Savannahs & Sunsets: An African Overland Adventure

Africa. What does that word conjure up in your imagination? For me, it is of vast savannahs in a sun-bleached land, of empty drifting dunes, soft sandy beaches with turquoise waters, an ancient and raw frontier where the skies are set aflame with the setting sun, and where the most exciting wildlife on earth coexist. I had always wanted to go to Africa. It is one of those places that I wrote in CAPS on my bucket list and somewhere I described as "ESSENTIAL TO TRAVEL TO". Although I have both traveled and lived abroad extensively, I always felt like Africa should be kept as the "final" destination in my traveling career. Not that I will never travel again, it just seems appropriate after trawling the globe, to leave Africa for last. So after turning thirty, and realizing that there wasn't much time left before life's real responsibilities got in the way, I knew that it was time to go. So I gathered up my resources, suffered through eight vaccination shots against various deadly diseases, pinched my savings together, and took off on a three-month overland safari through Africa. Safari is a Swahili word that means "journey". Someone "on safari" was away and out of town, which summed up my trip perfectly. Many people had asked me why I was going to Africa of all places, a continent that had seen horrible poverty and atrocities committed over the years. I wanted to see the Africa beyond what the newspapers and media said, the simple Africa that had nothing to do with war and poverty, child soldiers and corrupt politicians. I wanted to take a closer look at this continent and interpret it for myself.

Jamie Rockers is from Garnett, KS, USA and began her traveling ＂career＂ in Argentina in 2002. Since that time, she has studied in London and lived in Japan for four years, where she worked on a number of projects, including as a paid blogger on www.gaijinpot.com, followed by over 2 million people. She has published sixteen articles about traveling in Japan in Japan Today. She moved to Australia after backpacking through ten countries in Southeast Asia in the summer of 2010 and has currently relocated to the United Kingdom. She has travelled to over fifty different countries and lived in four, from learning to tango in Argentina to partying with sumo wrestlers in Japan to traveling across Russia by train. Savannahs & Sunsets, An African Overland Adventure is her first published book. Another two will follow, one about her adventures through South East Asia and one about Argentina. Visit her website at www.jamierockers.com or find her on Twitter @jlrocker