Southern Africa overland & volunteering
| country: | Botswana, Namibia, Zambia |
| departures: | 2008: 4 Aug, 8 Sep, 6 Oct, 3 Nov, 8 Dec 2009: 2 Jan |
| price: | From £1495 (25 days) excluding flights. We can help arrange flights from the UK. |
the amazing things you'll be doing
If you're interested in humanitarian tours, this is an unparalleled opportunity to combine adventure travel on this tour of African countries with helping some of their most disadvantaged people.
During this 25-day humanitarian trip, you’ll visit Botswana, Namibia and finally Zambia, where you’ll help with AIDS sufferers and orphans in a mission village. Along the journey you’ll see numerous incredible landmarks and you'll also have a few days of leisure in Botswana to relax, safari and just soak up the atmosphere of the African bush. There are also stacks of optional activities in and around Victoria Falls, including bungee jumping, canoeing and elephant rides!
During this 25-day humanitarian trip, you’ll visit Botswana, Namibia and finally Zambia, where you’ll help with AIDS sufferers and orphans in a mission village. Along the journey you’ll see numerous incredible landmarks and you'll also have a few days of leisure in Botswana to relax, safari and just soak up the atmosphere of the African bush. There are also stacks of optional activities in and around Victoria Falls, including bungee jumping, canoeing and elephant rides!
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Fly into Livingstone International Airport (or Lusaka). Meet at the airport and transfer to Jollyboys Backpackers. We will meet volunteers at Jollyboys and over a welcoming drink brief them. Balance of day at Leisure to tour Livingstone, take a swim or just sit around the comfortable conversation pit at Jollyboys and get to know each other |
| Day 2-11: | Transfer to Mwandi Mission 1 ½ hour drive. You will inspect the Hospital, speak to the director and/or her staff and get a good insight on how large the AIDS epidemic is in this area. Each volunteer will have the chance of working in the out patient department and in the pre-school. Days are spent teaching the orphans in the OVC pre-school, the pre-school at the Church, or the basic school which cater for children up to the age of 15. There is always a qualified teacher in the classes. If it is school holidays there are games and a library to help out with as well as the play-ground. |
| Day 12: | Depart early morning for Kazungula border and cross into Botswana on the car ferry over the Zambezi River. Here you can see where the four countries Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia meet. Drive 240km to 55 km north of Nata to Elephant Sands bush camp. The camp is set in 25,000 hectares of bush and game, including lots of elephants. You can sit on the balcony while elephants have their drink not 7 meters away. |
| Day 13: | All day at leisure at Elephant Sands, go on an optional Game Drive with an experienced guide in on open safari vehicle (cost is only US $16) per person or a bush walk (about US $8) or just sit and soak up the sun and bird watch at camp. |
| Day 14: | Depart Elephant Sands late morning for 3 hour drive to Kasane and the Chobe Waterfront where you can check your emails and set up camp at Thebe River Safaris on the banks of the Chobe River the hippos may even sing to you in the evening. Evening and night at leisure to play darts in the bar or just relax in the “Boma”. |
| Day 15: | Chobe National Park game drive at 9:00 AM with experience guide in open safari vehicle. Chobe is known for its abundant and varied wildlife as well as nearly 200,000.00 elephants. After lunch back at camp we enjoy an afternoon Chobe River Safari in an open safari boat with experience guide. |
| Day 16: | Depart early morning for drive through Namibia’s “Caprivi Strip” arriving back in Mwandi early afternoon. |
| Day 17-22: | Mwandi Mission. More chances to help improve the lives of the people of Mwandi. |
| Day 23-25: | Depart early morning for Livingstone. Zambia’s tourist playground. Visit one of the world’s 7 natural wonders; the Victoria Falls. Livingstone, named after David Livingstone, who when he first saw the Falls in 1855 named them after the Queen of England “Victoria”. Victoria Falls, also known as “Mosi-oa-Tunya” loosely translated as “The smoke that thunders” on a clear day the spray can be seen 50km away. We stay in dorm Rooms at Jolly boys backpackers. You spend the next few days exploring the area. |
| Day 26: | Travel home from Livingstone or Lusaka. |
a taste of volunteering trip - what's it all about?
This type of trip is ideal for people who are unable to take very long periods off work but who are interested in volunteering to work with communities in need, or in wildlife conservation. These shorter trips combine volunteering with an opportunity to see the main sights in destinations. Find out more about 'taste of volunteering'how this holiday makes a difference
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The beauty of this kind of travel is that you can still do all of the things you would do on a typical tourist holiday – visit the sites, sample the food – whilst still making a valuable difference to people’s lives.
Each volunteer will have the chance of working in the Out patient department and one day in the pre-school (previous groups of volunteers prepared and painted the entire "Drop in Center" where the pre school is now held- as well as building the entire playground there) In addition we do many things for the Mission and hospital such as cleaning, painting, plumbing and laying the floor for the counselling centre where when completed they will be able to get the anti viral drugs here in Mwandi to treat AIDS patients in this area (right now the patients must travel to Livingstone 120km away and most can not or do not make that trip as they can not afford to do so) You supply the man power for their projects and the projects will change as we complete each one (they say they will never run out of things for us to do here if we come every month for the next 10 years) Finally, as this tour lasts for only 4 weeks, volunteers go into the project full of energy and enthusiasm. Consequently, a lot can be done is this short period of time and the native people can really benefit form this. Furthermore this a great taster for longer volunteering positions, with many of our volunteers going on to participate in longer placements helping making even more of a difference. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |