Journey Through Africa with Safari Jema: A Tale of Love and Adventure from Casablanca to Cape Town

weltweit: Since Teresa O'Kane's second travel book "My Life with Ndoto" just came out, I ordered it but started out by re-reading Safari Jema.
Reading this kind of travel book is the next best thing to actually travelling. Teresa O'Kane's stories take you right there. You are travelling alongside her and her best friend husband with all your senses. You sweat in the heat, smell the dust, dig in the dirt. But most importantly, you feel the warm approach Teresa has toward the people, animals and situations she encounters.
This book is not one of the testosterone-laden odes to risky adventures, nor is it romanticizing places where hardship is a staple. The author is not celebrating herself like some travel writers do. She is celebrating the people, animals and places that her travels take her to.
Can't wait to start the second book!

Germany on Jan 28, 2020

Roger Burke: On their 10-month, Safari Jema, pan-African overland adventure from Casablanca to Cape Town, Teresa O’Kane and her husband Scott were charged by an elephant, a hippo, and, if I recall correctly, semi-charged by the occasional monkey or baboon. The closest I’ve ever come is having been overcharged by a cellular phone company – twice. So, for this homebody, vicariously experiencing where, how and why they travel so extensively and wonderfully, indeed living their entire lives so richly around that, on a budget, was the next best thing (and can be even more cost effective --- especially on Kindle).

In no way your traditional advisory travelogue of where to go, what to see, and where to stay and eat – although, and I am not making this up, immediately upon finishing the last chapter, my wife and I hightailed it over to MarRosso, the East African cuisine café that just opened in the local strip mall, and regaled its Eritrean owner with a solid 10 minutes of O’Kane’s anecdotes and humorous observations about Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, and that general vicinity. So much more fun than just taking the Google itinerary. Sopped it all up like injera in monsoon...

United States on Mar 07, 2018

Cathrine C.: 4.5 stars. From Casablanca to Cape Town, Africa, they had a safari jema, a good journey.

I couldn’t do it at this time in my life, probably never, but they did and still do. I really enjoyed traveling vicariously with this couple. Every chapter was enjoyable, humorous, and the real deal. You can put it down and pick it up anytime without losing a sense of their story or confusion about time and place. I read it in sections in-between other reads. It was a refreshing palate cleanser of sorts in-between other books. Highly recommended for anyone who likes to travel or wants to experience the heart of the continent, its people, and wildlife. What an adventure!

United States on Aug 03, 2016

Scott B: Safari Jema is more than just a travel memoir. While it’s true that Teresa O’Kane’s recount of her adventurous overland journey of the African Continent “from top to bottom” contains the kinds of tips that will benefit anyone considering travelling there (or anywhere, actually), the book is perhaps even more valuable to readers as a vivid illustration that fabulous wealth is not a necessary prerequisite to extended travel and as an excellent reminder that “experiences are more valuable than things.”

Following a loose (and ultimately, almost non-existent) itinerary that allowed them the utmost flexibility in their day-to-day travel decisions, Teresa and her husband took the good and the bad from their trip with equal aplomb. To them, experiencing, enduring, and overcoming the inevitable discomforts, setbacks, and mishaps that occur over the course of a 10-month trek are a significant part of its appeal, and makes life’s luxuries (like an occasional tall Gin and Tonic at sundown) even more treasured.

An added bonus to Safari Jema is the first-time author’s remarkably skillful writing. Whether detailing up close and personal encounters with lions,...

United States on May 18, 2016

Henry Owen: I enjoyed the book very much; I added to my enjoyment by "Googling" all the places they visited and found the historical sites fascinating. I would certainly recommend it as an easy to read travel book.

United Kingdom on Jun 12, 2014

Ana Lopez Uriarte: Great stories, amazing adventure, what a trip, you feel you are part of it while you read.
Thanks a lot for sharing.

Canada on May 18, 2014

unimpressed: Having had the pleasure of meeting and travelling with Teresa on one of her many trips, I was eager to read this book. The book oozes her warm personality and sheer excitement about travelling. I'm not a big reader of travel writing normally but this is pleasantly different in that it isn't jaded, nor does she pretend to know the natives more than they know themselves (something that features a lot in travel writing)

A real gem!

United Kingdom on Feb 04, 2013

Greg Maggipinto: Safari Jema Is A Gem

Move over Peter Mayle and make room for Africa's version of A Year In Provence. Covering a year of travel in Africa with her husband Scott, Teresa Okane is blessed with the rare gift of observation that entrenches you in the moment, as she delights her readers with the lore of cultural contrast as told through her well adjusted parochial school eyes and wit.
For those just interested in the pros and cons of visiting the exotic places chronicled, you won't be disappointed. But what makes Safari Jema special is Okane's brutal honesty in recounting her hilarious reactions to events that would jar even the most seasoned traveler. This is what comes when fear, and an unquenchable desire for adventure, collide in the personage of a natural born raconteur, who also happens to be the proverbial catholic girl next door.
Where else can you find tales of girls shoes not polished enough to be "almond worthy" and learn about the Ethiopian Ark of The Covenant , in the same paragraph ! Who else is rating countries on a Donkey scale, to assess the treatment of their beasts of burden ? And if that's too boring, Okane can also recount the sexual habits of her...

United States on Mar 25, 2012

P. Flanagan: There must have been many thousands of books written over the last couple of centuries about people's exploits into "The Dark Continent". What Ms O'Kane adds to the genre is the truthful portrayal of a country that has embedded itself into her soul.
She weaves into the tale the truths that as a traveller, there are good days and bad but whatever the experience there is much to be gained.
Let's hope that there are more tales to follow . . .

United Kingdom on Mar 25, 2012