Where does one begin? Let`s start in Pretoria... I was in my second year at University and was slowly coming to realize I was perilously unhappy. I suppose all things happen for a reason, and with the wisdom of hindsight, I would have to agree.
I was studying for a B.com degree in Tourism Management. I suppose it was a truly exciting time in the South African Tourism industry, what with just winning the bid for the FIFA World Cup, but I was definitely not cut out for life as a student! Don`t get me wrong, I loved the social aspects of University, but academically I was hating life. In order to get my degree I had to work 800 hours in the tourism industry, so I spent my holidays doing the things I really liked! I was a white water river guide, I managed a bridge swing in Sabie, I led kloofing expeditions and helped manage a backpackers. At the end of a long year I started looking around for somewhere to work over the holidays. By some peculiar twist of fate I came into possession of a brochure for an overlanding company. What is overlanding? you might ask. You are about to find out...
Ever since a school teacher pointed out to me that I might be a successful safari guide the idea had begun to run wild through my head. After leaving high school I attended a training course to become one, but , as I would soon find out, you need to be 21 years of age to legally drive paying clients around. After numerous attempts at getting past the catch 22 of needing experience to land your first job, I decided to try out my adventure shoes and left for London, England. Seven terrible months later I was back in my beloved Africa and went straight to university.
So, looking around for a holiday job, I phoned the number on the brochure. The number was for Drifters Adventours. An overlanding company. Overlanding has been around for ages. The basic ingredients are the following: A specially built truck, tents, chairs, gas stoves, firewood, uncomfortable sleeping mats, a long, dusty road and a bunch of enthusiastic(although not always) tourists! Tours range from a short trip for a couple of days, to the long, cross-border tours lasting up to 30 days. It was the perfect job for me! I had found it! I would become an overland guide! My elation was short lived however.
I phoned up the human resources department in a craze of enthusiasm, only to be told that I would not be able to join them for a tour. A week later they phoned me op and proposed that I help look after one of their properties in the majestic Drakensberg mountains. The isolated lodge was truly amazing. Enough Canadian-style log cabins to sleep 28 guests, no electricity and pure mountain spring water running out of the taps. The majority of the guests were on the overland tours, and I found myself talking to them, and especially to the guides about my aspirations to become a safari guide. When the holidays were over, and the time had come to pack my bags and go back to university, I had to face reality: I couldn`t do it. I couldn`t go back to the boring life of Varsity. So I never went back.
I packed my kit bags, jumped into a truck after some months of training, and I hit the road. The wagon trail had become my home, and the stars my ceiling. And so I had become and overland guide!
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