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Dusty boots to boardroom: follow your dreams is a travelogue following one couples dream, as they endure the snakes and ladders of African travel. In 2002, they drove a Land Rover from the most southern toe to the northern tip of Africa; navigating the road less travelled. Simply visiting or taking a safari is one thing, but living, travelling and exploring is quite another - it will test you. The question being is the dream or lure sufficiently strong when things go wrong? Many do not realise or pursue their dream vocation, so perhaps we were doubly blessed, for both Catherine and I followed and excelled at our chosen post university professions. But 20 years on, we were in danger of drifting apart, as a couple? However, our shared love for Africa, its wildlife, the people and adventure drew us in to the continent's charms. In the book we explore what it means to travel; what is it about the human spirit that yearns to break the shackles of convention and push boundaries? How do you execute an expedition, or sustain it when things go wrong? Things go wrong, even for the best prepared, even whilst doing the right things at the right time and place. We 'broke' Catherine! I was able to engineer my final military posting to South Africa that offered both a wonderful job and the opportunity to pursue a long-held dream, pulled from the dark recesses of the mind; to drive home through Africa. Maybe it wasn't the best career transition plan, for I was leaving one vocation to look for another, but it was our plan. Our dream - people should follow their dreams. The book describes our preparation, sourcing our vehicle (that we called Daphne - a long story!) and our testing - the gear and ourselves, so others could emulate our footsteps. Many have followed, as we copied and review other adventurers' books on overlanding. We describe our travels through the medium of others, for a central chord of our journey describes the wonderful people we (unexpectedly) came across en-route. The kindness of strangers. We thought we knew very few/nobody - how wrong were we. We regale our meetings with the great, the good (the less good) and those straight from central casting, from famous actresses and Hollywood elite (Stephanie Powers, Kuki Gallamnn) through to core environmentalists. An unexpected adjacent thread became my military and regimental connections; I recall my African service as we pass key places, as well as some key events for Parachute Regiment history - a battlefield tour! We met people like Digby Tathum Warter (he of umbrella fame at Arnhem during WWII), or mercenary Simon Mann, as well as friends from the Regiment like David Parkinson, a wonderful man committed to Africa and his family, despite his untimely demise. As Jim Rohn tells us, "The same wind blows on us all, yet it is how you set your sails that differentiates us", no plan survives contact. Knowing this and having to react to events were issues we needed to constantly manage, aside from mechanical and bureaucratic everyday challenges. We were forced off the road (rolling Daphne and hospitalising Catherine), we were held-up at gun point in the Darfur war zone and ended-up crossing the Sahara on an unplanned route. Such setbacks became our highlights, demonstrating our resilience to realise our dream. Our safari was a trip of two halves. We could visualise what to expect during the wonderful extended safari of southern and eastern Africa, whilst the unknown exploration of the Arabian north was an unexpected delight. Our route north was thwarted. Stuck in Khartoum we were unable to follow the Nile north, but which way should we turn - left or right. Our left turn took us through a warzone, through the Sahel and eventually crossing the Sahara from Niger, through Algeria to Tunisia, from where we caught a ferry to France. Algeria was a closed country when we started, yet in Niger we managed to blag access north, along what, in years past was a major tr...
- Format: Inbunden
- ISBN: 9781068485510
- Språk: Engelska
- Antal sidor: 318
- Utgivningsdatum: 2025-06-12
- Förlag: Integral Growth Ltd