Book Reviews

This is the story of an amazingly courageous woman who traveled from Europe to Zimbabwe on her own, and what a story it is!This book reall...
Alice
Dot Bekker…my favourite person. I feel like I know but I don’t. I’ve read your book describing your amazing journey about going home to Zimbabwe...
Adele
What an amazing read,what a brave woman!!!I just cant put the book down, shes such a good writer ❤️ (Facebook)
Thoko
This book was an answered prayer, a daily entertainment and a true inspiration. I feel like I know Dot personally after reading this book....
Michelle
I found “Going Home to Africa” a gripping, authentic, informative and humorous book! Gripping…in the countless unpredictable travel/r...
Gerald
From the first chapter I was hooked and followed Dot's adventures down the coast of West Africa with awe. I bought the book because I too am con...
Jordan
Dot took me on the journey of a lifetime. I witnessed the challenges, frustrations, joys and overwhelming beauty of Africa from the comfort of m...
Wendy
I had the pleasure of meeting Dot when she was living in Solsona and have followed her adventures on Going Home to Africa on IG. I have been so ...
Ruth
This is a brilliant story of a lovely lady driving solo from Northern Africa through many countries to go home to Zimbabwe. This touches my hear...
Dallas
Going home to Africa is an honest, humble and uplifting account of an incredible adventure and Dot’s fighting spirit and firm belief in the univ...
Fiona
Absolutely Compelling I could not put this book down and I am not an avid reader, getting bored quickly. I loved every moment of her jou...
Antoinette
FANTASTIC BOOK! I LOVED every page of this book and didn't want it to end. I have read many travelogues and this was by far my favourite...
Kevin
My first impression was just: Wow! Hats off! What an impressive book... I can already now say that it is, along with Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitze...
Susanne
Dot is one of the most amazing "road" friends we made while overlanding through Africa, and whatever we were doing she brought a tremendous sense o...
Laurie
I absolutely love travelling so this story really spoke to me. Having followed Dot in real time on her epic journey, I’m now absolutely loving the ...
Catherine
I think the fact that you share ALL of your experiences, good and bad, and do NOT leave out the huge challenges and obstacles you had to face on a ...
Susanne
I’ve just been spending the whole evening with your book. I feel so fascinated by your story and I love the way you’re describing both breathtaking...
Alexandra
Absolutely loved it. Very inspiring and Dot I would love to meet you one day when I visit Zimbabwe again. Thank you for sharing this amazing story....
Justyna
I have just finished reading Going Home to Africa and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it more as the journey went on... Her experiences become more ...
Nicola

Going Home to Africa

One Woman's quest to return home, driving from Europe to Zimbabwe.

Barcelona ... (cue Freddy Mercury)

Barcelona ... (cue Freddy Mercury)

I had come to Barcelona to stay with my nephew who is a multi-talented man in the construction business. He has a workshop in the city where he has lived for 15+ years. I had come to build out the inside of BlueBelle into a home, my home on wheels that would make me independent and take me home to Zimbabwe on my drive through Africa. My nephew’s workshop was the ideal place to do this.
Note that, like many in Barcelona, my nephew has made a living space in his workshop and there wasn’t really room for one more, but he turned his office into a makeshift bedroom for me. I became accustomed to the sound of machinery and heavy metal music from early morning to late night most 7 days a week, the smell of metal being welded and the dust of regular sawing and sanding.

The good thing, I had a place to stay with internet and a shower, when you are homeless and have less stuff it is amazing what you can be happy with. The other good thing is he shares the workshop with some great guys who chipped in when necessary to help me out with welding, electrics and carpentry advice as well, the workshop came fully equipped with pretty much every machine and tool I would need.

I arrived at the end of July 2017 and it was hot and getting ever hotter into August. The difficulty with arriving slap bang in the middle of the holiday season is that the wood and some of the materials I needed were not available as the merchant suppliers were closed as they were on holiday until early September!

There was nothing to do but wait and plan and keep working to earn much needed money. One thing that did happen is that I found that I slept and just could not stop myself sleeping for a couple of weeks I had no motivation (unlike me), no desire to do anything but sleep. In this time I started to think what could have triggered this ... apart from tsetse fly (sleeping sickness) ... it dawned on me that I had been in a difficult relationship and under immense stress for some years, I had in recent years struggled with constant colds and chest infections, sciatica, loss of pets and in the last 9 months I had just been literally homeless, staying with friends and family and living on very little money since I gave up my home and most of my possessions to walk away and start a new life.

I resorted to an internet search and found that I had all the symptoms of Adrenalin Fatigue Syndrome. So I did what my body told me and just slept, drank water and let it all pass through my system. The constant stress had put my adrenal glands and my body into hyperdrive and now that I had stopped for a short while ... my body just stopped too.

So hot as it was outside and crowded with tourists I just took my time to centre my mind and heal myself for the next phase I knew was coming.

Lesson learnt – Listen to your body always!

 

Cuitadella Park BarcelonaOld Bullring BarcelonaBarcelonaBarcelona beach

5
Let the building begin!
Lock, Stock and BlueBelle
 

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Wednesday, 09 October 2024

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About Dot

Dot is Zimbabwean born and raised and after having lived in Europe for 20 years she decided to return home but uniquely she decided to drive  through Africa to get there.

She achieved her dream by driving 20,000kms through 18 West African countries over 8.5 months on her own for most of the journey.  Her book of the same title will soon be launched,and you can find out more about Dot or subscribe to the Blog for more.

 

Kusasa Scholarship Fund

Alongside my journey I've decided to raise funds for scholarships for girl's education in Zimbabwe, find out more about that here, to contribute to the Scholarship Fund please do so here.