It took me a while before I really started to explore Africa, but since then, I have made some of my best omakase memories: from an amazing summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest freestanding mountain in the world to my quarterly week in Marrakech and from Johannesburg to Egypt. It is such a rich, welcoming, intense continent.He paused for a moment, my Uber driver in Nairobi, Kenya, who had been so talkative most of the route. We had been talking about Eliud Kipchoge, their local hero and the global marathon legend who just had crushed the 2h00 barrier for the marathon. We had talked about MPesa, the payment startup that was doing so well around the globe. We had been talking about his family, my family, life in Kenya and my plans to summit Mount Kilimanjaro.He pointed at the other lane on the highway we had been driving on for a while. He pointed and said “You don’t have that in Europe, right? Free parking in the middle of the highway”. And he started to laugh. He laughed one of those contagious laughs. A laugh that -even if you didn’t want to- had to join. Such a laugh.

The other lane had an epic traffic jam. Thousands of people were stranded and people were even getting out of their car to see what was happening.

And my driver had maybe done the most African thing ever. Turning a sad, depressing situation in an amazing positive spirit, a great joke. The positivity, happiness, smiles and jokes I encounter every single time in Africa is something I will most definately never forget.I have so many memories here, but these are some of my favorites.

Summiting Mount Kilimanjaro.

My Lemosho route hike to Uhuru peak.

Stunning Marrakech.

I spent a week in the souks of Marrakech.

Rough Johannesburg.

My first visit to Africa was one to remember, including armed guards in my hotel room.

It’s all fun and games until somebody dies.

About the dark side of overtourism on Mount Kilimanjaro.Feel free to browse through all the posts or use the button to see the category view.