Secret Africa

When somebody mentions Africa, the first thought that pops into our heads is one of black, starving impoverished people. Women carrying children on their backs while hauling huge baskets of food on their heads through rustic plains. Where HIV riddled men fight wars over exhausted land. A world to avoid like the bubonic plague. Why would anyone want to spend money on wanting to visit such a barbaric region? Because some people can’t resist exploring the truth.

In early 2001 I dug out the holiday brochures and pictured myself in the photographs; lying on some sun drenched beach without a care in the world, having a giggle with a dribblingly handsome man, exotic cocktail in hand. I would spend my summer getting ridiculously tanned, eating foods only paradise could produce and drinking cocktails that were the same colour as the plants that grew around me. Bali? Or perhaps the Maldives again (ahhh, I do miss Pedro).

In a last ditch effort to lose the "spare tyre" around my hips I resorted to reluctantly visiting the gym before my trip to paradise. I got chatting to a lady while on the running machine. Between huffing and puffing I learned that she was from South Africa. Embarrassingly I had to look up on a map where South Africa was and found that it was close to countries I had only ever heard on the BBC news. Not a place for a holiday, but as the days past I had the niggling feeling that I had to find out more.

"I want a brochure on Africa please" was what I did not say to the travel agent. What came out was more like: "a brochure on Ibiza and one on Cape Town if you have one please". I found it hard to spit the words out as the travel agent asked me if I wanted any others on Africa. When I got home I looked at the Ibiza and Magaluf brochure for what seemed like hours, the Africa ones stayed in the bag. Days past. I kept glancing at the bag containing my forbidden material, daring myself to look. Eventually I couldn’t take much more and opened the brochure on Kenya. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. People were looking out of Land Rovers not 10 metres away from a lion and her cubs. There were others of elephants and giraffes and people looking out of safari buses. I was transfixed.

I booked my holiday. My first stop was Kenya. I had to go look at these animals I had only ever seen in the zoo as a kid. I drove from Nairobi to Samburu Safari Park. I spent four days being mesmerised by every creature I could imagine, tormented by monkeys ransacking my cabin and drinking Martini in the club by the river watching the African sun set in the plains. I travelled to the Masai Mara game reserve and was equally transfixed by the magical surroundings.

From Kenya I spent my birthday flying over the breath taking Victoria Falls in a helicopter. I flew over Vic Falls watching the magnificence of Nature below then over Zimbabwean land along the Zambezi River. I was relaxing after dinner and a fair few bottles of Zimbabwean beer when two drunken Australians raced up to me yelling about some hippo outside their room. "Get lost you drunken fool" was something on the lines of how I replied. The Aussie wouldn’t leave so I decided to have a look for myself and give myself an excuse to sober the Aussie up. But the Aussie was right. Not 20 metres away from myself and the rapidly swaying Aussie was the biggest, most hacked off looking hippo I have ever seen. Bizarre, very bloody bizarre!!

My next port of call was where my African Adventure idea started. Johannesburg International Airport is one of the scariest airports I have ever had the misfortune of visiting. Thankfully I was only transiting at a rapid rate of knots to Cape Town. I was very glad (and very sweaty) when we touched down in the most beautiful city I have ever had the pleasure of landing in. My hotel in Seapoint was right next to the ocean, in easy reach of the Victoria and Albert shopping mall, Clifton beaches and Cape Town city centre. I travelled to where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean at a place called the Cape of Good Hope. On a visit to one of the many fantastic beaches I thought I had had one too many Lion beers when, and I jest not, a penguin waddled past me.

This confirmed what I thought from the moment I opened the brochure on Kenya. Africa is full of surprises, most pleasant, some unpleasant. However, I would never have realised what a diverse and colourful continent could have to offer. Everything from the colour of the necklaces of the Masai Mara women, to the taste of Stellen Bosch wine in South Africa. Fact is, I will stand up for any abuse Africa gets thrown at. The populations who are Africa’s only hope of survival sorely misjudge Africa. Yes there are areas that are in desperate need of aid. When driving through Kenya I saw women carrying containers full of water on their heads and men working in fields. But I also saw children going to school and families going to church. They are not the savages we so easily stereotype them as. We must have the courage to stand up to our stereotypes and face the real world that we all live in.