On a flight in South Africa, had an amusing coincidence.

The next hour spent having a fantastic chat with a complete stranger with exactly the same passion for 4 WDing, but in a completely different part of the world.

:D

I dunno, Robin - the terrifying sounds and calls of those Drop bears and Bunyips, in the bush at night, are enough to make you light a huge fire, and set up a perimeter cordon with trip wires and alarms! [;-)

Pythons have been known to gobble up people

4x4 in South Africa - it is not the wild animals that are a concern. It is the people.

Approximately 55 Million people, give or take a few million illegal refugees, in a country that is somewhere in size between NSW and Victoria .... and there is not a lot of space left for wild animals to roam. We keep them in fenced parks the biggest being the size of England. All very controlled.

South Africa is really a 4x4 base to jump off into the real wilds ... the countries to the north, including those right on our borders. That is where the wild animals roam.

In 2014 I had the privilege of walking with the Nyae-Nyae Bushmen and Women of far northern Namibia. I had to go that far to find Bushmen who spoke their own language and knew something of the old ways. We went walking for three days and three nights living off the land, amongst the big animals ... the most feared by the Bushmen being the elephant. Somehow I thought it might have been the lions and hyena, but I was wrong. Fortunately we did not have to test that theory. The elephant did sent us packing though. Nothing like being out in the bush on foot and hearing the challenging trumpeting of an elephant to get the adrenaline going.

4x4 in South Africa is very civy street. It is the rest of Africa that you might be thinking of.

4x4' ing in Australia? I had that privilege on the Canning Stock Route this year. Some Australians thought it unusual that a 50 year old woman would do that trip alone without another vehicle. I spent 3.5 months on the Canning, 2.5 months on my own, driving a 25 year old ex-Australian Army Land Rover. Loved it.

Yes, not a lot to fear in comparison to my home country.

Thank-you for your update Gaynor, it is good to hear we can still capture the experience of a story like the wind in a far off place.

Ten weeks outback alone would have been beautifull too.

drop-possums are bad in auz as well!

It's a rare person who is comfortable on their own, in an extremely isolated and harsh and unforgiving environment.
We are social creatures, we normally seek out other people for company.
To be totally alone in an environment where there is not likely to be any other human being for hundreds and hundreds of kms is highly psychologically challenging, and you have to be a very strong person, mentally.
I can recall reading the story of Bell Bros when they were trucking manganese from Woodie Woodie to Port Hedland in the early 1950's.
The Woodie Woodie "road" was a joke, it was little more than a track through the semi-desert country.
The corrugations and creek crossings shook the wooden-framed cabs apart on the old ERF and FODEN trucks - blowouts were a daily feature of life - and the trucks travelled singly, with no backup or any communication whatsoever.
If a breakdown was encountered, the drivers had to be resourceful enough with the meagre resources they carried to be able to repair the problem and carry on.
If it was a major breakdown, they were stuck for up to a week, until Bells realised a truck was well overdue, and they sent someone out to find it.
The story went that Bells could never find (or keep) drivers on the Woodie Woodie run (not surprisingly!) - and a large number of the drivers they employed, who originated from the city, soon turned into gibbering wrecks, when they encountered the sheer loneliness and emptiness of the Outback for days and weeks at a time.
Naturally, the heat, the dust and the flies, were also a big additional part of the appalling conditions.
Many a Bells truck driver had to be sent back to Perth, as they were psychologically unsuited for the demanding Woodie Woodie run - and many drivers just "pulled the pin" and left for Perth on their own, as soon as they encountered the loneliness and terrible conditions of the Woodie Woodie ore haulage route.

single male travelers get used to being alone, people just complicate things...