Backpacking Africa?

High Dive Chimp

Hey all!

I'm planning to backpack in Africa this summer, starting in late-July or very early August, and maybe lasting for... well, I'm not sure yet. My budget is about 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. total, so I'm hoping to squeeze out a month from that? But I'm fine with less/more!

I know writing "Africa" seems a bit stupid, as it's a whole continent with dozens of unique countries. But I do have some interests that I definitely want to check off--namely, Rwanda and South Africa. I studied both quite a bit in university. However, I don't want to fly into Rwanda, spend some time there, then fly down to South Africa without hitting anything else! Seems like such a waste. The issue is that I'm not very knowledgeable about many other countries in-between or around.

I've been doing research, and plan on doing more, but the issue with this is that I'm finding a whole lot about safaris and whatnot, even when I research backpacking in Africa, and I'm just not very interested in that. I love natural beauty, and I'm not inherently opposed to seeing lions and elephants and hippos, but I'm trying to be as budget-minded as possible, and some of these tours seem insanely expensive, even for just a few days. Plus, like I said, I'm mainly interested in the history of each place.

I have been on one big backpacking trip before a few years ago. I spent three months traveling alone through China, with a dip into Thailand and Cambodia near the end. But I understand that's an entirely different beast--I bounced around as I pleased, only planning so far as the next stop or two, and this was enabled because China has a very solid backpacking infrastructure (tons of hostels in each city, huge network of trains, etc) which, as I've read, most of Africa does not seem to have. I would like to travel through Africa in a similar manner (as in: I do want a general outline, but I don't want things to be completely locked in and planned to the day).

Like I said, I'm doing research on this myself, but any and all tips on this would be greatly appreciated!

ceres

Entirely dependent upon you being pretty fit, but have you considered something like iBike? I knew someone years ago who used the program to travel a couple countries in Africa and said it was an amazing experience. It's going to give you a richer understanding of the area than pretty much any other way you could travel.

High Dive Chimp

Unfortunately I don't think I have the endurance for that--I do a lot of weightlifting and have only just recently gotten into cardio (barely squeezed out my first 5k run last week). Though I suppose the bigger issue is that I don't very much like biking!

But I do appreciate the ethos of that organization! I'm definitely into embedding as much as possible. I'm not a big fan of the ultra-greased travel experiences. I've spent a lot of time living abroad, with local host families, and I've found that it's the best way to truly get perspective on a new place.

tastydonuts

While I was kind of comforted to find via your OP that you realize that Africa is a massive continent and all... the distance you're talking about traversing is still roughly half the length of Africa, which is like the distance between the east and west coasts of the States. On a budget of 4000 dollars... in a month's time.

These are countries, and I doubt the borders between them are open or anything like Europe. Unrest is high in the DR of Congo at the moment, given the situation with their president not stepping down. IDK what's going on in Tanzania but these are the two countries that border Rwanda.

Perhaps the Safaris or similar options would be safer?


edit: There's also Burundi, which I forgot about. It borders Rwanda to the south and has been in a state of unrest for years.

Aldo

So I'm looking at my globe and considering distances: Rwanda and South Africa are not close to each other and there are a lot of borders in between them.

Shortest route would lead you through Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania. Neither of these countries is exceptionally dangerous at the moment, but that is just in comparison to places like the Democratic Republic of Congo or to South Sudan. I am not sure how much the visa would cost, but I have the feeling that a plane ride would be cheaper.

I can't reitterate enough that Africa is large. 4 weeks is not a lot of time if you want to actually experience anything other than the highways. Just sticking to SA for a month would probably keep you entertained.

tastydonuts

[Reposted instead of editing]

High Dive Chimp

Fair point on the size! I drastically underestimated the distance between the two. For some reason I thought it would be similar to what I did in China, where I made my way down from Beijing to Macau in about a month and half's time without feeling rushed. But I just looked it up and that was only half the distance from what I'm talking about here! Save for Burundi and DRC, I've read that borders are fairly open and visas aren't too expensive for East Africa, but yeah, the time consideration is the biggest issue. Covering 4,000km in four weeks would not be ideal, so probably flying to Rwanda for a spell, then heading down to South Africa would be best (I'm liking at one-way flights and it doesn't seem too bad).

To that end, then: Has anyone here traveled to either Rwanda/South Africa before and come bearing specific tips?

Cauld

I agree with flying. Buy a multi stop flight from your origin, or an open jaw and then just buy the 1 way flight separately. I don't think you'll really miss your time in a bus.

Thro

Hey, I've been to South Africa, and lived in Kenya for a while. I've never tried to backpack anywhere while I was there, and would actually advise against it.

Like Cauld said above: If you have more than one place to go, fly.
The only country I would consider getting in a bus is South Africa, and only in certain places. You're probably ok busing between cities.
I have heard of bus tours, even between countries, but they are slow. Mostly due to the roads outside of the major cities being not so great. Like, get out shovels and help get the bus unstuck not great. (SA is fine, out and up the east coast, not so much.)

Now, I'm not %100 sure what you mean when you say 'backpacking", so you might know all of this next bit:

I would advise against traveling any real distance by foot outside of Jo'burg or Capetown, and don't hitchhike ever.
Never sleep outside by yourself. There are some cheaper camps around that locals would use on vacation where I was, and it was all the fun of a tent-like structure with no power, with the useful addition of people paid to stay up to look out for robbers (human and animal, seriously Baboons are the worst).

The distance between camping places requires a vehicle, rented or otherwise.

There are some mid-range hotels so you don't need to go full-on glamping everywhere you go. I would look these up well beforehand, to help plan out your route.

All the good wildlife watching is inside reservations, which requires you to be in a vehicle in most of the reserve. Plenty of small tours available locally.
Most of the hotels/camping will be either just around or inside the reserves, outside the cities at least.

I think my Visa was maybe, $50 US. So not crazy pricey. Some of them take time though. Or bribes. Or both!

I know you're against the prefab tours, but having a group and a guide that knows how to get around is pretty useful if you've never been before. I did a combination bus/bike one while in Capetown, just a small daytrip though.
There's probably at least a few that have more camping/backpacking stuff built in, they're not all the high-end pre-fab tours.

We did do plenty of stuff on our own in Kenya, but we always had where to sleep worked out. We also owned a suv with 4 wheel drive though, so we would do our own driving tours of whatever we wanted to go see.

Wow, this got long. Summary: You can only really bounce around within the SA cities, everywhere else you're going to need a place to stay and transportation lined up. You can do this without a group or tour, just takes way more planning. Baboons suck.

BouwsT

I've spent a total of 8 weeks in South Africa, and about a week in Namibia, though I was travelling with a friend who used to live there. I won't have a lot of tips regarding lodging, but we did do a lot of stuff on our most recent trip (granted, it was almost 10 years ago, JESUS I'M GETTING OLD).

You could easily spend 4 weeks between Namibia and South Africa, the history in SA is spectacular. If you're at all all athletic, I'd consider hiking the Fish River Canyon (breathtaking hike, takes about 3-7 days depending on group and pace). Bloukrans Bungee was great from a thrill seekers perspective, and there's some amazing scuba diving along the coast. I'm not sure if you're looking for something specifically though, if you want you can PM me questions and I'd be happy to answer as best I can.

japan

Rwanda is a great place, I have family that lived out there for a few years and I've been out around the Kigali/Butare area a couple of times. If you like coffee it's worth exploring some of the farms and roasteries.

That said the border regions with DRC and Burundi, and Burundi itself, are still unsafe. We balked at visiting Bujumbura, with a vehicle and accompanied by a local. There isn't a way to travel into or out of Rwanda overland that would generally be regarded as sensible to undertake as a tourist. Tanzania is probably the only bordering country that doesn't come with stern travel advisories, but links between the two aren't great (the border area is mostly national park).

The one thing I'd say is that wandering without a clear idea of your destination, itinerary, and mode of travel is inadvisable.

Edit:
Also, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office generally has very good and regularly updated travel advice for Africa, by specific country, which is a great help when it comes to judging the safety of particular regions:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

It's worth taking a look at the pages for Rwanda ("Rwanda is generally safe and crime levels are relatively low ... If you’re travelling near the DRC/Rwanda and Burundi/Rwanda borders, make sure you check this travel advice regularly"), Burundi ("If you don’t have an essential reason to stay in Burundi, you should leave if the opportunity arises to do so safely by commercial means."), and DRC ("The FCO advise against all but essential travel to the provinces ... The political and security situation in DRC remains uncertain ahead of elections expected to take place in December 2017. General public strikes (‘ville morte’) or demonstrations may be called with little or no notice, and can quickly turn violent in the DRC.")

Edit2: my wife reminds me that her mother used to routinely travel by bus between Kigali and Kampala (in Uganda) without any trouble, and there is a lot of travel along that route because middle class Rwandans frequently travel into Uganda to buy things not easily or cheaply available in Rwanda (cars, electrical appliances, that sort of thing). That said, this was a few years ago and the situation around the Uganda/DRC border has deteriorated since then, so seek up to date advice if considering that.