Solo traveller Charline Ribotta, from France, has been travelling Africa for the past two years in her bakkie named Rafiki; she has gone home but not without penning her thoughts about the continent in what can only be a beautiful love letter.
South Africa (07 December 2023) – It is not just locals who are obsessed with South Africa and the continent of Africa, it’s international visitors too. There is a reason the saying “I left my heart in Africa” is so popular. Africa just has this way of boring into your heart and soul, and never leaving. It makes it impossible to stay away.
Many people who visit Africa, find themselves coming back time and time again. Always for a little more, always for the kindness of people, and always for what adventure possibly lies ahead.
As a South African who has travelled, mostly in the African countries bordering our country, I can vouch for this. You always want to go back and see more. My favourite hypothetical question to answer when it comes to travel is “If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?” and my answer is always that I would love to travel through Africa.
Because of this love, it has led me to use YouTube as a form of entertainment, following all the Overlanding and 4×4 travellers who choose to journey through South Africa and then onto the various countries in Africa. Their adventures are always filled with the very things that make Africa so brilliant. From wildlife and landscapes to culture and cuisine.
One of those travellers is a solo female traveller, Charline Ribotta, from France. With her tent placed perfectly on the back of her bakkie named “Rafiki”, she has travelled through Africa and South Africa, meeting people along the way who have made her laugh and sharing her journey so others can see just what lies ahead in an African adventure.
She set off on her adventure in January 2022 and has now, after two years of travel, left for home. Charline says this isn’t goodbye, and how could it be? One never really leaves Africa…
She penned a few words highlighting how she has felt about her trip and we loved it. Take a read.
OUT OF AFRICA
I left France and I started the solo expedition in January 2022 to arrive in Africa in April the same year.
Today, I have left Africa.
But Africa is in me, forever. Africa transformed my life back in 2020. I knew I had to come back, and that’s why I fought to make it happen.
I haven’t been everywhere on the Planet and I’m not planning to, at all. I haven’t been everywhere but I know that Africa is the most fascinating place on Earth.
Yes: Africa is the most fascinating place on Earth.
And it will always be.
Life started in Africa. The wildlife is the most impressive and protected (yes, compared to all other continents where most wildlife disappeared!). It’s Home to the oldest and pacific civilisation in the world (the San). The landscape is gigantic, unique, and breathtaking. The tribes of Africa brought so many different cultures, traditions, languages…
People are REAL in Africa. People take their time in Africa. People sing and dance in Africa. People cry for real in Africa. People struggle for real in Africa. People love deeply in Africa. People hate when they’re hurt in Africa. People live happy in Africa. People laugh so loud in Africa. People survive in Africa…
Resilience must have been invented in Africa.
Africa is the ONLY continent where its inhabitants wear T-shirts with the African continent on it. It’s the ONLY continent where so many countries are happy to form Africa. The only continent where its people are proud to be AFRICANS.
Africa survived so much. And it’s still surviving.
But Africa is strong. And the natural resources of Africa are unbelievable. Africa needs NOTHING from outside because Africa is its own saviour.
Africa is a poesy. And when you take the time to read it, it mesmerises your soul forever, with rhymes resonating deep inside.
Today, I’m out of Africa but just for a little while…
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