Brendan's Adventures

“Are we going to be able to cross that?” “I don’t think so,” I reply to a group of guests from Jollyboys Backpackers. “The geometry of it doesn’t work.” The bus driver asks us to step out of the vehicle and then proceeds to slam the vehicle into the walls over a deep ditch grooved into the [...]

Heavy mist dusts the air across the old colonial bridge downwind from the famed Victoria Falls.  Joining Zambia to Zimbabwe, the bridge is more than just a border, it’s the scene of screams.  At the midpoint of the bridge, a ledge hangs vicarious from the lip and the enthusiastic shuffle their bound feet to the [...]

The guide is quick to let everyone know that the elephants that are bowing in front of us were all rescued.  They’ve come to here in Zambia from Zimbabwe after being saved from poachers or people hoping to turn them into pets.  But as I look across at the row of beautiful elephants saddled by riders [...]

I’m handed a stick and the guide demonstrates to me how to use the 3-foot long twig to keep a lion at bay with it.  I laugh as he scratches the ground and tells me that the tapping stick will distract the golden cats from the idea jumping me and turning me into a ball [...]

Since I was a teenager it’s always been a dream of mine to rent a car and travel across America and last year that dream became reality. It’s almost become a bit of a cliché these days since there have been so many books and films on the subject, but clichés only become clichés because [...]

A couple days ago I stood in front of a mirror in Lubumbashi, DRC staring at the person I’d dissolved to.  The stresses of Kinshasa, the wear of a recent fight with malaria, and the fact that I had simply not been eating properly had all lead to the demise of my physical health.  I [...]

If you do nothing else while in the New York area, you must try a famous slice of New York City pizza. There’s something about the pizza in this city that is incomparable, and only the famous pies of Chicago can even come close to rivaling the quality of a New York pizza. New Yorkers [...]

With my backpack leaning vicariously on my now broken luggage rack, I let the town of Lubumbashi, DRC fade away in my now broken rear view mirror. Today feels like a milestone.  It feels poetic.  It feels as if I’m turning the page in a story to find a new chapter begin. Over the past [...]

I drag my bags from the cozy guesthouse bed in Mbanza-Ngungu, DRC where I spent 2 days in complete peace recovering from malaria and toss it on the back of my scooter which is held together by little more than duct tape and love.  I have a couple hours of driving left until I reach [...]

This is a continuation of the story from yesterday.  Read this article first… ————————- Pastel blue walls surround me as does a combined congregation of people in white shirts, random children and an authority figure of some sort.  My arm is taped to a t-shirt and the bed.  I look at my hand and it [...]

My arrival in Brazzaville was meant to be one of joy; the closing of a chapter if you will.  In many ways it is.  I arrived at the beautiful and friendly confines of the overlander paradise known as Hipocampe.  I am reunited with Jeroen and Sonja, the overlanding couple from Holland I’ve dubbed Double Dutch.  There is [...]

Taking the right steps after an accident in a rental car Damaging your own car in an accident is bad enough, but having an accident in a rental car can be even worse – especially if you don’t have insurance or an excess waiver. Whether the accident was caused by driving on unfamiliar roads, driving [...]

Thanks to an issue shipping Anne Murray on the train to Franceville, I fell behind.  I fell way behind.  Now normally, being a little bit late in travel isn’t exactly a bad thing, it means you’re having too much fun to move on.  However, when I applied for my visa for Congo in Yaoundé, Cameroon I hadn’t [...]

It’s been a while since I posted a video of the week.  Actually, it’s been a while in general since I posted a video to my youtube travel channel.  The truth is that traveling through Central Africa has meant that there hasn’t been a whole lot of great uploading opportunities.  The internet is decent in [...]