Riding and racing ostriches in Oudtshoorn, South Africa
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Taking off to some unidentified place in the heart of Africa – somewhere with no electricity, no running water and at least one week’s journey from anything resembling a city has been a long time dream of mine.
My name is John Bradley and in May 2009, I left my job in Chicago, sold my car, moved everything else I owned into my grandma’s basement and flew to Africa. I plan to take roughly one year to overland on a budget from Cape Town to Cairo. I do not have an itinerary; I have no idea where I will be five days from now. My path is guided by the attempt to balance the urge to see and experience as much as I can with the desire to travel slowly and close to the ground.
This is where I will post my stories, photos, and videos as I move along on my journey. Feel free to post comments or send me an email with any thoughts or suggestions.
Current location: Coffee Bay, South Africa
Distance traveled: 42,790 km
Days on the road: 366
(last updated 5/16/10)
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I stumbled onto your travelogue when I was googling ostrich racing. What a wonderful & interesting journey! and a phenomenal way to spend a year! I was wondering had you ever been anywhere in Africa before you undertook this adventure? with whom and how you are traveling (bus? car?), how much money you've allocated to this trip, and were you truly such a minimalist packer? (1 pr. shorts, 1 pr. pants?) How often are you doing laundry?
Hi Lucy,
Before this trip I had been on two overland trips in Africa. In 2003 I took five weeks off during my last semester in undergrad and did a solo trip from Morocco to Nigeria. In 2006 I traveled from South Africa to Malawi during Winter break with a friend from business school. However both trips were a bit rushed compared to the slow pace of this trip.
I am traveling solo on this trip but have had a few friends and my parents come over and sometime travel with others heading in the same direction. For the first three months of this trip my primary mode of transportation was in minibus taxis. Once I started heading North in Mozambique public transportation started to thin out a bit and I ended up returning to South Africa to purchase a vehicle which I have been traveling with since.
My pack list is honest. I only have one pair of pants and one pair of shorts. I usually do my laundry in the sink every couple days and then hit up a laundromat when I am in a city.