South Africa, the 13th country in Africa, was the first. From then on, my way of traveling changed, and I bought a backpack and started staying at guesthouses.
As I wrote in “[Hint] How to know your local area well”, from the perspective of “01. Avoid collecting information before leaving the country”, I was planning my trip to South Africa on the plane.
I stayed in the country for two weeks, which was relatively free (for a Japanese person). I was still a novice at traveling, so I wasn’t very good at making plans. I had not yet set foot on African soil, I was planning to visit the neighboring country, Namibia, on the way. Famous Japanese guidebooks included not only South Africa but also other countries in the South African region, such as Zambia and Namibia.
On my first day in South Africa, my credit card was sucked into a bank ATM, leaving me with less money to spend on the first day.
After this, for less than two weeks, money was in a lot of trouble. However, there is no doubt that this experience made me fall in love with Africa. Perhaps an environment was created in which people had to stay in the same place to find accommodation. It seems that he fell in love with it after walking around the neighborhood for a long time.
From this experience,
– It is better not to do things like go to multiple countries on one trip.
– Money is important
– Don’t underestimate Africa
I learned those.
Since then, I have been to 8 countries (Malawi – Ghana – Rwanda – Madagascar – Egypt – Gabon – Sao Tome and Principe) until now (2023/11).
I believe it has provided a test for a man who has never set foot in Africa.
