THE ADVENTURE
A 20 000 km journey in search for sustainable and positive experiences, initiatives and lifestyles.
« It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change. » Leon C. Megginson, interpreting Charles Darwin's ideas.
Nature is well designed and faced with this reality, our global conscience is now arising and shaping new possibilities. The concept of sustainability, far from being an exact science, appears to be the main thread of both a personal and collective reflexion, whose fundamental objective is to reach a universally fair developpment model.
Everyday and everywhere in the world, men and women take on the challenge, imagining and designing new solutions. Constant source of inspiration, their experiences and visions are also an amazing driver to build a sustainable futur. It is with a strong will to encourage and share that positive energy that we decided to go on this journey, to meet them, and listen to what they have to say.
WHO ARE WE?
"The future is not what is going to happen, it is what we are going to do." Henri Bergson
We are a thirty-somethings couple, who decided to take a step off the obvious trail in front of us to follow our travel dreams. Little by little, as we were roaming about, meeting people and reading stuffs, we realised how badly the system we live in today is biting his own tail. What future for the only specie having acquired so much power that it threatens to self-destroy? It just doesn't make any sense.
It is when started digging and questioning that we realised the magnitude of the citizen mobilization, individual and collective, for a better, fairer and more sustainable world. All those people, whose actions open new ways, are encouraging confidence in our ability to bounce back. It is that energy we wanted to feel and share...
THE ITINERARY
REACHING CAPE AGHULAS
Starting from Bonnac, a little village in the south of France and last french stop, we will cross Spain and the Gibraltar Strait to begin our journey along the African continent’s west coast. Our goal is to reach the Cape Aghulas in South Africa!
WHY IN AFRICA ?
We have been talking about this since we met. We have been dreaming about it, but at the same time the very idea of this adventure felt intimidating. By the scale of it, the challenge it represented. Little by little, our curiosity and determination took over everything else. Africa is the cradle of humankind, the continent where it all started. There, humans have developed a conscience, have learned how to walk and how to adapt. This journey is an opportunity to discover new visions, to widen the field of possibilities and to share that positive energy.
COUNTRIES WE WILL GO THROUGH
Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa !
OUR COMMITMENTS
SHARE OUR WORK
During the trip we will come to regularly produce multimedia web-documentaries on sustainable initiatives, experiences and lifestyles including video footages, pictures and written articles all to be published on this blog.
It was important to us to figure out a way we could contribute to these projects, so we are committed to hand all our work (video footages, pictures and articles) to the people and organisations we will come to work with, to use it as they may.
TRAVEL RESPONSIBLY
To make this project possible, we needed an all-terrain vehicule, able to take us deep inside the countries in (almost) all conditions. We chose the Land Cruiser Prado, a simple, strong and fuel efficient (compare to other vehicules of the same category) 4WD that we specially equipped for the adventure.
Well aware of the negative side that its use may present, we also think possible to limit its impact by following a few basic rules, listed in our Terra Api Code of Conduct.
MAKE OURSELVES USEFUL
We will take on every opportunity we have to make ourselves useful to the people, communities and organisations we will meet along the way.
We will also use the extra space available in our vehicle to buy (locally) and transport « little somethings » (food items, notebooks, pencils, basic hygiene products, inflatable soccer balls for the kids...) to share with families, schools and villages that we will come across.
THE TERRA API CODE OF CONDUCT
We elaborated this code of conduct to travel responsibly with three goals in mind:
RESPECT PEOPLE & NATURE
LIMIT OUR IMPACT
PRESERVE WILDLIFE & BIODIVERSITY
- Handle resources responsibly, be correctly and reasonably equipped;
- Limit waste production and dispose of it correctly, ban plastic waste to the extent possible;
- Exclusive use of natural and biodegradable products;
- Leave nothing behind, cover our trace on camping sites;
- Don’t support corruption;
- Don’t encourage begging;
- Buy local products for a fair price.
- Respect private properties;
- Favour walking or public transportation in cities;
- Apply rules of eco-driving;
- Respect natural areas and their regulation, favour walking to discover its beauty;
- Alwaysslowdowninthepresenceof wildlife, and give them priority;
- Avoid sensible areas like nesting sites.
- Preserve local flora by avoiding degrading or tramping on it;
- For people : establish a relationship, ask for permission first. Through a look, a smile, a wave or a greeting... By showing the picture on the screen, by sharing a moment with the person;
- Know when not to take the picture, or delete it in case of embarrasment;
- Respect the person, her intimacy, her values, her culture;
- Never trade money for a picture;
- When close to villages, we will systematically get the authorization from the chief and from the entire community first, for instance by sharing this moment and the images with them;
- Besides, we will always keep the drone within a flying range of 200 meters from us, on sight.