Draft — Jay Austin
It's raining here in the South of France. It's raining quite a lot. Or at least it was at the moment I was tapping away at these keys, somewhere inside, somewhere warm. And so we've been staying out of the rain and drinking tea and crunching some more numbers from Africa, which means another set of words and calculations below.
Where did we sleep in Africa? Let's start with an overview.
We spent 168 nights cycling across the African continent, from Cape Town to Zanzibar and Casablanca to Ceuta. Of these 168 nights:
We slept outside 95 nights (57%) and slept inside 73 nights (43%).
We paid for lodging 68 nights (40%) and did not pay for lodging 100 nights (60%).
We spent 34 nights (20%) in campgrounds.
We spent 31 nights (18%) wild camping.
We spent 28 nights (17%) free camping (with the landholder's permission).
We spent 27 nights (16%) staying with hosts we met through connections.
We spent 25 nights (15%) in guesthouses.
We spent 7 nights (4%) staying with hosts we met online.
We spent 7 nights (4%) staying with hosts we just met (typically in asking for a place to camp).
We spent 4 nights (2%) in hotels.
We spent 3 nights (2%) in Airbnbs.
We spent 2 nights (1%) on overnight transit (ferries).
Our total lodging cost in Africa was $912.
Over 168 days, our average nightly lodging cost was $5.43 (or $2.715 per person). Factoring in only the days we paid for accommodations, our average nightly lodging cost was $13.41 (or $6.705 per person).