What started off as a dream to travel around South East Asia for 6 months, turned into a seven year adventure that took us from the heights of the Himalayas to the depths of the ocean, and included managing a lodge in the middle of the African bush for 3 years.
The following is a brief description of those years..
The only real plan we had when we left home on 4th July 1997 was to be in Nepal for trekking season (October). We had a flight booked from Brisbane to Bangkok, then onto Calcutta a few months later. The only other flight was out of Bombay into London about 5 months after that. This was the extent of our itinerary, which was flexible at any time, and mainly in place to allow us to gain visas to the various countries we were visiting.
Those first few months were spent in Thailand and Malaysia, settling into backpacker mode with a lot of time spent travelling on busses, lazing on beaches and learning to travel on a budget.
We then flew into Calcutta, where we had a few days acclimatising to India, before heading up to the highlands and across to Nepal and into Kathmandu. India is a fascinating country, and although we had been here 4 years earlier it was still mind-blowing on the senses.
Our time in Nepal was absolutely amazing!! It was everything and more than we had hoped for. We spent about 9 weeks in the country, with 7 of those weeks spent trekking in the Himalayas. Our first trek was 3 weeks around Annapurna. We had a week resting in Pokhra and Kathmandu, then we headed into the Everest region for 4 weeks. Both treks were stunning and very different!!
We did both treks independently, meaning we carried all our own gear own gear, chose how long to walk for each day and where to stop each night. Accommodation was in “tea houses” where you got a very basic bed (no bedding – we had to carry our own) and could buy a basic meal – usually dahl and rice.
The Annapurna Circuit trek took us from the lowlands, up over a pass of around 5000m and back down the other side of the valley. The ever-changing scenery over the 3 weeks makes this trek very special. We flew in by light plane to a town around 3000m high to start trekking in the Everest area. We spent most of our trek at altitudes over 4000m, meaning we were in amongst the huge Himalayan peaks most of the time. The highlight of this trek was the beautiful glacial lakes in the Gokyo Valley.
When it came time to head back south into India we were a little apprehensive. Our trip here 4 years earlier had been very unsuccessful, with some nightmare bus rides and at least one of us sick almost the whole time. But still, there had been a certain something that had lured us back to try again. Although it was 3 months till our flight out to London, we promised that we would just leave earlier if we weren’t enjoying it.
Things didn’t start off so well when I came down with a case of giardia just as we were about to get on our overnight bus trip from Kathmandu (Nepal) to Varanasi (India), on a bus with no toilet and hard, non-reclining bench style seats. I did survive the journey but was bitten by a monkey 2 days later and had to have a series of rabies shots over the next few weeks!! Not an ideal start – but we loved the rest of our time there!! We got onto the groove and spent an awesome 3 months though the north, then the south, and we also had 3 weeks in Sri Lanka.
Where to next? We had been throwing this question around for a few weeks prior to flying to London. As we arrived into Bombay, our last destination in India, we checked post restante (no email back then) and found a letter from a friend. They were heading to Africa and wanted to know if we’d like to go too. We looked at each other and said – “yep, sounds good, why not?” And that was how it came about that we ended up in Africa.
After a couple of weeks visiting friends in London, we flew to Durban, South Africa and bought a car. Our friends joined us a week or so later. Over the next few months we did a road trip from Durban to Cape Town. When we reached Cape Town, we went our separate ways. As we no longer had a car, we minimised and packed all our belongings into our 2 backpacks, including our tent, cooker and a few days’ supply of food.
We were now faced with a dilemma. The next place we wanted to visit in Namibia (Fish River Canyon) was not accessible by public transport. Hiring a car was not an option – too expensive on our budget, so we had a choice of just not going or to try our luck at hitch-hiking (for the first time in our lives).
A few days later we found ourselves at a petrol station near the border of South Africa and Namibia asking for a lift. The first people we approached were 7 South African guys in a combi. They welcomed us with open arms – and a beer at 9am – and we were on our way. As it turned out they were heading to hike the Canyon, so we joined them for the 3-day trek and for a few days afterward as they explored some of the surrounding region. At the end of our time together, they dropped us off at a crossroads in the desert. They were very worried about leaving us here, but we assured them that this is where the map showed there was a turn off to our next destination. They had barely driven off when some Italian tourist stopped and offered us a lift all the way to our next stop. The rest, they say, is history!!
We spent the next 8 months or so travelling through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. We hitchhiked, we took public transport, we rode on top of trucks and in the back of utilities. We had the most amazing adventure, had incredible experiences, met lots of great people and made some lifelong friends.
As we neared the top of East Africa, the next decision was to be made…where to next? The idea of working in London did not appeal to us, particularly as it was now winter. The middle East sounded great, but flights to Cairo were ridiculously expensive and going over land was not an option as some people had just been kidnapped in one of the countries we’d have to travel through. After throwing a few other options around we decided that we were going to head back to South Africa to get a job scuba diving and become dive masters. Now this might have seemed a bit ambitious to most as we had only ever done a dozen dives each and were about to embark on a 5000km journey in the hope of getting a job.
Well, it seems that if you are willing to give something a try, it just might happen. It took us about 2 weeks to hitchhike from Kenya to Durban. From there we headed an hour south to Umkomaas, which is the home of diving for the famous Aliwal Shoal. Now, as luck would have it, the second place we asked at, offered us a job. Not paying of course, but free accommodation and diving in return for helping load the boats, cleaning the gear and eventually leading the dives. We would spend our next 6 months here and log more than 100 dives during this time. We both became dive masters and I went on to become an Instructor. It was yet another great chapter of our trip.
A chance meeting in Kenya 8 months earlier would determine what happened next – and why we were still in Africa 3 years later. Rewind back to that time, to a little campsite in Nairobi and a discussion with a couple of backpackers who were asking us where to next. We explained our Middle East dilemma and our scuba diving idea. We also added that if we looked back on our trip through Africa the only thing we really regretted not doing was the Okavango Delta in Botswana. At the time, we had decided it was too expensive and although we had passed through the town of Maun, had decided not to pay the money to do a trip into the Delta. The reply to this was; “ I work in Maun. Do you want a job managing a safari lodge in the Delta?” Now I’m sure this was not officially a job offer, more just a way of saying that the company she was working for needed new camp managers. We of course declined, explaining that we really wanted to try this scuba diving thing. We, however, decided to keep in touch due to a common interest in diving – and could do this now we had discovered the relatively new thing called Hotmail.
Back in South Africa, at the end of our 6 months diving stint, we had booked a flight to the UK. After 2 years of not working we had no choice but to head somewhere to get a job and start replenishing funds. We decided at the end, that we really should make the effort to do a trip to the Okavango Delta before we left Africa. We regretted not going the first time, and would certainly regret it this time if we didn’t go, as we might never get a chance to come back to Africa.
We hitchhiked our way up to Maun and met up with our friend, Sanja. We started looking at budget tours, but Sanja offered us a better option. As an employee, she got 10 free nights a year at their camps and very generously offered us 2 nights each, plus 2 extra nights at a very discounted “family and friends” rate. We jumped on this offer, as now we would be paying about the same as a budget tour, but staying in luxury US$500pp a night camps.
We had the most amazing experience and during those 4 days we fell in love with the African bush! We raved about how much we had loved it, over the next few days, with anyone who would listen. Clearly Sanja picked up on our passion and had been sussing us out, because as we went to leave Maun a few days later she made a real offer of a job – as Camp Managers for a new camp that was opening the following year. She said we could have a few weeks to think about it. It only took us a matter of days to make our decision – we’d be back!!
A few days later we took our flight to the UK and headed straight to Scotland, where my brother, Tim and sister-in law, Angie were working. Drew quickly picked up work and we spent the following 3 months living with Tim and Ange in Perth, Scotland. Drew’s job as an electrician, servicing and repairing smoke filters in pubs took him all over the country. As I didn’t have a working visa, I was unable to work, so went along for the drive most days. We saw a lot of the country in a very short time.
Then we went home to Oz for Christmas, where we spent a couple of months earning some money and catching up with family and friends, before heading back to Botswana. Our camp was not yet finished being built when we arrived so we spent our first month or so doing supply runs out to the other camps. This turned out to be a great opportunity to get to know our way around the Delta, learn about the African bush and get to know the other Camp Managers, as well as the office staff and other Maun locals.
We eventually moved out to our camp, Kanana, where Drew wired the electricity for the whole camp and we helped finish off the last bits and pieces. Once the camp was open, our job was to manage the running of the camp and be host to the clients. We had 18 local Botswanan staff – guides, cooks, waiters, scullery, tent staff and labourers – catering for up to 16 guests.
For 3 years, we lived here – in our little paradise in the middle of the Okavango Delta. We were more than a 3-hour drive, through the bush, to the nearest town (20 mins by light plane for clients). We worked on a roster of 8 weeks in the bush and 1 week in town. We had no phones or internet and ordering our weekly food supply – and any contact with town – was done via 2-way radio.
Kanana is located in a very wet part of the Delta, so we could offer our guests Mokoro rides (what the delta is famous for) and boating, as well as traditional game drives. Our area had an abundance of birdlife and plenty of animals. With no fences around the camp, we had lots of visitors in camp – including monkeys, elephants, hippo, hyena and the occasional lion or leopard.
The camp itself was situated on a floodplain, along which our 8 client tents were spread. All the tents were on raised teak platforms, with ensuites. We also had a large communal sitting/dining area up on a raised deck with a beautiful view overlooking the floodplain. This was the perfect place to soak in the atmosphere and listen to the bush sounds. Every afternoon when clients were out on game drives Drew and I would sit here and watch a glorious sunset. And every evening after dinner, we and the clients gathered around a campfire out the front, under the starts.
Days were long and sometimes quite challenging, but for the most part very rewarding. We could easily have stayed for longer, but eventually got itchy feet. So, we started planning the next leg on our journey – South America. After 3 amazing years, we sadly bid farewell to Kanana and Botswana before heading to South Africa to spend Christmas with friends. We flew to Santiago, Chile at the start of January, 2003, where we met once again with my brother and sister-in-law, Tim and Ange.
We spent 5 months together travelling and hiking through Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. From here, they started moving a bit quicker so they could make it to Canada to get work for the ski season. We headed to Cuba for a month, then had about 4 months in Central America and Mexico, before heading to Whistler, Canada to have a month with Tim and Ange. During the first two weeks, we watched the town transform from green to white as the snow arrived, and spent our last few weeks snowboarding.
From Canada, we headed home, via Hawaii and Fiji to Oz for Christmas. Now this could have been the end of our trip, but lying in bed at mum and dad’s house on that first night back, we just knew we weren’t yet ready to be home. When we left South Africa a year earlier we had bought an around the world ticket, and still had a valid flight back to South Africa, via Malaysia. We made the decision then and there to use the flight as far as Malaysia and spend some more time exploring South East Asia. So, after a couple of weeks at home, we headed off on the last stint of our trip – 4 months in Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Burma. It was the perfect way to wind up our trip and by the time we flew home in late April, after nearly 7 years abroad we felt ready to settle back on the Gold Coast.
That did not mean that we were ready to stop travelling, just content with holidays. For the past 13 years, we have been overseas twice a year, every year – and that didn’t stop when the kids came along. Apart from 2 trips to Africa (the most recent of which was for 5 weeks with the kids last Christmas) all our holidays abroad recently have been to close destinations and most often to Bali – a place we just love!!
When the kids came along we also got back into camping (which more recently has become glamping). For the past 6 years, we have had a week in April in Yamba with other families and again somewhere for a week in the September holidays. We also try to get away for weekends whenever we have time.
I guess we never really lost the urge to travel and it was only a matter of time until we got itchy feet again. So, a couple of years ago we found ourselves travelling around Australia in a caravan on what would be an awesome adventure and a great experience to share with our kids!!
Two years down track and we’re on the road again. This time for 7 months dong a combination of time overseas and time in the caravan in Oz.
Hope you enjoy sharing our adventures!!
Cheers,
Gab, Drew and the boys
The Travelling Dixons 