Gerald Clark has been on the road over the past five months camping, mountain biking, and performing at various music venues in southern Africa.
Mr Clark is an accomplished singer and songwriter, having received numerous award nominations for his soulful voice and bluesy sound. He released four successful albums and has been nominated for a South African Music Award for his album Sweepslag. His second album, Black Water, received a MTV Europe Animation Award nomination for its title track’s music video and an original song from this album was featured as the theme for the Joburg To Sea Mountain Bike Race on DSTV’s SuperSport. In November 2015, Mr Clark released his fourth album, AfroBoer and The GoldenGoose. Collaborating with some of South Africa’s best musicians, the album is known as being raw, blues, rock, and a piece of Clark’s honesty.
About five months ago, Mr Clark and his girlfriend, Melissa Fontini, sold their house in Stellenbosch and hit the road for a grand musical tour of southern Africa. The couple have been travelling bakkie-style with a canopy fixed to the rear of their vehicle.
Mr Clark and Ms Fontini have plans to cover the whole all of South Africa while making stops in several other African countries.
The duo mostly camps out under the night sky, sleeping in a tent and cooking with a portable gas stove.
“This kind of thing fits me perfectly,” Clark told Tatler in a telephone interview. At the time, Mr Clark was in Nelspruit, Mpum-alanga, making his way down to Cape Town for the Folk ’* Acoustic Music Festival, which was staged at the Baxter.
So far, “Clark-tini” have travelled through places like the Karoo, the South African coast, Kruger National Park for a game drive, and the countries of Mozambique and Namibia.
The two are going to Zambia this month and coming back to South Africa in October.
Mr Clark is sponsored by Silverback bicycles, so he tries to mountain bike often and the pictures of his excursions are posted on social media and his official website.
Mr Clark said Ms Fontini has been managing his social media and the official blog in which they are documenting their trip as much as possible.
Since they are out on the road, internet connection is not always accessible, but they are able to post frequently and tour dates and locations are made available.
Scenic Sessions is one of the online side-projects that Mr Clark is working on while out on the road.
At almost every location of the tour, Mr Clark sings an acoustic version of one of his songs and uploads the video of the performance online. These Scenic Sessions are raw and filmed outside in the location where the couple happens to be that day.
“This place (South Africa) is beautiful. It feels like the right decision,” said Mr Clark.
