Six Feet on a Continent of Hearts

by Ellie Gibbs (United Kingdom (Great Britain))

I didn't expect to find Tanzania

This will not be a specific tale from a vigorously bouncing chapa down a dusty Mozambican road. Or about the nourishing love between myself and Lake Malawi. One year on from adventuring through Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa, my loose solo itinerary in pencil, I do not want to focus on one encounter. All senses were fed intensely and stunningly. So perhaps against the rules of travel writing, details of my long, golden journey are generalised and unavailable to share in this piece. However, if you trust me when I tell you the tightly clenched heart Africa allows you to beat within is pure and magnificent, you will understand that there is a direct core to this prose. An honesty that only Africa could have led me to... ‘Aren’t you scared, backpacking Africa alone?’ - Speech that laid the motorway to Heathrow Airport and sat in the seat next to me on the flight to Nairobi. An infuriating query formed from words altered to past tense on my return to the UK. No I was not frightened! Maybe I was supposed to be? Who knows. I was prepared to hear languages that left my eyes desperately searching for meaning in bodies. Soon to be learning from Mamas selling dried silver fish from ginormous baskets on their heads; babies strapped to their backs and maize to feed her family heavy under one arm, how couldn’t I feel inspired to show how strong my spine could be? FOUR WEEKS IN I had grinned drinking banana beer on an abandoned railroad, whilst the sun set over Kilimanjaro and laughed when woken by monkeys stealing my chapattis. I felt tears drop when a deaf seamstress proudly fitted me into her handmade yellow dress, but amidst the frequency of Africa’s radiant surprises, I hadn’t expected to find such luscious contentment in the peacefulness of consistency. After an eight hour bus journey through bushes and ditches, breathing total faith into the driver, hoping he had understood my destination and gratitude spoken in drastically broken Swahili, I reached Bagamoyo - a dhow boat village on the coast of wild Tanzania. Soon after sinking into the gentle, German colonial style hostel; a hammock carrying, solo American named Daina entered my capering life. Fast forward three weeks: A theatrical interlude on two Tanzanian islands marked on our passports... A guitar carrying, solo Israeli named Oli entered our intoxicating lives. BEING A PERSON We had been three strangers living on three continents, eating three different breakfasts and later falling asleep to soundtracks we only knew individually. When encased in Tanzanian air that somehow felt more expansive than any of us had experienced in our respective homes, loneliness was abolished. Like minded travellers being few and far between, we had each become equipped with fierce independence! Fortunately, we allowed Africa to roughly push us through numerous border crossings, hungry exhaustion and nights in places you shouldn’t tell your Grandma about. But it was real. Africa displayed truths and soaked them into our pores so deeply. Friends and family who hadn’t played witness to our experiences might as well have migrated to another planet. Yet vibrantly patterned political kangas; sweet juice of freshly picked mangoes; sitting with sand smoothed skin on moon white beaches, knowing a few hours inland elephants quietly rejuvenated the Savannah; exuberantly massaged aching muscles and minds. This vast land that welcomed us initiated humanity and it is evident. Africa weaved a connection so strong, now it feels like I could bridge thoughts across the oceans distancing our physical locations. Travelling is about meeting your people as much as it is about feeling the sprays from that waterfall you dreamed of. Backpacks may get lighter when sunscreen and one hundred percent deet spray has completed its destiny, but oh my, are they refilled with education, emotion and empathy! Human connection is a vitamin and Africa quenches the thirst to wash it down.