A Travelaholic Around the World

I feel different traveling through Africa. Inside I smile constantly, discreetly like I haven’t gotten over the feeling of being excited about a moment. It’s the happiness you feel in your stomach that radiates upward and nearly forces a smile across your face. But I keep it trapped inside because it feels more tangible that way.

A road trip through Namibia is not what I’m used to back in the States. Instead of passing the time during a tailbone-aching eight-hour drive by counting silos or punch buggies, “ostriches left” or “baboons right” is shouted by fellow travelers in the overland truck. Hundreds of kilometers might pass under seasoned tires without civilization appearing outside the window. Rest stop complexes are as rare as unicorns. Though they are not expected where they have never existed. When we pull over, the side of the road is a makeshift toilet and a large tree provides a shaded respite for lunch. The sun feels hotter here, beaming down a skin-penetrating heat that has never made me more thankful for SPF 50. Even right now in the rainy season, clouds barely exist, allowing the heat to flood kilometers of barren land.

Back on the road, vast fields of rocks and sun-dried plants cover the distance between us and the mountains that rise out of nowhere. Like seeing a city’s cluster of smog-drenched skyscrapers from the distant suburbs. But instead of tar and streetlights leading the way, beige gravel roads snake through the desert with more regard for the oryxes and springbok that graze than the 4x4s that vibrate furiously as they speed along.

Every stretch of road is flanked by landscape so breathtaking that I feel like I’m missing something whenever I look away to read. Instead, I spend hours staring out the truck’s “Impala tuff”-brand windows, adjusting the shutter speed on our camera to capture the images I have become so fond of looking at.

I nearly fly vertically out of my seat to see the springboks hop along on their invisible pogo sticks. They’re so graceful and carefree. A spellbinding excitement rushes through my stomach again. This time, it’s hard for the smile not to show up on my face.