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My journey in Africa started out much like that of any boy
born in Africa. Growing up in Prince Albert in the Great Karoo
and later Cradock in the North Eastern Cape region of South Africa
gave me an affinity for Africa’s open spaces, vivid colours
and majesty.
Family influences such as my stepfather’s interest in
nature and wildlife, his subscriptions to Time-Life books, my
uncle Roy who introduced me to palaeontology and astronomy before
I even went to school, family vacations in the national parks
of South Africa and Namibia, beach holidays at Sedgefield on the
Garden Route and Durban, and visits to our family’s farms
all played their part I guess, but nothing prepared me for the
first time I visited Botswana! This is the story of how I got
there and how it changed the course of my life.
After
attending the University of Cape Town and a spell working in the
Mother City for the Rembrandt Tobacco Group I got transferred
to Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial hub. This led
to my joining the now defunct Magnum Financial Group - initially
marketing financial services! I later joined a commuter airline
subsidiary, Magnum Airlines, as Marketing Manager. One of the
routes we flew was from Johannesburg and Durban to Nelspruit in
what is now Mpumalanga – home of the Kruger National Park
and some of Africa’s best private game reserves. To increase
passenger loads on midday flights Magnum Airlines purchased a
photographic safari outfitter operating out of Nelspruit and (luckily)
I got charged with developing the safari products and the international
exposure and distribution of Bushveld Safaris.
This led to my being tutored in tourism by some of Africa’s
hospitality pioneers, Lolly and Ala Sussens. Lolly and Ala had
got to South Africa via Zambia and Botswana’s Chobe Safari
Lodge and today the Sussens family operates Tshukudu Game Lodge
near Hoedspruit. I also met up with Dave, Shan and John Varty
at Londolozi, then a rather humble private lodge with four rustic
rondavels for accommodation…
As Comair, a competitor airline flew from Johannesburg direct
to Skukuza in the Kruger National Park and operated their safaris
from this advantageous position, we had to be innovative and introduced
the Bushveld Panorama Safari which visited Pilgrim’s Rest,
Bourke’s Luck Potholes, the Blyde River Canyon, Kruger National
Park and Tshukudu Game Lodge and introduced Cybele Forest Lodge
into the international tourist market.
By now I was traveling internationally marketing South Africa
in general and Mpumalanga/Bushveld Safaris/Magnum Airlines in
particular to the international travel trade. With limited financial
resources at our disposal it made sense to combine such trips,
sharing accommodation, transport and presentation expenses, with
some other tourism product in South and Southern Africa. Thus
the three, and later four, “Musketeers” came into
being – Alan Simpson of Afro Ventures, Russel Barlow-Jones
of Kondotels, and later Herbie Rosenberg of Sabi Sabi, and myself
did numerous presentations throughout Europe, the USA, Australia
and New Zealand trying to persuade travel agents to send their
valued clients to Southern Africa. At the ITB travel exhibition
in Berlin in the early eighties the then South African Tourism
Board (SATOUR) manager for Germany, Guenther Dettweiler, persuaded
Simpson and me to operate an educational safari to Botswana for
some of the top travel agents in Europe. Afro Ventures were to
operate the camping safari from Maun to Victoria Falls and, as
there were no direct flights to Maun in Botswana or from Victoria
Falls to Johannesburg (it was the time of transition from Rhodesia
to Zimbabwe), Magnum Airlines were to supply charter flights from
Johannesburg to the start of the Safari in Maun and again from
Victoria Falls to Johannesburg at the end. Simpson and I got to
go along so that we could “network” with the agents.
Our Afro Ventures guide was Chris McIntyre. By day four of the
eight day safari the “networking” meant we were out
of cold beer, so Chris and I set off to Xakanaxa Camp where we
were re-supplied by Karen, now Mrs. McIntyre. An encounter along
the way with six Wild Dog, four Hyenas and a Giraffe foreleg in
the towering Mopane Forests of Xakanaxa is still my most vivid
safari memory. Other irreplaceable memories include the Savute
channel stopping flowing at first and its eventual drying up,
black-maned lions in the Kalahari, my first night in Deception
Valley, my first Sitatunga, my first Pell’s Fishing Owl,
my first….
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I’m
not sure whom of myself or the agents were more smitten by the
great beauty and diverse wilderness of Botswana’s Okavango
Delta, Moremi Game Reserve, Savute and Chobe riverfront, but when
the opportunity arose to buy Afro Ventures in 1984 John Bescoby,
the Managing Director of Magnum Airlines, and I jumped at the
chance.
On January 13, 1985 we took possession of four land rovers, two
minibuses, some trailers and assorted camping equipment, some
safari guides as employees plus licenses to operate safaris in
South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe –
and set up office in John’s converted garage. At the time
Afro Ventures
operated off the beaten track “participation camping safaris”
through these countries – meaning we squeezed 8 passengers
plus their guide into either a Sahara Station wagon Landover (they
were licensed to carry 10 passengers!) or a minibus and they set
off on a safari of between 10 and 25 days in duration –
on these safaris the passengers performed all the camp chores,
such as pitching tents, gathering fire-wood, cooking and washing
up and helped clean the vehicle as well as pushing it whenever
it got stuck – which was not infrequent, especially in Botswana…this
information plus “…and they pay us money for these
safaris!” was part of my presentations in those early days…
Over the next few years we developed safari bases in Botswana,
Zimbabwe and Namibia to operate as local companies in each of
our main operating countries and to incorporate the local communities
into the safari travel industry. These safari bases allowed us
to develop shorter camping trips such as our 10-day “Botswana
Explorer” and we re-introduced safaris in Zimbabwe, as opposed
to our safaris just visiting Victoria Falls. Brent Dacomb, Marc
Schwitter and Peter Newsom acquired shareholdings in Afro Ventures,
as did Ralph Meyer for a while. We started operating safaris for
some of the leading tour operators in the world, such as Explore
Worldwide, to whose founder, the late Travers Cox, I owe a great
debt in furthering my understanding of the travel industry. The
same goes for Uli Albrecht of Karawane, Uli Rosenbaum of Studiosus,
Melf Tuerkis of TUI, Claudius Docekal of Intrav and Mike Harrington
of Frontiers Travel. Our reputation for professional operations
and reliability led to international agents demanding more services
for their guests from ourselves and we started operating accommodated
safaris such as the “Luxury Okavango Safari”, “Wings
over Botswana” fly-in safaris and travel packages to destinations
like Victoria Falls. Sally Moon, having been stabbed through the
upper arm by an Oryx on an Afro Ventures camping trip through
Namibia, joined us from Abercrombie and Kent in London and her
understanding of the needs of the international travel trade and
travellers and her meticulous attention to detail fast-tracked
this side of our business.
The introduction of our “Botswana a la Hemingway”
fully serviced and accommodated safari set new standards for deluxe
safaris in the romantic style of a bygone era in Africa, as it
still does today.
In 1992 the opportunity arose to buy Desert & Delta Safaris,
operators of Camp Okavango and Camp Moremi, from Jessie and Ed
Neill, in partnership with the owners of Chobe Game Lodge |
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and
Mac Whitehouse, an investor from Australia. This gave rise to
many more fly-in safaris, including our renowned “Jewels
of the Okavango” fly-in safari. Later Lloyd Wilmot sold
us Lloyd’s Camp in Savute – now renamed as Savute
Safari Lodge and Afro Ventures won the tender to operate Abu’s
Camp, now known as Nxabega Okavango Safari Camp, from the Botswana
government. As Desert & Delta Safaris we bought a stake
in a charter airline in Botswana. Steve Ellis and the late Mike
O’Sullivan joined me in the marketing of Afro Ventures
and Desert & Delta Safaris. The release of Nelson Mandela
and South Africa’s subsequent emergence as a fully fledged
democratic member of the International Community in 1994 led
to strong growth in the demand for travel to South Africa, a
region we had neglected, so we bought a majority shareholding
in Into Africa, a South African Destination Management Company
(DMC), from Mark Preyer and Nick Buckland. Into Africa also
brought expertise in golfing holidays and the Meetings, Incentives,
Conference and Exhibitions (MICE) industry into our joint fold.
Along with Mac Whitehouse we bought the farm Vreemdelingspoort
in the NamibRand Nature Reserve and built Sossusvlei Mountain
Lodge.
The ITB further influenced my life when I met my wife, Birgit,
there! As fate would have it our first date “away”
was to Londolozi Private Game Reserve…
Capricorn
Ventures, the private equity investment vehicle of Hollard Insurance
and Hollard Assurance, acquired an interest in Afro Ventures
and subsequently in Conservation Corporation Africa (CCAfrica).
This led to some discomfort from our fellow shareholders in
Desert & Delta Safaris and Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge and
when, with my full support, Afro Ventures merged with CCAfrica
in February of 2000, we shortly thereafter sadly divested of
our shareholding in Desert & Delta Safaris. My partners
in Afro Ventures, John Bescoby, Brent Dacomb, Peter Newsom and
Marc Schwitter all left at the time of the merger with CCAfrica.
Preyer, Buckland, myself, Sally Moon and others from Afro Ventures
did our best to improve the fortunes of CCAfrica/Afro Ventures.
Birgit and I had the wonderful opportunity to explore Kenya
and Tanzania, with Grumeti River Camp and Ngorongoro Crater
Lodge leaving indelible impressions. By early 2001 Dave Varty
left CCAfrica/Afro Ventures, followed by Mark Preyer and by
June 2001 so did I. A six-month sabbatical allowed me to spend
more time with Birgit and our children, Kimberley and Alex.
It also allowed for a visit to the Le St Geran in Mauritius,
a travel highlight, and finally getting to do my PADI scuba
license. At the same time I tried to work out where my journey
should lead to next.
In January of 2002 I visited Xakanaxa Camp in Botswana and a
new development, North Island, in the Seychelles at the invitation
of a shareholder in both and agreed to my marketing these great
destinations. Jo-Anne Fick, my former CCAfrica/Afro Ventures
colleague agreed to give up a new career in the cinema business
to join me in this endeavour. Then Sally Moon and I decided
that we wanted to go back to our original love, sharing the
best of Africa with discerning travelers from around the world,
and in April 2002 Journey Beyond grew out of that desire. Lisa
Cochrane, Venessa de Beer, Elmari Holman and eventually Steve
Ellis – all ex Afro Ventures, joined us in short order.
This is the story of my journey so far. Along the way I have
been fortunate enough to see and experience a great deal of
Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, fortunate to meet many
wonderful colleagues in the travel industry both internationally
and in my beloved Africa, but most of all I have been blessed
to have had the opportunity and privilege to advise travelers
on Africa’s most cherished destinations and experiences
– this is our mission: to take you beyond the obvious
and to allow you to discover our Africa – the real Africa.
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