Meet Sharne and Matthew McFarlane who decided to backpack through Africa to see gorillas and The Great Migration instead of a traditional honeymoon. Adventure and a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience is what they were after!
How did you decide where you wanted to go on your honeymoon?
We are a very adventurous couple and always find ourselves with unique goals and ambitions. We have travelled quite a lot internationally, separately, and together. After Matthew proposed on the Zambezi River while visiting Victoria Falls, we completely fell in love with Africa and what it has to offer. On the flight home, we decided we wanted to go backpacking in Africa. Obviously, I had no idea which country we would go to or what the activities would be but Matthew knew that it was on my bucket list to see the silverback gorillas.
Any “issues” along the way when booking
We uncounted a few challenges along the way, but nothing we South Africans can’t handle, if you know how to watch your back and talk yourself out of situations you’ll be fine. It was a challenging task to ensure smooth sailing on an African trip but the biggest challenge was booking the trip. It was difficult to trust the tour guides as everything had to be paid upfront and all communications were done over WhatsApp. We had booked through Adventure in the Wild Safaris after connecting with their guide, Robert, and we felt secure with him. A few days before leaving SA, they realised they had overbooked, but Robert quickly and swiftly rebooked for us to go to Buwindi, Mountain Ruhija, in Uganda and he sorted out a three-day tour on the mountain in Uganda which included travel, trekking, gorillas, monkeys, and volcanoes!
“If you’re up for adventures, we encourage people not to fall for social media and glamorous photos. Your best holiday will be the word-of-mouth one, not the package deal advertised by a travel agent.”
Tell us about the trip
We flew to Rwanda and then drove to Uganda during the night, a little scary but being young you tend to take more risks in life. We arrived in a small village called Ruhijia where we gorilla-, monkey-, and volcano-tracked. We stayed with the local forest people which was such a humbling experience, this little village has near to no water and no electricity but there lived some of the most incredible people we have ever met. After three days, we ventured back to Rwanda where we had to say goodbye to our tour guide Robert. To this day, we call him often and can say we 
have made a lifelong friend. We stayed in Rwanda for two days then we took a flight to Kenya, Nairobi where we found someone to drive us to the Masai Mara National Reserve, we managed to hustle some accommodation outside the reserve in a tent (they called it glamping) but this was just a tent in an overgrown area which had no electricity and only cold water; we knew what we were in for touring Africa so we were happy with anything. We stumbled across a 20-year-old local named Mowgli and asked him to show us around as we were advised not to walk through this village without befriending a local first. Some of our best nights were spent at the local bars, and for our last day, we spontaneously took a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti National Park followed by a 5-star lunch in the Masai Mara. This was a beautiful end to our unique honeymoon in Africa.
Your best moment
Matthew’s best moment was the tranquillity of the gorillas and the sunrise hot air balloon ride. My best moment: our game drive through the Masai Mara National Reserve, guided by two locals. When we arrived at the reserve, we were informed that the migration had been slightly delayed this year due to rain. I was upset but we knew nature would throw us off slightly at some point. After three hours of the game drive, we saw National Geographic vehicles racing towards the river and then the big chase began as the migration had started going over the river. Our little Cruiser flew past these fancy vehicles and the two locals gave us front-row seats as we watched over 1000 wildebeest and zebras cross a croc-infested river. An experience you simply cannot explain in words.
