African Overland Tours

There is nothing like an overland trip to really explore Africa.

Overlanding in Africa gives you the chance to travel the vast and varied terrain of a Continent that has so much to offer, to visit all the Must See highlights on tour and more......

Overland Excursions

From the equatorial tropics of East Africa, home to the mountain gorillas, onto the vast plains of the Serengeti and the Masai Mara teeming with the great herds of wildebeest, Thomson's gazelle and zebra on migration, with days to unwind on the white palm fringed beaches of the magical spice island Zanzibar, visiting the great African Lakes of the Rift Valley to the mighty Victoria Falls - the "smoke that thunders" to take a "flight of the angels" over the Falls where the Zambezi plummets 108 metres.

Overland Adventures

Experience Africa's great game parks and areas of untamed wilderness including Namibia's desolate Skeleton Coast and the dunes of Sossusvlei. Lie back in a mokoro to glide through the flooded grasslands of the Okavango Delta. With game drives across the pans of Etosha, the "place of dry water" and in Chobe National Park. View the source of the Nile and raft grade 5 rapids, visit Olduvai Gorge, the birthplace of mankind, stopping over to spend time with traditional tribes people from the Maasai to the Himba, and enjoy a snack in local food markets, help out in a local school and orphanage.

African Overland Activities

Zanzibar spice tours, visits to Sheldricks Elephant orphanage, the Giraffe Park at Karen Nairobi, the Cheetah Park, a houseboat cruise on Lake Kariba and a hippo cruise. Climb Table Mountain in Cape Town and enjoy oysters on a sunset cruise in Knysna. Get up close and personal with great white sharks and trek rhino on foot. Sky dive and quad bike, balloon over the Serengeti or the Masai Mara. Add on time to climb to the summit of snow capped Kilimanjaro at 5,895 metres, the largest free standing mountain on earth and allow extra days to help out volunteering in a community project.

Traveling by overland truck as a group with the back up of trained and experienced crew as well as our 24/7 ground staff ensures the day-to-day arrangements run smoothly and safely. When you arrive for your Africa tour one of your first sights will in all likelihood be of the big yellow custom built overland truck that will soon feel like home. Your truck is well equipped with everything you need so you can relax and enjoy your trip - from comfortable forward facing coach seats with seat belts, large open windows to ensure the best game viewing, charge points for your camera, a fridge to keep drinks cold and your food fresh, secure safes, personal lockers and storage for all the cooking and camping equipment you need including comfy sleeping mats.

This is why heading out on overland tour remains the preferred and most secure means to move around the Continent for travelers in Africa.

In a way you can't do with any other mode of travel in Africa, overlanding also allows you the chance to immerse yourself in the world around you. You don't just pass through sweeping landscapes and the small villages where public transport doesn't stop.

Game parks and reserves are frequently well out of the way with less than ideal access and the trucks are built with this in mind so we can travel bush roads and enjoy more remote wildlife reserves and camps. Itineraries can then be written allowing us time off the beaten track mixing with the locals and experiencing untouched Africa, as well as visits to the more popular destinations and big cities, all with the security and comfort of your truck.

So the overland routes provide you with a wide variety of experiences and you will find every day will be different. One day you might be game viewing or trekking mountain gorillas, and the next day you could be white water rafting, sky diving or simply relaxing on a golden beach in the sun. There is something for everyone and with the wide mix of optional activities you can customize your trip to choose how you spend your time and what you choose to do. In all this also makes for tours that are a ton of fun!

The people you travel with become very much part of your experience particularly because of the style of travel. Day to day on the trips there is so much to share and do with your traveling companions and those traveling on the trucks tend to be very like-minded all wanting to share in the excitement that Africa has to offer.

The tours work on a participation basis. You will find you are probably sharing a tent with a fellow traveler of the same sex and rough age; someone who for many will become a great mate by the end of your trip. For breakfast and dinner you take turns to work with the tour leader to prepare meals in a rostered cook group. Other day to day tasks you will get involved in might be shopping, getting water and lighting the fire.

Arranging the tours this way is part of the unique experience of overlanding in Africa. Bartering in the local shops and markets is often a fun part of your day, and the day to day camaraderie of keeping things happening on the truck on the road becomes for many integral to the enjoyment of the trip. Nothing can beat sitting with new friends eating dinner outside by an open fire while watching the sunset over a beautiful African landscape. Most people find they make friends for life on their overland trip.

Overlanding is often described as a 'camping adventure' and a lot of the time you will be camping. Some of the campsites on tour are very basic simple places where amenities are very limited. Usually though there are simple ablution blocks and a grass area to put up the tents with some form of eating, bar and/or barbecue entertainment area. At times as well you can upgrade to dorm, hostels, budget hotels or occasionally select more luxury boutiques style accommodation.

Much of the 'adventure' of an overland tour in Africa comes from the exciting element of the "unknown". Whilst we make bookings well in advance for the most popular highlights such as gorilla trekking and the stay in the beach cottages on Zanzibar, tours to Africa are journeys in which it is fundamental to the nature of the experience to accept that some aspects of the experience can only be left to unfold. For this reason itineraries need to be treated with a level of flexibility. You can never really know what is round the corner in Africa. You will never know whom you might meet or what you may get to experience. This is all part of the adventure.

What we can guarantee is that after finishing your Africa tour you will never be short of stories to tell. You could say you spent time with the endangered mountain gorilla, climbed Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, danced with a Maasai, jumped one of the world's highest bungees, trekked rhino on foot and headed out to raft on grade 5 Zambezi rapids. You will also have the opportunity to meet people with very different stories to tell, living very different ways of life, and will have travelled through some of the most untouched, untamed wilderness areas remaining on the planet, an ancient land, the cradle of mankind, a land of raw beauty facing immense challenges. Africa overland tours are an experience of a lifetime.