Her first comment was, “will I get along well with the other clients on my tour.” I then asked a few other people also preparing for their up and coming adventures and this question was raised quite often.

It’s a fair question and one that can be a deciding factor for people when deciding whether to travel on a group tour or not? Those who choose not to are missing out.

Human beings and their social behaviour has been called by many experts as the true 'final frontier', the complexities are still not fully understood and are yet to be discovered. Given the fact that I am no psychologist, I am not about to give you a dummies guide to “how to fit in on tour” but I will give you a few things to think about.

Have you ever sat in a board room meeting, for example, and looked around at the people you work with every day (people you spend more time with than your loved ones) and thought…”I have nothing in common with these people”, the next thing you know you are daydreaming about the Serengeti plains, the Eiffel tower or 530pm and your journey home, you tell one of your work mates and he just doesn’t care.

One thing that pulls Kumuka groups together is a specific common interest - that being travel and its not just travel but travel to a specific destination, utilising a specific method of transport and accommodation. So if you are nervous about the group, start with conversations such as – “so what made you decide to travel to Africa on an adventurous overland tour?” You are bound to find interesting common ground here that will have you chatting for hours, not boring boardroom toil.

Now you have broken the ice and discovered that most of you are on the same wave length. What now? Well as most of our groups will come from all over the world it is time to start learning about other countries, not only the country you are travelling in. Here comes the “jandals, flip, flop, thongs” conversation. There are many countries around the world who’s primary language is English and many of these clients travel on our tours, it soon becomes intriguing to discover the different words we have conjured up in our continental colloquial English. Take advantage of this and start by talking about cooling your drink in the chilly bin, or ask who is lighting the braai to cook the steaks, soon the colloquialisms will start flooding out and the campfire conversation will take on a jovial and intriguing atmosphere.

So the beginning of the tour is off to a good start, we’re learning new languages and discovering motivations, at the same time we’re travelling through some pretty amazing country side, with travel comes experiences and soon you will be experiencing days with your new found friends, days that you will remember for the rest of your life, for example. Trekking to the mountain gorillas; it’s a long journey to Uganda from anywhere in the world, so by the time our groups hit the jungle covered mountains, the excitement is hard to contain. The trek can take from 1 – 5 hours through dense forest, following experienced guides who stop regularly to investigate the surrounding foliage as they trek these nomads.

To the tourists eye what the guides are looking at makes no sense but somehow after an exciting trek into the endless mass of the African Jungle – there they are – a family of 6 including the mighty silverback sitting in the forest, extraordinarily human like, it’s like looking at a living ancestral history. The babies swing from the trees and thump in front of the mighty silverback in unadulterated puerile delight, you hold your breath as Dad looks mean but soon let it out as you see the silverback, in his gentle giant manner, lets the baby gorilla crawl all over his shoulders as if on a kinda gym. Mum and the aunties are sitting in a clearing in the sun carefully preening each others fur until the playful infant tires and crawls into mums lap for a sleep. An hour feels like 5 minutes, it feels like a life time, this hour is one of the best hours in your life. The walk out of the jungle is quiet as you try and absorb everything you have just seen.

The talk around the campfire that night is a buzz, tears are shed, beers are drunk and the conversation never leaves the mountain gorillas, their enigma and beauty, it has turned into one of the best days of your life and you have shared it with friends. I need not give you tips for conversation from here on in.

What Kumuka have found in our 22 Years of tour operating is, in fact, that the social interaction of group travel is one of the highlights of the journey, so when travelling with a group you are always heading into the final frontier.

I personally have been travelling now for 13 years and have made numerous life long friends on my journeys, I even met my husband on the road in Chile. Granted there have been people I have met that I could have done without but let me tell you, there is nothing quite like sitting down with a glass of wine, some travel photos and having a good old laugh with a friend from the road. When you can say “remember when” to someone and floods of “time of your life” memories invade your mind, you know you have made a special connection.

“Do you remember that time I had my flip flops stuck under the chilly bin, you were about to light the braai….”

“Oh that’s right that was after that amazing day in the Serengeti when we saw a pride of lions hunting at dusk, the sun was rising, the mist was lifting, the flat top trees were silhouetted against the orange glow of an African dawn …. Sigh..”

“I wish I could go back” (said in unison)

So embrace the challenge of meeting new people on tour,
Go on – explore the last frontier.

Meg Hall

Melita will travel to Africa on Kumuka’s Africa in Focus tour.

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