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Full Description
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 trading route. Algeria was amazing.
The coincidences did not stop there; they carried on even as we settled home in our Hampshire village. By chance we met Dr Christopher Everett, a retired local GP who in 1958, along with five fellow medics from Westminster Medical school, drove to the Congo and back in two loaned Land Rovers, to support regional hospitals. We were given their diary, to discover their route south across the Sahara was identical to ours. Our book compares our experiences of 2002 to their 1958 adventure, against modern events, for a friend and past colleague (who also lived in our village) was serving with the French Forces in the Sahel as I wrote these notes during the COVID lockdown - what were the chances! Such coincidences enable us to explore the 'light and shade' (as Simon Reeves, the travel journalist) of events and places over the years, especially as we can now reflect on the our travels to modern times.
As the Forces, and the Regiment in-part shaped my character and behaviours, we feel it is right to add back, for 20% of profits of the sales of the book will be donated to the veterans charity Support our PARAs. After 35,000 kms on a single slow puncture, we arrived home; not quite as it was two Land Rovers later, plus a host of replaced clutches and mechanical parts that got us over the line. We review what all this meant; we review our choices. Catherine was swiftly headhunted whilst I pursued my new career. Life turned full circle, as I explored how the military mind was taught to think and behave. I reflect on comparisons with the commercial mores of business today. Whilst we have lived in the USA, Middle East since, we remain routed in our Hampshire village. Family and friends obviously wanted to hear our stories, some less so. Catherine's father was always against our travels and Africa, yet his revelation on his death was to surprise us all, as Catherine reveals in her Epilogue.
Contents
Table of Contents
Prologue
Part 1: Why and where in Africa
1. Landing in South Africa on 9/11
2. What is Overlanding - Why Africa?
3. Daphne gets her kit on
Part 2: Southern Africa
4. Kalahari rehearsal
5. Prior preparation and planning
6. Who Knew? Forming the Holybourne Sand Club
7. The highest country in the world
8. Africa's iconic city and coastline
9. We can rebuild you
10. Dark skies over the Namib
Part 3: An Extended Classic Safari
11. The Okavango ecosystem
12. Boy scout was a revelation
13. We weren't feeling the 'warm heart of Africa'
14. In the footsteps of Burton and Speke
Part 4: East Africa
15. Crossing the Equator
16. The 'Pearl of Africa'
17. High Expectations for the Roof of Africa
18. Changing our religion
Part 5: The Unknown and amazing Sahara
19. The kindness of strangers (you are pointing that gun at m, aren't you?)
20. Parlez-vous francais?
21. Following a hunch
22. Joy from an unexpected bonus
Part 6: Home...what's next?
23. After Cap Blanc, we change continents
24. Making sense of it all
Epilogue - Catherine Stratta's 2024 reflections on the circularity of life
Acknowledgements
