For most, traveling alone will be the worst imagination on a long journey. But exactly this idea impressed me from the beginning. It has been exactly this what fascinated me when thinking about the young woman that I had met some years ago in Indonesia: She traveled the world on her own.
Many associate the word “alone” with loneliness. But loneliness and being on your own is not the same. You can also feel alone when you have a partner. The majority of people does not even know what to do on their own or will feel helpless.
But in my opinion, it is very important to be able to get along on your own. After all we got on this world alone and will also leave it again alone. Also if we live in a happy relationship, one day it may come to a breakup or the partner dies before oneself.
For those people that have never learned to be on their own, in this point in time their complete world will break down. It is the same with good friends: The fewest will stay with us for our whole life. This is the reason, why you need to be able to be on your own. To feel good with yourself as a person. To be able to enjoy the time on your own and your own thoughts. To love yourself.
To travel on your own does not mean to travel unhappy. It is quite the reverse: You can enjoy your complete freedom. Every day you can do and stop doing what you want, and you do not need to take care of others. Especially on longer journeys, when you will be together for 24 hours a day, there will be small bickering or disagreements. Maybe one prefers to see cities and museums, but the other prefers to go into nature and on adventures. One wants to sleep comfortably, the other prefers to travel on a low budget and, so for example, to go camping or to sleep in hammocks. One likes to get up at 6 o’clock in the morning, the other wants to sleep until 11 o’clock.
There is an infinite amount of other examples. I do not want to claim that traveling with a friend, partner, or in a group, is always bad. You only have to think it through in advance. Everything that might cause disagreements should be talked through in advance, so for example the style of traveling or the budget.
Anyway, the first big problem is to find another person that wants to join you on such a long journey. If you have found someone, you need to talk through every detail with him or her. The best would be to agree upfront on splitting up, anytime you want, so that each person goes their own way from that point, should traveling together not work out as expected.
You see, it will almost certainly not be easy to find a companion for your journey. If so, it can really work out, and you may have an unforgettable time together. Indeed, it is really nice to be able to share great moments together. If you are on your own, you have the feeling that no one can understand all the things that you have experienced.
If you are courageous enough to start your journey on your own, or if you simply cannot find a companion for your journey, then: Congratulations! Ahead of you lies the best and most exciting time of your life. You will see that you are able to do things, you would have never dreamt of before.
Of course, this does not mean, you will be alone during your whole journey, just because you start on your own. It is quite the reverse. If you travel alone, it will be a lot easier to get in touch with other people – both with locals and with other backpackers.
For one, people will reach out for you a lot more often. No matter if you are sitting in the hostel or if you are standing on a zebra crossing – if you are alone, most often it will not take long before someone starts a conversation with you. You yourself will probably also approach a single person much easier than a group of people. When you get to know someone in a hostel, and you both have the same plans or preferences, it will be easy to join each other on the next part of your journey. This way the advantage of traveling with another person is that it will be more casual, since both sides know that the time with each other will be limited. If you notice that each other’s interests vary too much, you can simply split up again without any disputes.
Traveling on your own allows you to learn the language of the country much faster. For example, when you sit in the bus, most often it will not take long until a conversation with your seat neighbor starts. And believe me, most Africans are very chatty. Additionally, you learn about a lot of secret tips about each country.
My experiences with traveling on my own
There has almost been not a single bus ride, on which I did not have a conversation with anyone. Africans are also a lot faster with making friendships than we in Austria. Most often, just after a few minutes, I was asked for my cell phone number. Since I bought a new SIM card in each country, I willingly gave out my number, anyway. To my astonishment, most of the people I met on a bus ride actually called me one day. Sometimes, just to ask how I was or to invite me to their home.
The absolute highlight for me was, when I met another person with white skin in the bus, since it was a very rare thing to meet other backpackers, especially in eastern Africa. I quickly made friendships.
I remember very well, how I got on an extremely jam-packed bus – with Alex, a young man from Germany – that would bring us to a small village of the Maasai near Lake Natron in Tanzania.
Since we wanted to see real Maasai and not just those who made a show for tourists, we asked around a little. Someone gave us the tip to go Lake Natron. We spent a few hours in this bus in the sweltering heat, pressed against each other and numerous locals – especially Maasai.
The street was not asphalted and partly led through raging rivers. I wondered how this bus was able to drive here. The speed varied between 5 km / h and 20 km / h. Besides us, living chicken and other belongings were transported.
The Maasai stared at us curiously. It was probably not commonplace that Muzungus (that is how Africans call people with white skin) got on a bus here. Also I never had the chance to see a Maasai at close range. Some of them were barefoot. Others wore sandals with soles made of old tires. They explained to us, those were supposed to be especially solid and durable. They were dressed in colorful cloths that they had wrapped around their slim bodies. Both men and women had very short hair. The women wore a lot of jewelry and earrings. The men all had a wooden rod with them. Some even carried a machete.
We passed numerous small Maasai villages. Additionally, we saw a small herd of zebras, which grazed only a few meters away, and ostriches, which ran over the dry meadows. Small children watched after their herds of cows and goats and waved very excited to our bus.
The heat became more and more unbearable. My clothes were already completely wet from my sweat. We were very glad when we finally arrived at the small Maasai village that had about 30 huts. Numerous people got off the bus.
Suddenly, Alex said: „Look over there, a Muzungu”. I did not trust my eyes. There indeed had been a blonde, tall, and young man with us on the bus. He also seemed to have discovered us. The young man instantly approached us and asked what the hell we were doing here. He had never assumed to meet other white people here. We thought the same. It proved to be, that the young man came from Lithuania, and his name was Danas. He loves to take photographs, especially far away from the worn-out tourist paths.
We instantly decided to continue traveling together. This was the beginning of a very good friendship. After a few days in the Maasai village, our paths with Danas separated again. Three weeks later, I met him again on the island Zanzibar in Tanzania. Together, we celebrated Christmas and had a lot of wacky experiences. The absolute highlight was, when I later discovered, that Danas was in Cape Town, the capital of South Africa, at the same time as me. We instantly organized a meeting. The world of those who travel can be very small sometimes.
I had another very wonderful encounter in the Mpanga Forest, a rain forest in Uganda. I was couchsurfing in Mpigi, a small place not far away from the capital Kampala. My host Etienne had recommended me to go on a hike through this jungle. So I searched for a Boda-Boda (moped taxi) with a driver, who could bring me there.
At the entrance to the Mpanga Forest was a small wooden hut. It seemed as if one was supposed to pay an admission fee to get into the nature reserve. But there was not a single person, as far as I could see. No cashier, nor any other tourist. I was a little surprised, since I had not expected that this was such a lost place. This small rain forest was not entirely unknown. But this was even better, since as you know, I love untouched nature away from mass tourism.
At the beginning, the way was very wide. But with time, it got very narrow and there were numerous junctions. Etienne had recommended me to hike across the jungle, and after about an hour I would get out on the other side of the rain forest. In the meantime, the way did not seem as if anyone had gotten through here in the last days or weeks – it was really feral and accrued. Time after time, it rustled in the bushes, and in the crowns of the trees I could see giant bird species I had never seen before.
When I walked along a pool, there suddenly was a loud splash, and I saw something giant and dark appearing. In complete panic, I began running. What could this have been? A crocodile? Or an anaconda? I had been on the hike for almost two hours by now, and it did not seem as if there was an end in sight. But turning around and going the whole way back, did seem pointless to me. So I hoped to get to the other end of the forest soon.
From now on, I only moved on slowly and looked in all directions. A few minutes later, it rustled above me in the trees. I looked up and stopped like mesmerized. I wanted to scream loudly or start crying right away. An about 1.5 meters long snake in poisonous green looked into my eyes. It was at most two meters away from me. It must have been the green mamba! My last hour had struck!
The animal only moved away from me in a strange way and then disappeared in the crown of the tree. Now it was completely over for me. I usually was not frightened of snakes, but completely alone in midst of the jungle this was too much for me. Especially, since no one would have ever found me if something had happened to me out here. I wanted to start crying right away, but tried to keep a cool head and decided that the only reasonable thing to do was to turn around and to go back from where I came.
Overcautious and a little paranoid, I started my way back. And you cannot imagine what my next encounter was. Like a miracle, I suddenly spotted a blonde mop of hair that appeared from the shrubbery. Visibly happy, a young woman of my age approached me. She greeted my friendly and asked what I was doing here. She must have had nerves. I could have just died. I still was completely perplexed. Running into somebody else was the last thing that I would have expected. And certainly not a blonde, young woman.
After short small talk, we decided to continue our way together. It happened to be that she was from Germany, and her name was Katharina. With her open and joyful manner, she immediately aroused my sympathy. We began talking about the life here in Uganda, problems with guys, as well as the entire world. This girl must have been sent by heaven. Katharina decided to come with me to Etienne, since he led a project in Uganda that she was interested in.
Some months later, she even started to work for him as a voluntary worker. Katharina and me always stayed in touch, and we still are. We met a few weeks later on Zanzibar, where we celebrated New Year’s Eve. Later, when I went home for a short vacation, I visited her at her mother’s place in Munich. In my smart phone, she still is saved as “Katharina Mpanga Forest”.
Patrick, a young man from Germany, who I got to know on Zanzibar shall not be forgotten. He worked there since a few months for a development company that rented villas. Since my travel adventures impressed him so much, he instantly decided to quit his job.
We finally traveled to Malawi together with 17-year-old Sonja, whom I also met in Zanzibar. Sonja wanted to flee the orphanage, where she was volunteering.
Her mom did not like it at all when she found out. We spent some exciting days in Malawi, but then we parted ways again. I decided that I would rather travel alone again.
And as luck would have it, Patrick and I happened to be in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, at the same time. We met again and decided to travel together to Cape Town in South Africa. We spent an unforgettable and, above all, eventful time together.
You see that you get to know new people in all possible and impossible places. Especially in the most unlikely places, often much deeper friendships develop. If you stay in a hostel, you will always meet lots of people – if you want to.
But these are often only very superficial acquaintances, with whom one does the usual small talk: "Where do you come from? How long have you been traveling? ...?" But especially in unexpected moments and in unknown places, you often meet the most interesting people. People who love the adventure and traveling away from the worn-out tourist paths, as much as I do.
