Your African journey begins

You see, I fell in love with Africa while working as a sales consultant for a South African based company in Lesotho and Botswana during my varsity years. There's probably nothing on earth that beats travelling with a bunch of students who's only purpose in life is to have fun every moment of the day. But that's not always the best way to go, because irresponsible behaviour leads to negative consequences most of the time.

That is why I picked my friends very selectively and one such friend was Gerhard Rijke. He studied nature conservation and was an experienced ranger on a very large resort somewhere in the north of South Africa. I learnt a lot about nature and the outdoors from him and the more he shared with me, the more I wanted to learn!

For those who are wondering, Lesotho is a very tiny country situated roughly east to the center of South Africa, it's called the Mountain Kingdom, because it is virtually on top of a mountain range. Botswana on the other hand is situated north of South Africa and is locked in by Namibia on the west and north sides and Zimbabwe on the east side. Lesotho's capital is Maseru and Botswana's is Gaborone. These countries mentioned here all form part of Southern Africa.

Join me again next time as I take you further on this journey and discover with me the hidden wonders of Africa!

The African bug

May 17th, 2007

As I was saying previously, my presentation of a creative new business idea was well received by my fellow classmates.

But this story about my love for Africa or an african setting brings me to my passion, Africa and its magnificent scenery and landscapes, interesting people, untouched beauty and so much more. Have you ever travelled along some of Africa's long winding roads and just marvelled at its beauty, the wide open spaces and felt spellbound by its magic??? I have. And it's like lighting a fire, once it burns it captivates you, it has your full attention fixed upon it, it traps your mind and you love every second of it! The african savannah, the african bushveld, semi-deserts, its imposing mountains, the lakes and dams, rivers and oceans, coasts and jungles, the fauna and flora, wildlife like nowhere else on earth. This is something every person has to experience. I was bitten by the african bug and I will never get cured...

Join me next time.

Where does this name come from?

So here it is, my personal space on the world wide web. Let me start at the beginning, how did I decide on this name: The Lion's Den?

There I was, my first year at varsity, Stellenbosch University, beautiful town in the Western Cape in South Africa. Our lecturer decides to test our creativity in our Business Management class. "Come up with a totally new concept for a business, test your entrepeneurial skills" was his request.

So I go home brainstorming and I start thinking about how I would appreciate a really good time, but in a very relaxed and comfortable atmosphere with smooth sounds flowing all around me, but still retaining the exclusivity for only a handful of similar souls. So then it comes...I want a club, set in an african setting, dimmed lights, leather furniture, the sounds of really smooth but husky background music, allowing live bands to perform at times, well groomed gentleman waiters so serve the patrons, obviously a classic african style bar as a central point of the space.

Can you feel it with me? Let me go on...access to the club will be granted to gentlemen only, a place where executive type men can go after a hard day and experience the tranquility of a few hours in the company of men alone. Now, allow me to qualify this by saying that the idea is NOT to exclude woman, but rather to afford men the opportunity to spend some time away from them but in the company of other men, so that there isn't the chance of the women thinking the men are out looking to chat up other women. I hope you are with me so far.

So the next step was to decide on a name. And it just came to me, men like to feel like they are the kings of their worlds or kingdoms, similar to the way a male lion is perceived, you know, king of the jungle... And that's how it came, I called it "The Lion's Den".

I handed this assignment in with pride, like a lion, just kidding! But I knew the lecturer would find this one above average. And so it was. Some time after, he announced that he's picked five or so papers that he feels deserve to be mentioned in class. He read mine out loud after stating that it was a very interesting paper and the response of the class was, well, audible. They really enjoyed it.

Let me continue this tomorrow. See you!