On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 13:01:20 -0400, vix wrote:
>
>hiya
>
>i am also about to book to go on the trans africa trip with oasis
>overland - did you decide to go yet or have any response from here?
>
>never heard of them before but trip sounds awesome!!
I haven't done the Trans but I did a overland tour from Victoria Falls
to Cape Town with Oasis in 2002. As overland tours go, I think Oasis is
pretty good. I also did a short overlander with Economic Expeditions to
Uganda and Rwands in the same year. Oasis was much better.
That said, there are some drawbacks that are pretty common among
overland tours. These include:
1) Too much time on the truck and not enough time enjoying Africa. I
was appalled to find that the group that had come to Victoria Falls from
Nairobi had spent only one day on safari.
2) Limiting interaction with the world. Trucks generally avoid the towns.
Camp grounds are generally remote and meals are almost always from the
truck. You are not going to be interacting with the locals on a day
to day basis. Some overland tours seem more about long hours on the
road punctuated by trips to the camp ground bar than a tour of Africa.
Oasis wasn't really that bad but you will see far more the truck than of
Africa.
3) It's a long time to spend with same group of people. In some ways,
the bigger groups are actually better. I would check to see how many
people are going. I am told that it is common place on the Trans for
people to leave truck and then meet back up later. I'm not sure how
easy that is but it does suggest that even die hard overlanders have
trouble putting up with it for 30 weeks.
I strongly suggest looking into independent travel. It is not has as
hard as you might think.
--
Photos and travelogues from Africa and Southeast Asia: http://www.exile.org |
