbeque. While to some of us, throwing a few bangers on an open flame and leaving them to burn to a charcoal crisp sounds like a good time on a rare sunny weekend in blighty, the same could not be said of the dedicated man at work image of a South African male and his tongs around a braai.

A scary amount of pride and territorial dominance goes into the process that is the braai but it is a sight to behold and while the below dramatisation of a group of mates' efforts to stereotype this commonly seen scene is amusing, it doesn't alter the fact that on arriving in SA and being immediately invited to share in this tasty ritual is not only a great quality of the guys, it's also an invitation you cannot and absolutely should not pass on.

Have a look here for some entertaining anecdotes about all things braai