An Africa Update

There’s been a lot of go-go-go since the last blog post was published. A shortage of WiFi and a rather intense (for lack of a better word) trip to Ghana has caused quite the backlog. But believe me, it’s all written. I write as I go, so even though we are constantly on the go, it doesn’t prevent the blogs from materializing. That being said, I wanted to give a little update now that we are almost three months into our African Big Year.

So far we’ve visited seven countries, South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania and Ghana, driven approximately 20,000 kilometers (12,427 miles) on countless bad roads, and seen a total of 910 species, taking photos and recordings of several rarely recorded species. But with current events unfolding and so much uncertainty, we aren’t sure if we will be able to continue this trip.

Right now we are currently in Tanzania, and originally we planned to cross into Kenya in the next few weeks. Kenya, along with many other countries, has shut its borders down. With the Kenyan border shut, we’ve rerouted so we can still complete central Tanzania, something we originally planned to do after the rainy season. We have been living out of a fully-equipped Toyota Hilux and we have plenty of off-the-beaten-path places to visit in Tanzania to track down birds. If need be, we could hunker down on a remote mountain and be perfectly happy social distancing and all that. But there’s only so much time and money we can dedicate to birding a country as expensive as Tanzania. If borders are going to be shut long term, it’s not realistic to stay.

There are a lot of variables right now. And giving up our big year is within the realm of possibility.

There might come a time when we have to go home, although this is a last resort. Right now our best option is to stay in place (there’s a Level 4 travel advisory out right now anyway telling us to do just that.) Africa has Ebola and malaria that they have been dealing with for years so screening measures have already been in place. While they may not have the healthcare system to combat an outbreak, they are pros when it comes to stopping the spread of life-threatening diseases. The heat and high humidity probably help.

We are doing well all things considered and so far this year has been a huge success, hopefully that success continues. Africa is so much fun and I absolutely love living the overlanding life. (And if you still care to read it, blog posts about the aforementioned countries will be coming soon!)

Here’s a few sunbird photos to make you smile. One on a nest, a mom and a dad keeping their babies safe, and a beautiful male out on a sunny day.

And here’s to hoping we can stop the spread of COVID-19. We’re all in this together.

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