Difficult and dangerous

The reputation of Africa for being a place unlike any other instils a certain amount of trepidation prior to my move there.

I have challenged and I have pushed myself to travel to some fairly difficult and dangerous places before – Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia sitting near the top – but Africa is supposed to take the biscuit. Except is it really as difficult and dangerous as some people make out? Opinion is relative to experience. Perhaps that is what they think, because it is the common opinion. Is it actually the case?

TIA...’This is Africa’... is a phrase I have recently become acquainted with. As far as my understanding of it goes, it is supposed to sum up the idea that anything can happen in Africa, nothing goes to plan, and expect the unexpected. Well on that basis, it’s certainly not going to be a dull place! In fact, from my experience of literature, film and other sources of discussion about Africa, it is full of so many extremes of the good and the bad things in this world, that it is…as I said before…a place unlike any other.

And this is why I’m going. I won’t shy away from the difficult and the dangerous. It has always been in my nature to go out and explore and experience as much of this world as I can. When I’m old and tired, if I have achieved that, or at least given it a bloody good go, then I will be a satisfied man.