Africa, Backpacking, volunteering and general tourism.

[leojameselliot]

Hi everyone,

I'm 18 years old and looking to spend 6 months in Africa with 3 friends of mine. The problem is, since theres four of us, we all want to do different things while we're there. Bungee jumping and safari is on everyones list, teaching for a bit is on mine, the others want to do stuff like coaching, construction and general volunteering. We're desperate to do all these things, hence giving ourselves six months to get it all done. However, we all also want to travel, like, all over. Talking starting in Egypt and Morocco and finishing up somewhere in South Africa (with as little expense as possible) We're all of different ethnicity and so obviously wouldn't be able to go to some places. Basically, i'm trying to find out if any of you lovely people might know any programmes that incorporate volunteering as well as touring, or just have any good advice for us.

Please reply if you know anything or anyone that might help us out.

Cheers
Leo

[Quest]

Hey Leo,

Sounds like you've got an amazing gap year ahead!

I can definitely help out. We specialise in 3 month trips - where you combine 6 weeks volunteering on one of our long-term projects with 6 weeks on our AMAZING Southern Africa Expedition.

The projects are varied and would give you all a chance to do what you want to do - construction work (such as building a classroom for orphan kids in Malawi), teaching sports on our Tanzania Schools Project, working on game parks on our Swaziland Project or hands on work with animals on our Malawi Wildlife Project. Each project has loads of variety - but also a specific aim - so you and your mates will complete an entire project - such as building a classroom, but also get the chance to be involved in lots of other things - such as sports coaching, informal teaching, etc.. And also just spending time getting to see what life is like in a rural community in Africa

The Expedition is FAB! It includes trekking in Swaziland, scuba diving in Mozambique (with whale sharks - very cool!), Adrenalin stuff in South Africa (bridge swinging, caving, canyoning, paintballing), canoe safaris in the Okavango Delta and a huge safari through Botswana, before ending up at Victoria Falls in Zambia for the bungi jump!

So - in 3 months we pretty much cover what you're all after. You'd be with a team of fellow gappers (aged 18-24 - we don't mix you guys with career breakers) and two Quest leaders.

Basically it's pretty amazing and you'd be able to then travel on afterwards for 3 months to check out the other countries around Africa..

Have a look on the link : http://www.questoverseas.com/list/gap-years/africa.html

And drop me an e-mail: beth@experiencequest.com or call 01444 474744

Cheers for now!
Beth