There is travel and there is Travel!!
It's always a pleasure to simply book air and hotel, perhaps some connecting trains, visit, and have a wonderful experience. The other extreme is backpacking off the beaten path. Or, if you are a National Geographic photographer, international aid worker or diplomat, you can have a whole private ground team guide you. Can't reliably find or book them on the Internet, never will.
This is the intermediate option for adventurers.
Dragoman operates tours on 4-wheel drive trucks converted to overland survival vehicles for about 20 people to some of the remotest spots on earth. Ours carried 4 spare tires and a spare windshield along & bush mechanic drivers.
Want to spend eight months driving from Beijing to Capetown? Seven months on South American loops, or 6 months traveling between Quito and Caracas? I spent 6 weeks traveling between Nairobi and Harare. Our crew shared campsites with a group traveling for 6 months between London and Harare.
Overland truck tour companies are based in the UK, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. They operate on all the continents, except Antarctica. They can go places that only privately hired guides can go, like the Rwenzori's. There are great local guides, but they are hard to find without on the ground knowledge.
In my experience, overland tours may be broken down into three categories.
The most expensive and luxurious are the ones that set up side wall tents for the guests, serve wine at dinner, which is cooked for you.
The least expensive operate flat bed trucks with benches, a canvas canopy overhead for rain. We met many of these on our trip. One was proud they had bought a pig, live, which was tied up with the passengers on the truck. They claimed they planned to butcher, cook and eat it. One of these trucks sent a sand plate flying into the leg of a passenger when they were trying to dig out in the Sahara. Compound fracture a thousand miles from nowhere with minimal first aid supplies and training? They are more economical though!
Dragoman firmly occupies the middle. The big trips are "Epic Overland". They have less intense classifications and shorter trips too.
We pitched tents they supplied, shared by two, and divided the cooking in rotating groups of three, responsible for a breakfast, lunch and dinner, including shopping at local markets. The rest of the group washed and disinfected the dishes. Each person also had a responsibility, like getting firewood or returning soda bottles for exchange. We did all the proper boiling and hand washing at the direction of our driver-guides. On our trip, the only medical problem was an eye infection, our passenger was treated in a clinic in Uganda and was back on the trip in a few hours.
We are traveling overland, so we would usually spend 6-8, but sometimes 12 hours on the road daily. The trucks are essentially buses, two by two seating, with a four person roof hatch seat. We spent days talking, playing games and cards, listening to music our group brought, reading and looking out the window at a big world.
Our group included a German, three Americans, and the rest were about a third each from the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Ages to 50, but more in the 20's and 30's.
Our drivers were very experienced, really genius. The trucks carry disinfected water, a large store of canned and dry food to invent recipes combined with local ingredients. There is a good first aid kit, supplemented by your travel kit which should include emergency prescriptions for any eventuality. We were coached in malaria defense, no one got it, but there is no guarantee.
The trips generally follow the solid red and yellow roads on Michelin maps, improved roads. There may be detours to special locations on partially improved or unimproved roads. The company website has extensive itineraries (subject to change in the field, of course!), including listings of special attractions visited. We visited the mountain gorillas, a life experience.
What separates Dragoman from other trip companies is that details on the itinerary are continually updated by each trip and passed on to the next through the UK office. Where to get water, recommended hotels, when we used them, or restaurants when we had that opportunity. Crafts markets, exchange rates, border details. It's continuous improvement.
Borders in the world happen many places besides airports. On our trip, owing to some change in mood, it was learned that I would not as a US citizen get a visa at the Tanzanian border, the usual, announced and official policy. Hey it changed! Africa wins again!! One of our drivers stayed behind in Kampala with my passport and the TZ embassy to get the visa, then caught up with us a few days later by hitching rides with trucks on our route.
I would recommend Dragoman unequivocally, they kept my life whole in a big adventure. Not every place they go is as challenging, they are organized to make it fun! read more
