*The first American to walk across Africa*
From the Indian Ocean coast of Mozambique, Julian Munroe is walking west until he reaches the Atlantic Ocean coast of Angola. The approximately 4,000-mile expedition will take him across the territories of the African countries of Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, DR Congo and Angola.
‘Equatoria: A walk across Africa‘ is believed to be the first recorded solo traverse expedition ever attempted along this specific route.
Julian Munroe walks from Mozambique to Angola, he writes; “People are amazing, they would come by and say “Look, I’ll flag down a minivan, I’ll get you a ride.” And I would say “Well no, I’m walking” and they would say “No, no, no, I’ll give you a ride!”
In this day and age, I think it’s truly the best way to see a country and meet the people and experience daily life. There’s nothing like walking through these villages and hearing and feeling the entire village waking up. I’m very fortunate and yeah of course there are times I look back on it already and kinda say “Man, why didn’t I say I was going to go coast to coast in a Land Rover! “
I trekked all the way from Pemba, on the Northern Indian Ocean coast of Mozambique, to a point within the bush where the government did not want me to go any further on foot because of the unpredictable wildlife. As a result, I had to ride a motorcycle through the bush and then I continued to walk to Lake Malawi (called Lake Nyassa on the Mozambican side), where I reached the Mozambican village of Meponda.
So I got to this village called Meponda, still Mozambique, and I hired a boat that took me down the lake to Nokonjila, Malawi and then from there I hired another boat and crossed over to Senga Bay to the Livingstonia Beach Hotel.
I was so happy to walk upon the shore of Senga Bay, to be embraced by the English language and the Warm Heart of Africa was right there welcoming me! From there I walked all the way to Lilongwe.
Primarily, over the years I have conducted many expeditions to Africa and I’ve been travelling here since the mid-1990s I was actually in Malawi for a month in the year 2000 and it seems that on all these expeditions and excursions I have taken to some 30 countries across the continent – I’ve always found myself, for the most part, a passenger in a 4×4 Land Rover – zipping by watching the people and the culture, pass by the window. On this trip, I decided that I wanted to spend more time getting to know the place, and the people, experience the culture first-hand and also to kind of go back to relate stories.
So often (and nothing against the duty and challenges the media faces) it seems like the disaster today is replaced by the disaster tomorrow. Thus the untold stories about the African continent and the good people somewhere along the way fall between the lines. And so I’m going to write a book about my journey, my expedition and experience and about some of these people who stop their day to join my day and walk along and talk about their life and find about my life and talk about some of the social issues that face us all.
Collectively, the only way we’ll be able to solve a lot of issues we all face is to talk about them between ourselves. Hopefully, my expedition will inspire others to come to the African continent and slow down and see the place.
I’ve got a lovely wife and two small children. My daughter is 6 and my son is 10. I’ve promised my daughter that I would be home by the time she goes to her first day of school in September. And even if I have to fly home to do that and come back and finish the expedition I plan on keeping my promise.”
You can follow Julian Monroe at walkacrossafrica.org
Currently Julian is walking across South Luangwa where he is walking in the area traversed by the Robin Pope walking safaris.
