Her
first comment was, “will I get along well with the other
clients on my tour.” I then asked a few other people
also preparing for their up and coming adventures and this
question was raised quite often.
It’s
a fair question and one that can be a deciding factor for
people when deciding whether to travel on a group
tour or not? Those who choose not to are missing
out.
Human
beings and their social behaviour has been called by many
experts as the true 'final frontier', the complexities
are still not fully understood and are yet to be discovered.
Given the fact that I am no psychologist, I am not about to
give you a dummies guide to “how to fit in on tour”
but I will give you a few things to think about.
Have
you ever sat in a board room meeting, for example, and looked
around at the people you work with every day (people you spend
more time with than your loved ones) and thought…”I
have nothing in common with these people”, the next
thing you know you are daydreaming about the Serengeti plains,
the Eiffel tower or 530pm and your journey home, you tell
one of your work mates and he just doesn’t care.
One
thing that pulls Kumuka groups together is a specific common
interest - that being travel and its not just travel
but travel to a specific destination, utilising a specific
method of transport and accommodation. So if you are nervous
about the group, start with conversations such as –
“so what made you decide to travel to Africa
on an adventurous overland tour?” You are bound
to find interesting common ground here that will have you
chatting for hours, not boring boardroom toil.
Now
you have broken the ice and discovered that most of you are
on the same wave length. What now? Well as most of
our groups will come from all over the world it is time to
start learning about other countries, not only the
country you are travelling in. Here comes the “jandals,
flip, flop, thongs” conversation. There are many countries
around the world who’s primary language is English and
many of these clients travel on our tours, it soon becomes
intriguing to discover the different words we have conjured
up in our continental colloquial English. Take advantage of
this and start by talking about cooling your drink in the
chilly bin, or ask who is lighting the braai to cook the steaks,
soon the colloquialisms will start flooding out and the
campfire conversation will take on a jovial and intriguing
atmosphere.
So
the beginning of the tour is off to a good start, we’re
learning new languages and discovering motivations,
at the same time we’re travelling through some pretty
amazing country side, with travel comes experiences and soon
you will be experiencing days with your new found friends,
days that you will remember for the rest of your life,
for example. Trekking to the mountain gorillas; it’s
a long journey to Uganda from anywhere in the world, so by
the time our groups hit the jungle covered mountains, the
excitement is hard to contain. The trek can take from 1 –
5 hours through dense forest, following experienced guides
who stop regularly to investigate the surrounding foliage
as they trek these nomads.
To
the tourists eye what the guides are looking at makes no sense
but somehow after an exciting trek into the endless mass of
the African Jungle – there they are – a family
of 6 including the mighty silverback sitting in the forest,
extraordinarily human like, it’s like looking at a living
ancestral history. The babies swing from the trees and thump
in front of the mighty silverback in unadulterated puerile
delight, you hold your breath as Dad looks mean but soon let
it out as you see the silverback, in his gentle giant manner,
lets the baby gorilla crawl all over his shoulders as if on
a kinda gym. Mum and the aunties are sitting in a clearing
in the sun carefully preening each others fur until the playful
infant tires and crawls into mums lap for a sleep. An hour
feels like 5 minutes, it feels like a life time, this hour
is one of the best hours in your life. The walk out of the
jungle is quiet as you try and absorb everything you have
just seen.
The
talk around the campfire that night is a buzz, tears are shed,
beers are drunk and the conversation never leaves the mountain
gorillas, their enigma and beauty, it has turned into
one of the best days of your life and you have shared it with
friends. I need not give you tips for conversation
from here on in.
What
Kumuka have found in our 22 Years of tour operating is, in
fact, that the social interaction of group travel is one of
the highlights of the journey, so when travelling
with a group you are always heading into the final frontier.
I
personally have been travelling now for 13 years and have
made numerous life long friends on my journeys, I
even met my husband on the road in Chile. Granted there have
been people I have met that I could have done without but
let me tell you, there is nothing quite like sitting down
with a glass of wine, some travel photos and having a good
old laugh with a friend from the road. When you can say “remember
when” to someone and floods of “time of your life”
memories invade your mind, you know you have made a special
connection.
“Do
you remember that time I had my flip flops stuck under the
chilly bin, you were about to light the braai….”
“Oh that’s right that was after that amazing day
in the Serengeti when we saw a pride of lions hunting at dusk,
the sun was rising, the mist was lifting, the flat top trees
were silhouetted against the
orange glow of an African dawn …. Sigh..”
“I
wish I could go back” (said in unison)
So
embrace the challenge of meeting new people on tour,
Go on – explore the last frontier.
Meg
Hall
Melita
will travel to Africa on Kumuka’s Africa
in Focus tour.
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Welcome
to Belize, well Caye Caulker to be precise. 
This story began in South America 15 months ago,
