Dot Bekker shares her journey of 20,000km through African countries
Dot Bekker shares her story of 20,000km through several African countries with a twenty-year-old 2WD Ford Transit with the Scenic Drive team.
Dot Bekker was born and raised in Bulawayo in the southwest of Zimbabwe.
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After 38 years away - twenty of those in Europe - she decided to return to the country of her birth; however rather than hop on a plane, Dot chose to drive there: all by herself at the age of sixty, in a 20-year-old 2WD Ford Transit van that she converted into her home. Dot spent eight and a half months covering 20,000km of some of the toughest overlanding routes in the world, through West and Central Africa.
This is her story.
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Now you can follow Dot’s extraordinary 20,000km adventure in her first book, 'Going Home To Africa', where she describes the ups and downs she faced over the course of her grand expedition: the countries, the people, insane traffic, corrupt borders, marriage proposals, perilous potholes, and good old Africa Roadside Assistance.
Her fascinating journal also highlights the varied landscapes and cultural history of Africa that she discovered along the way, the strange, funny, and sometimes terrifying situations that she encountered, and the numerous challenges that she and BlueBelle endured – all the while navigating her own personal internal journey.
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Since her return to Bulawayo, Dot has been tirelessly seeking ways to improve the future of rural communities in Zimbabwe. Her twenty years of business coaching experience is helping to enhance their traditional lifestyle with 21st Century technology in order to actively encourage sustainable development. Another of her passions is giving vulnerable and disadvantaged girls access to education, to which end she created the non-profit organisation, Kusasa.
She very much believes that making progress in the gender equality/equity agenda through education is vital for her country.
She is also already working on the sequel to 'Going Home In Africa', which will detail the experience of returning to her homeland and the many joys and challenges she has faced since her return. It will be titled, 'Being Home in Africa'.
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