Our family travels a lot. We think we got the bug from our Grandfather, who is a retired pilot and has many exciting African travel tales.
AFRICAN SAFARI BEETLE
I am a third generation South African and have been traveling extensively in Africa since 1991 when my Mom gave me her 1974 VW Beetle for my 21st birthday and a friend showed me around his native country, Zimbabwe. Alexander Beetle ('Alex') and I, along with various friends and family members have traveled through 9 African countries, through rivers, mud, snow, sand, mountains, herds of elephants and baobab forests.
The three month African Odyssey, from Johannesburg to the equator, another friend and I undertook in the Beetle in 1994 was a fantastic adventure. We headed north shortly after voting in South Africa's first democratic elections and spotted a couple of ANC posters high up on a Baobab tree in the northern Transvaal (it seemed others had been removed by right wing supporters or souvenir hunters).
Once in Zimbabwe we ceremoniously attached the colorful New South African flag we'd been given to Alex's windshield. In Tanzania we were greeted as heroes by the border officials who almost shook my arm off. Everyone was celebrating Mandela's inauguration and they told us that Tanzania had had a public holiday in honour of our free elections.
MOUNTAIN ADVENTURES
We headed for the equator and went hiking on Mount Kenya where we had close encounters with elephants, buffalo, dassies (rock hyrax) and some crazy people snow-boarding on the glaciers! Near Ngorongoro in Tanzania, we walked from the flamingo festooned Empakai crater through roadless Masai lands to a campsite near Lake Natron. On the way we passed a ring of dancing (jumping) men and some young herders who asked to use our tuna tin to make a lamp. We were guided up and into the rim of 'Oldonyo Lengai', an active volcano which rumbled beneath our feet.
In the Usumbara Mountains we got stuck in mud and at Kandi beach we had a crowd of kids pushing us through the thick sand. In Malawi we hiked at Nyika plateau National Park where we spotted roan antelope, zebras, hyena tracks and poachers. We dived at Cape Maclear and then travelled across Zambia to Victoria Falls before heading back to South Africa.
SAFARI GUIDING
After that trip I was addicted to African travel, and spent the next three years gaining extensive and valuable experience guiding one to three week camping safaris all over southern Africa for a well-known local tour company.
This is a comment from Libby, one of the participants on my 'Ranger Course':
"To a real renaissance woman - Vanessa - you did a fabulous job driving, cooking, navigating, explaining, teaching, hiking, baby-sitting, negotiating, entertaining, etc. And South Africa was fantastic too."
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
This was interspersed with trips through Mexico, England, Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, and a barge trip in France.
From 1998 until 2001 I lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico where I sold African arts and crafts that I had collected on my trips home, as well as some of my fine art.
Living in America was a great experience, I met many special people, learnt a lot about the world and I love the wilderness, aesthetics and diversity of the South West. I especially miss the climbing expeditions to the Sandias and Jemez mountains, skiing and mountaineering in the Sangre de Cristos and Colorado, hiking on the Lost Coast, the annual backpacking trips down into the Grand Canyon, eating enchiladas, playing marimbas, yoga, Ten Thousand Waves, the Thirsty Ear Festival, Tumbuka, African Dance classes at the 'Railyard', the attractive adobe abodes and my friends.
AFRICAN ESSENCE
I am now based in Cape Town, South Africa. It is a lively place with a lot going on. I love being in nature and among other Africans, multi-day hiking in the Drakensberg, hiking and rock climbing in the Cape, rafting and canoeing on the Zambesi, guiding walks among African wildlife, visiting remote areas such as the Koakoveld, the Kalahari and Kosi Bay, and exploring the incredible diversity of life in South Africa, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
African Essence was born out of a desire to share special places and precious experiences with others and promote responsible tourism and nature conservation in southern Africa. I support grassroute initiatives such as township tours run by township people, rural homestays and community tourism initiatives.
Each safari has a life of its own and I believe there should be a balance between organization and freedom, so that there is space for adventure. I encourage people to spend a reasonable amount of time in each place and come away with a well-rounded experience. One needs time to soak up the essence of Africa!
I am registered with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism and a member of the Field Guides Association of South Africa (FGASA) and Cape Town tourism. I speak Afrikaans (especially useful in the Western Cape and parts of Mpumalanga, where many people speak no English), a little Zulu and Xhosa (enough to get an enthusiastic handshake from John Kani, a South African actor and playwright).