Roxanne Reid - Africa Addict
  • Home
  • Book author
    • Travels in the Kalahari >
      • Photo gallery: Travels in the Kalahari
      • Book reviews: Travels in the Kalahari
    • A Walk in the Park >
      • Photo gallery: A Walk in the Park
      • Book reviews: A Walk in the Park
    • The Essential Guide to Self-Editing >
      • Book reviews: Essential Guide to Self-Editing
    • Betrayed
    • Book reviews online
  • Editing & proofreading
  • In the media
    • Travel features
    • Health features
    • Online media
  • Blog
  • Testimonials
  • Links
  • Contact

Why people travel & what makes travel in Africa special

10/3/2021

18 Comments

 
Why people travel: landscapes
By Roxanne Reid
​
Why do people travel? It’s at least partly to break out of their comfort zone, to find out more about themselves, to relax, be inspired or fulfill their sense of adventure. But have you ever made a list of what drives your urge to travel and which aspects of your travel experience make you happiest? Here, in random order, are 10 reasons why people travel – and what makes travel in Africa so rewarding.

​1. Nature
Why do people travel? Zambezi sunrise
Sunrise along the Zambezi River at Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park
Nature took billions of years to evolve and it’s still in no hurry so it doesn’t reveal itself easily to anyone who is frenzied or impatient. Slow down and be fully present in the moment so you can appreciate its wonder. Outdoors at night? Look up and soak in the view of the stars. Hiking in the mountains? Don’t forget to look for tiny flowers that are miracles of complexity at your feet.

As Pico Iyer wrote, ‘In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.’ From dust, wind and a gathering sense of rain to sunshine and open blue skies, nature will seduce you with something different every day. All you have to do is be open to its moods and look beyond the superficial. I’ve met people who complain about the ‘lack of wildlife’ in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park after a morning without lions, but wouldn’t know a barking gecko, a whistling rat or a yellow mongoose if they tripped over it; people who say the Karoo is ‘empty’ but have never stopped to listen to the humming of its silence.

2. Landscapes
What makes travel in Africa special? Landscape like the Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
Vast landscape in the mountain desert of the Richtersveld Transfrontier Park
Whether it’s the vast khaki spaces of the Karoo, tree-dotted plains of Kenya’s Maasai Mara or pink sunsets over the sea, landscapes have something to tell you if you listen.

They can be as ebullient as the colourful carpets of spring flowers of the West Coast or the lush green hills of the Wild Coast; they can be as reticent as the dry Richtersveld mountains or lonely Namib Desert. But if you make time and space they will all knock you for six with the secrets they can reveal.

If an abandoned or crumbling house is part of the landscape, its ghosts will whisper to you too. Imagine a family there long ago, the kids playing in the yard, the sound of mom calling to them long before the building was abandoned to the sun and wind.

3. Culture and heritage
Culture and heritage: Himba woman of north-west Namibia
The Himba of north-west Namibia live a traditional lifestyle with a fascinating culture
Why do people travel? It’s often to explore new cultures. Africa is a rewarding place to discover other people’s culture, to understand their ideas, customs, traditions and beliefs. Whether it’s the culture of hunter-gatherers like Botswana’s Zu/’hoansi Bushmen or pastoralists and herders like Namibia’s Himba, we can learn something from all of them.

Some people are conflicted about heritage centres, feeling they’re not authentic. For me, though, they serve a dual purpose. First, they give travellers a chance to learn about a different culture – something that isn’t always easy to achieve unless you know one of the locals who will invite you to his or her home. Second, and perhaps more importantly in a time when many traditions are being lost as the younger generation embraces 21st century Western ways, they preserve older traditions that might otherwise be lost, they reinforce cultural dignity, and they provide an income for the local community. Namibia does this particularly well with places like the Mbunza Living Museum.

Don’t forget modern township culture, which has a vibrancy of its own. Join a guided tour to Namibia’s Katutura (Windhoek) or South Africa’s Soweto (Johannesburg) and surrender to the magical blend of cultures, flavours and sounds of township life for just a while. Use a responsible operator (see ‘responsible travel’ below) so your tour gives back in some way rather than stumbling into poverty tourism. There’s poverty, certainly, but townships are about a lot more than that. They should be celebrated for their creativity and entrepreneurship.

Heritage can be cultural but it’s also about history and nature. A historical example might be the 200-and-some buildings in Graaff-Reinet that are national monuments, or the significance of the mountain fortress of Thaba Bosiu for the Basotho nation. Sometimes the lines are blurred, as in the rock art of Namibia’s Twyfelfontein or the archaeological finds and significance of Mapungubwe Hill in South Africa, both of which are tangible historical monuments as well as part of an intangible culture.

As for natural heritage, examples might include the Okavango Delta, the Victoria Falls, and African wildlife (see point 7). In all three types – cultural, historical and natural – heritage from the past survives in the present and deserves to be conserved so that it lasts long into the future.

4. Activities and experiences
Love to travel? You'll love the experience of a dawn flight in a hot air balloon at Sossusvlei, Namibia
Preparing to take off in a hot air balloon at dawn near Sossusvlei in Namibia
My happiest times are when I’m involved in activities and experiences far from my daily life. It may be anything from mountain biking and hiking to sleeping in a cave in the Baviaanskloof, from riding a motorbike and sidecar around the Cape Peninsula to crossing a national park on horseback, from tracking desert-adapted rhino or cheetah on foot to taking to the skies in the pink flush of dawn for a dreamy hot air balloon ride over the desert at Sossusvlei.

Sometimes it takes courage, like when you fling yourself off a platform 30m in the air to zipline through the Tsitsikamma or Karkloof forests. Or when you put your life in the hands of a Bushman tracker and hike out into the Kalahari desert among lions and hyenas, extracting an errant foot every now and then from a collapsed burrow in the dunes where a puff adder might be lurking. Or take on a wilderness walking trail among the Big Five in the Kruger National Park. The dust, the heat, the thirst and the danger from wildlife are real, but they enter your book of memories softened by the thrill of achievement, of surviving a harsh landscape and having a story to tell.

There are many epic things to do in Africa I still want to experience. It’s what keeps us going, that yearning for more – more travel, more experiences, more facing our fears to remind us we’re alive.

5. Road trips
Road trips are one of the best reasons to travel in Africa
Be enveloped by changing landscapes on a road trip; this road is in Namibia
Although air travel is sometimes necessary, it’s not part of the thrill of travel for me. I’d far rather take a road trip, mostly for the chance to stare hypnotised at the passing landscape. This is slow travel, a far cry from jetting into a destination where you could go from one hemisphere or culture to another in under 10 hours. Instead, road tripping gives your mind and body a chance to acclimatise little by little to the new environment.

Nowhere better than on a road trip do you understand that the journey is as important as the destination. If you just barrel along the N1 trying to clock your best time between Joburg and Cape Town, you’re not going to have Experiences with a capital E. Take your time and explore the minor roads that curl around the country. Once you’ve visited remote settlements with evocative names like Lekkersing and Spoegrivier, Riemvasmaak and Baardskeerdersbos, your whole perspective changes. You become a slow traveller soaking up the smell and colour and taste of places along the way, rather than someone hell-bent on getting to the end point just so you can turn around and rush back again a week or two later.

Jack Kerouac once wrote that ‘the road is life’ and I agree. It’s a compulsion, an itching of the feet to explore off-the-beaten tracks and discover what new insights they have to offer that makes my heart sing on a road trip.

6. People
Meeting people is one of the best things about African travel
A Maasai woman in Kenya dressed with colourful traditional beadwork
Let’s face it, whether you’re visiting a game reserve in Kenya or a tiny Karoo dorpie, it’s not just the wildlife or the architecture that make it unique, it’s the people too. Open yourself to new people from all walks of life – from drifters and Harley bikers to professors, school children to bent-backed old-timers – and you’ll discover every single person has something to teach you.

Take time to look past the surface and see people for who they are inside. Let them enrich your life. I’ve met scientists who at first glance appear forbidding or dusty but turn out to be engagingly passionate and funny. People who look like bergies, homeless and hopeless, yet speak with a poetry many writers would envy. San trackers who can neither read nor write, but know so much and are so darned clever that they turn preconceived ideas of ‘uneducated’ on their head. And, in deep rural areas, poor people who survive on very little but their kindness and ability to laugh in the face of life.

We travel so we can move among real people in their own environment and soak up their wisdom and philosophy, their way of being in the world. Don’t make the mistake of skimming across the surface and coming away with your soul unchanged, your imagination untouched by the wonder of a life lived differently.

7. Wildlife
Africa's natural heritage: elephants in Botswana's Okavango Delta
Part of Africa's natural heritage: elephants in Botswana's Okavango Delta
In Africa, wildlife is one of our most precious assets, part of our natural heritage. Small wonder, then, that going on safari to watch animals in the wild is one of my favourite activities.

From the imposing and powerful to the ugly or comical, we have them all. How can you not feel the power of nature when you watch a lion or leopard go into a stalking crouch, a cheetah rocket almost airborne across the veld, or a springbok give birth? How can you not smile when a tiny elephant calf trumpets and spins its trunk like a propeller to intimidate a clutch of turtle doves?

The secret is not just to tick off the species you’ve seen – from aardvark to zebra and lots in between. It’s to sit quietly and observe their behaviour, learn to anticipate their likely next move, marvel at the diversity and complexity of the animal kingdom that fills our continent to bursting. One good way to find the patience to sit quietly and observe is to develop an interest in wildlife photography.

8. Responsible travel 
Tented camp built to touch the earth lightly as part of a commitment to responsible travel
Touching the earth lightly: if this Botswana tented accommodation were dismantled no trace of it would remain within 3-6 months
What is responsible travel and why is it important? It’s when companies and travellers assume responsibility for conserving and protecting the natural environment and its animals, respecting local people and cultures, and being mindful of creating a better quality of life for local communities. In essence, it means travelling more consciously, knowing you’re making a positive impact. The knock-on effect is that you get a deeper, more authentic experience than budget mass tourism can ever provide.

A good example is Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Here you’ll find some of the best safaris you can have in Africa. You’ll also find companies like Great Plains Conservation and Wilderness Safaris that are eco-friendly and sustainable, treading lightly on the Earth – think solar power, water conservation and recycling, for instance. They also support local communities through respect, education, employment and upliftment. Yes, all this comes at a cost to visitors but you get a deeply personal experience and the satisfaction of knowing you’re helping to make a difference.

Ask yourself what you care about. For me, it’s wildlife and people so I won’t support tourism operators who mistreat or exploit animals and their staff or local communities. Activities like petting cheetah cubs or walking with lions are on my no-no list – any touchy-feely experiences with what should be wild animals, in fact. To educate yourself about why this is a red flag, follow the Blood Lions story as one example. Similarly, I prefer to support companies who pay their staff well and provide them with opportunities to grow, as well as creating or supporting projects that help local communities.

So how do you avoid supporting companies whose values don’t align with yours? Ask questions about their environmental, conservation and community principles before you make a booking. If they can’t answer you satisfactorily, move on. If their website doesn’t specifically spell out their responsible travel ethics, chances are they don’t have a clear policy; if this is important to you, take your business to a company that does.

9. Food
West Coast mussels: food is one reason why people travel
You can't visit South Africa's West Coast without trying mussels
Celebrity chef and author Anthony Bourdain believed that food, people and landscape are inseparable, that food is everything we are. And wherever you go in the world, sharing a meal teaches you a lot about different people and cultures.

It’s part of the joy of travel to be open to new food experiences. Whether it’s trying crispy fried mopani worms in Zimbabwe, spicy couscous in Morocco, samp and beans in a township, bobotie in the Bo-Kaap, lamb in the Karoo, or mussels fresh from the sea along the Cape West Coast, each speaks volumes about where it comes from. Not trying some of the local dishes in Africa would be like going to Rome and not eating pasta, to Thailand and not sampling tom yum.

As Bourdain said, food is all about risk and adventure. If you’re not willing to try new foods, you become stagnant and dull. You don’t have to like them, but you do at least have to try them.

10. Learning new things
Take a cooking class in Cape Town's colourful Bo-Kaap neighbourhood
Explore Cape Town's colourful Bo-Kaap and take a cooking class to learn from a local
Exposing yourself to new places, experiences, people, cultures and foods is one way to enrich your life through travel. Another is to remember that a journey is never really over because you’ll always have your memories to dip into. The trick of rewarding travel is to open your mind to new experiences that will create those memories.

If you do the same stuff you do at home every day, you won’t remember it ten years from now. When my husband asks what I want for my birthday, the answer is always to make new travel memories. Because it’s recollections of places you’ve been to and people you’ve met that grow ever more mellow and sweet, that stay in your heart long after any material gifts have lost their sparkle or been thrown out to make space for more.

So take that cooking class in Cape Town’s Bo-Kaap, have a drumming lesson at Victoria Falls, fill your hands with clay and make pottery in Limpopo, go on a walking safari in Zambia, push through the boundaries of your fears – and grow.

Every time you come back from your travels, you’ll be a slightly different person because of where you’ve been, what you’ve seen and done, who you’ve met. As Pico Iyer says, ‘A person susceptible to “wanderlust” is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.’

All of your travels and experiences leave their stamp on your heart, giving you a series of new mind-clips to add to that You-Tube storage unit you call your memory.

You may also enjoy
8 reasons to visit Twyfelfontein in Namibia
Best Botswana game reserves for a wildlife safari

Like it? Pin this image!
Love to travel? Why do people travel? Find out not only why people travel but also what makes travel in Africa special. Among the reasons why people travel are to explore nature, landscapes, culture and heritage, activities and experiences, learning new things and food. In African travel, road trips, wildlife, people and responsible travel are also important.
Love to travel? Why do people travel? Find out not only why people travel but also what makes travel in Africa special. Among the reasons why people travel are to explore nature, landscapes, culture and heritage, activities and experiences, learning new things and food. In African travel, road trips, wildlife, people and responsible travel are also important.
Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without permission from roxannereid.co.za
18 Comments
Peter Steele
11/3/2021 06:06:16 am

Excellent article. So well written and informative..

Reply
Roxanne
11/3/2021 07:13:06 am

Thanks, Peter, I appreciate your kind words. Glad you enjoyed reading it.

Reply
Kelli link
13/3/2021 08:08:36 am

Such a great article and reminders of why traveling is so special. Thanks for sharing!

Reply
Roxanne
13/3/2021 09:02:23 am

Thanks, Kelli, glad you enjoyed it. Travel is indeed special and trael in Africa particularly so!

Reply
Jyotsna Ramani link
13/3/2021 08:54:54 am

OMG! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Africa! Plus I am totally digging your blog now - so much on Africa - this is pure goldmine!

Reply
Roxanne
13/3/2021 09:03:46 am

I feel the same way you do, Jyotsna. As you can see I'm all about Africa and how special a destination it is. I hope you come back to read more in future.

Reply
Sue link
13/3/2021 11:22:09 am

Great post. Africa was my first real travel experience when I spent 3 months on an overland truck across the Central & Eastern region. I fell in love with the continent & travel. You eloquently demonstrate all the reasons why here!

Reply
Roxanne
13/3/2021 12:44:48 pm

Such a special experience, Sue, you were very lucky. It's the sort of place that makes you want to go back again and again.

Reply
Helena
13/3/2021 02:33:02 pm

Always wanted to do more road trips in Africa, would also love to go hot air ballooning Too! This is really inspiring me to travel to Africa again when we're able

Reply
Roxanne
13/3/2021 08:31:17 pm

Nothing better than a road trip, Helena. And we're also looking forward to the day when international travellers can visit more easily again; tourism has been hard hit by the pandemic.

Reply
Krista link
13/3/2021 05:01:37 pm

My favourite thing while travelling is to see a mixture of the different landscapes and the various cultures and traditions that you come across as well.

Reply
Roxanne
13/3/2021 08:32:44 pm

Thanks for your comment, Krista. I agree that landscapes and cultures are among the most beguiling aspects of any destination..

Reply
Alanna Koritzke link
13/3/2021 08:33:22 pm

Wow lovely article. I would love to go to Africa. It seems like the perfect destination for every type of traveler!

Reply
Roxanne
14/3/2021 06:21:20 am

Thanks, Alanna. I think you need to prepare yourself for the fact that once you visit you'll be compelled to return again and again. Africa is hypnotic.

Reply
Jyoti link
14/3/2021 12:29:54 am

I couldn’t resonate more with your post. Growing up in Africa and traveling the world, I’m constantly drawn to the continent. Above all, I fell in love with Namibia last time. I’ve got to return.

Reply
Roxanne
14/3/2021 06:22:40 am

Good to hear, Jyoti. I think Africa gets into your blood somehow. And I agree with you about Namibia; it's one of my all-time favourite destinations with so much diversity.

Reply
Heinz link
17/3/2021 07:39:55 pm


Wonderful article! Did a transafrica from europe to capetown over the west coast - would love to do it again!

I hope the borders will open soon!

Heinz

Reply
Roxanne Reid link
17/3/2021 07:53:22 pm

Oh fab, Heinz, I hope borders open again soon so you can revisit, perhaps this time along the east. So many wonders in Africa.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Get email links to the latest posts

    Buy my books
    Travels in the Kalahari, amazon.com e-book
    E-book 2012​

    A Walk in the Park, amazon.com e-book
    2nd ed e-book 2015
    The Essential Guide to Self-Editing, amazon.com e-book
    E-book 2017

    About 

    I'm an independent travel writer and book editor with a passion for Africa - anything from African travel, people, safari and wildlife to adventure, heritage, road-tripping and slow travel.
    My travel buddy and husband Keith is the primary photographer for this blog.
    We're happiest in the middle of nowhere, meeting the locals, trying something new, or simply watching the grass grow.
    Use this website to discover new places to go, revisit places you've loved, or take a virtual tour of destinations you only dream about.

    Categories

    All
    Baviaanskloof
    Books
    Botswana
    Camping
    Cape Town
    Chobe
    Conservation
    Drc
    Eastern Cape
    Etosha Namibia
    Food
    Free State
    Garden Route
    Gauteng
    Issues
    Kalahari
    Karoo
    Kenya
    Kruger National Park
    Kwazulu Natal
    Lesotho
    Limpopo
    Linyanti
    Madagascar
    Malawi
    Mozambique
    Mpumalanga
    Namaqualand
    Namibia
    Nature Parks
    Northern Cape
    Okavango
    Overberg
    People
    Photography
    Richtersveld
    Tanzania
    West Coast
    Western Cape
    Wild Creatures
    Zambia
    Zimbabwe

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009


Copyright © Roxanne Reid - No words or photographs on this site may be used without written permission from roxannereid.co.za

Privacy Policy, GDPR and POPIA compliance
​* We promise that we take data safety seriously and use your private data only to offer a personalised experience
* If you subscribed to our newsletter, you will receive our newsletters. You can always unsubscribe by following the link in email or by emailing us
* If you gave us your name, it will only be used to personalise the newsletters
* We have never sold, we are not selling, and we will not sell any of your personal data provided to us
* The blog uses cookies to track activity. It is anonymous except for telling us your location and what you did on our blog
​
Photos from berniedup, Lucy_Hill