This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2007 at 3:23 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Have you ever lay awake, ruminating on the memories of places you have seen, and felt a desperate desire to leap from your world into that different place. Or, realising how many different human stories are being told, wished that you could connect with more of them, be a part of a larger, more colourful story than a professional career and retirement? Aware that you are a traveller, a single pinprick in time, and wanting to cram as much possible learning, growing and challenge into the space you have as possible. Do you fear wasting your days more than you fear their end – realise that a life spent in joy and love and simply being as much as you can is worth more than all the wealth you could hoard.
This is what keeps me up into the nights and makes me wake in the mornings. What drives me to be and gives me a direction to be in. If what you read here can bring even the smallest spark of those dreams to your life, then it has been a worthwhile endeavour.
Richard
richard@richardstupart.com
“I wonder“, he said
And because he did, he went.
Embracing his fear, he freed it for the wind
To carry in the currents of the scent of tomorrow
Of the just beyond
“I wonder”, he said
“I wonder where the road goes”
And because he did, he went
October 5th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Well done on a very good web site – enjoy your journey – envy you dude.
October 6th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Thanks for the wishes – I may need them yet :) I love the artwork on your Expedition Africa site, btw – makes me wish I was setting off tomorrow.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Have a great trip! It sounds like you are in for a cool adventure.
October 11th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Hey Richard –
I just found your site through Traveblogs.com and am very excited to read about your upcoming adventures.
I’m guessing you’ve already read Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari!
October 13th, 2009 at 10:15 am
@Dave – I loved Dark Star Safari. I wish Theroux had actually gone through Sudan-Ethiopia overland instead of flying, as I would have loved to hear the account of it, but I have his story of the truck drive from the Kenya/Ethiopia border to Nairobi indelibly stuck in my mind. I was kind of hoping it would be easier, but am relishing the challenge a little at the same time. :)
November 29th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Richard, we’ll be following your adventures on Safaritalk, look forward to updates.
Take care, Matt.
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 pm
[...] people I have tagged for this is The Travel Tart, Richard Stupart, DirtBag Writer, Neha’s Web, TravMonkey. Tweet This!Subscribe to the comments for this [...]
January 7th, 2010 at 5:11 am
Hi Dave
Not sure when you travelled through Africa, but I am planning a very similar trip to yours but on a Vuka Scooter. Would like to get some (a lot of) suggestions from you and also want to know if you think it is safe to travel alone as a female in Africa.
Looking forward to hearing from you
Helena
February 3rd, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Hey Richard
Like Helena, I was thinking of travelling through Africa – but have major reservations seeing how I’m female travelling alone (maybe). How safe do you reckon it is?
February 4th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Hi Vinojini
In all honesty, I suspect you would be able to get as far as Ethiopia with no more hassle than you might experience trying to travel through Southeast Asia – though possibly with a few more questions about where your husband is than you might get in, say, Thailand. For the most part, however, the route from Cape Town to Nairobi is entirely doable on a mix of trains and buses (varying from proper, Greyhound-style ones to smaller, schoolbus things).
From Isiolo, north of Nairobi, to the border with Ethiopia at Moyale, you would have to just grin and bear sitting on the roof of a truck for a day and a half, if you are seriously committed to traveling the entire route overland. The scenery is absolutely amazing and it feels like falling off the face of the world you likely knew previously, but prepare to be dirty and tired. Really dirty and tired.
Ethiopia is perfectly navigable on buses, and I doubt you would have too many problems with people – spousal questions aside.
Sudan would be problematic to traverse overland as a single woman (I am assuming this – possibly incorrectly). Although terribly friendly (to me), the streets are overwhelmingly male and the culture is quite patriarchal. So I am not sure how traveling alone as a woman would be received (quite awkwardly, I suspect). That said, however, I met a lone female traveler in Sudan who had done the entire Cape to Cairo route over 9 months all by herself. She had made contact with a Sudanese family either via some contacts she made traveling earlier or via the couchsurfing network and they effectively helped her get from Khartoum to Wadi Halfa, from which the ferry north to Egypt departs. So even this leg of the journey *is* possible. It would just require more advance planning than other routes. Couchsurfing and local contacts aside, it may even be possible to link up with a 4×4 overlander or group of other backpackers in Ethiopia and traverse Sudan in their company.
Egypt can be quite misogynistic in places – mostly because of impressions of foreign women based on movies and TV – but there are an overwhelming number of foreign tourists moving through the cities and it would be easy to move with those crowds and be left alone if you wanted.
So, without understating that you would need more planning in Sudan than your average solo male traveler, it would actually be an easier than you realise. And absolutely, unequivocally worth your time and effort.
August 22nd, 2010 at 9:46 pm
I can’t believe I am just now coming across your blog, I love your writing.