Put your Africa Face on!

by Tasha in Pre-trip, Melbourne

Hi, my name's Tasha and I have an addiction. It's not a dangerous addiction, it's not debilitating, it doesn't cost me anything and I don't get a nasty hangover at the end of it. You see, I am addicted to travel brochures.

Okay, now you're giggling at me, but it's true. In my house are stacks of brochures, they're in bookcases, shelves and since Sunday, literally all over the living room. This is because last weekend I was in a stuperific wonderland as the 2nd annual Travel Expo came to Melbourne!

Okay, now that your muffled giggles have turned into peals of laughter at the sheer geekiness of my excitement, I'll elaborate. Here is a weekend, free of charge, where all the travel agencies, tour companies and airlines come together under one roof to hock their wares at you....for a discounted price. And not just a free cocoa if you fly United, some of these discounts reap some pretty big rewards - like saving $600 to over $1000 on cross country tours.

Pretty sweet huh? Of course that's the generic reason most people flocked to the Melbourne Convention Centre. Me, I was there to pick up more brochures.

so...many...brochures

However, when I arrived early that morning, I found out that they also had seminars...and stalls...and a lonely planet store...offering 20% off!!! It was like christmas all over again! I immediately joined the nearest seminar (which of course was specifically for retirees over 60... d'oh!) and listened in. A few seminars later I came across a really excellent speaker encouraging us, the audience, to go and flock to Africa, regardless of whether we go with his company or not - because Africa is so amazing it has to be seen to be believed.

I really liked this guy, not only because he echoed some of my own views about Africa and travel in general (e.g. that not travelling to South Africa because there is violence in Nigeria is like not going to Tokyo because there is violence in Pakistan). But there was one moment in his presentation that really spoke to me. On several slides (all his own photos), he would be dead centre of all the action with this big stupid smile on his face.

Yep...you know the one

This grin was goofy, ridiculous and shone with a laughing wonder. It spoke that he was having the time of his life, and he couldn't believe that life was this good. The presenter noticed our chuckles at the smiling photo and explained that this was his Africa Smile.

That all these amazing and had-to-see-it-to-believe-it moments had happened to him there, and so that is what he calls it. Then at the end of the presentation there was this really amazing video of one tourist on a tour of his last year,  being played with by a family of mountain gorillas and as we watched it with gleeful wonder the presenter laughed and remarked that right now it looks like we found our own Africa Smiles. We looked around the room and he was right, we all had goofy grins plastered to our faces. In this moment I realised another great reason I love to to travel.

In nearly every photo taken of us we smile and say cheese, but how many photos do we have where we are laughing and experiencing wonder, excitement and absolute joy all at the same time? I went searching through my files and, of the many many hundreds of photos on my hard-drive, I found but a handful. To my mother's chagrin, my happiest smile generally coincides with sticking my tongue out. But truthfully they are always my happiest and downright favourite photos.

Goofy silly grins all round, but in these happy few you can really tell just how much I am enjoying the hell out of whatever's going on when these pictures were taken. Wouldn't it be more fun if we tried to capture this in every photo....or at least in more photos.

A wise person might point out that it would be an easy enough task if only we were happy and full of excitement and wonder on a day to day basis. I'm talking jump-up-and-down-laugh-out-loud kind of happy. I think that is a much more worthy goal. Rather than resolve to take better pictures, instead we should take the time to have more fun with the opportunities we have. Or if the opportunities are fleeting, then to make more - pack a bag and fly somewhere, take a drive, roll in the grass... it doesn't matter what you do. Just enjoy the hell out of it!

...I know I will.

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