In early 2005, I registered the wildvista.com and wildvista.co.uk domain names. This was not long after I’d spent the best part of a year in New Zealand, latterly working, but having spent the first five months trekking (or tramping as the Kiwis have it) throughout this stunning country.
During that period, I explored landscapes as diverse as the 2500m ice-encrusted volcanic cone of Taranaki and the pristine temperate rainforests of remote Fiordland. With the best part of half-a-year unfettered by a full-time job and the associated frustrations and minutiae of the daily nine-to-five, I really got under the skin of New Zealand. And New Zealand got under my skin.
It was back in 2005 that I took my first trip to Africa. A copy of Jack Jackson’s “The World’s Great Adventure Treks” had inspired with a chapter on trekking in the Drakensberg mountains of South Africa, so, a year-and-a-half into a new job, I decided to treat myself to a “big” holiday.
I booked a trip with Exodus Travels that combined a five-day guided trek along the Drakensberg escarpment, with a few days in the Kruger National Park tacked on at the end. With travel and day-trips included this was a two-week holiday, with the trekking being the main event. Or so I thought.