Great article .....love that gal's spirit.

phenomenal experience. As this woman stated, a trip like this would have been unheard of when she was a young woman. It was nice that her children joined her for parts of the trip. I suspect that she has always been adventurous and a rebel. Thanks for sharing the article.

When she was a young woman, it would have been orders of magnitude safer. Today, it was perhaps an ill-advised and dangerous thing to even try.

Much of Africa is VERY unsafe and so-called "officials" like those who appear to be police are violent and corrupt. I see this as a foolhardy stunt, not an adventuresome one.

I agree with Elmer.

I don't know anything about the places she drove through so I can't comment on how unsafe they are. I do know that I heard the same thing about going to Europe, back in 2009 when I was planning a trip there. People I knew were freaked out that I was planning on driving in Germany and France and staying in a couple youth hostels along the way. My brother was freaked out about me and my kids going to Spain a couple years ago too. I was worried about going to a concert in Las Vegas a few months after the mass shooting there. I won't let fear prevent me from traveling, though. I may not drive across Africa but I'm not going to sit in my house and be scared of the world either.

kathsgarden, as you may know, almost anywhere in Europe is safer than almost anywhere in the US. Most especially cities and towns and most are much safer than here.

The safest places in Africa are much more dangerous than the most dangerous places in the US. And the dangerous places there are everywhere. South Africa, one of the more modern of African countries (in some respects and not in others) has terrible crime and violence problems, even in its major cities. Everywhere else is much, much worse. Hotels have armed guards and enforced perimeters and tourist transportation often has armed escorts.

I agree with not sitting home and being scared. Doing something foolhardy and ill-advised like driving across Africa is at the far opposite end of the spectrum, believe me.

Well, this lady did it and slept beside her car, so not sure just how dangerous it was. She seems to have met some very nice people along the way too.

Good for her. At 80 years of age, she may not be all that worried that something might happen to her during her travels and instead is enjoying whatever time she has left on this earth.

The article says she was born and lives in Africa, so she probably is comfortable there and knows more about what it's like than people who only hear about it through what they read and hear on the news.

I loved this story and upon learning of the dangers of her journey, I am relieved that she had a guardian angel next to her.

Great read.

Loved it!