Lions, hyenas and elephants are just some of the obstacles Canberra Demons runner Matthew Napier faces in his 2250-kilometre walk across Africa, where he'll have just a soccer ball to defend himself with.
He'll also be making the marathon walk living off less than US$1.50 ($2.07) per day.
Napier will spend 2½ months walking from the Namibian coast, across the Kalahari Desert, through Botswana and South Africa to Maputo, in Mozambique.
And he's doing it to raise money and awareness of global poverty, with his goal to raise $15,000 for his four charity partners – Oxfam, The Fred Hollows Foundation, Caritas Australia and CARE Australia.
Napier leaves on Saturday and will be back in September. It means the Demons will be without their runner for the rest of the NEAFL season.
But it's not the first time he's embarked on a massive journey to try and eliminate poverty – he spent five months bouncing a football when he walked from Australia's west coast to the east three years ago.
A trip to Nepal to visit a mate in 2007, where he experienced extreme poverty for the first time, resulted in his campaign Walk to a Better World.
Two cameramen are going, with plans for a documentary of the trip.
He's planned his latest expedition to avoid any game parks, but he could still come across some of Africa's famous wildlife on his travels.
"Wildlife could be a bit of an issue – we're hoping not. We're not going to any game parks so we're taking as safe a route as we possibly can," Napier said.
"In a way yes [I'd like to see lions, etc], in a way no. It'd be great to see them in their natural habitat, but walking along with only a footy to protect you, it's probably not going to help me too much."
While it's half the distance of his walk across Australia, this time Napier will live below the poverty line.
His research showed this was the best time of year to walk through the Kalahari, which gives the added bonus of missing the worst of the Canberra winter.
But he needed something to keep him occupied, which is why he's taking the soccer ball – he felt it would be more familiar to the locals he met along the way, rather than the Aussie rules ball he took last time.
"I'm actually doing this one living under the poverty line, so I'm only allowed to spend $1.50 a day on food," Napier said.
"That's going to make it really challenging and that's just to try and highlight there's a billion people around the world that live on so little.
"They manage to survive on a day-to-day basis, so I'm sort of putting myself in their shoes of living in extreme poverty for the 2½ months that the walk will take."
Demons midfielder Ben Halse will play his 50th NEAFL game, against the Southport Sharks at Manuka Oval on Saturday.
NEAFL ROUND 9
Saturday: Canberra Demons v Southport Sharks at Manuka Oval, 10.30am.
AFL CANBERRA ROUND 9
Saturday: Ainslie Tricolours v Tuggeranong Hawks at Alan Ray Oval, 2.15pm; Belconnen Magpies v Queanbeyan Tigers at Kippax, 2.15pm; Eastlake Demons v Gungahlin Jets at Manuka Oval, 4pm.