At just over six foot, internationally acclaimed South African conservationist, Lawrence Anthony, casts am imposing figure silhouetted against a darkening bushveld sunset.

Surprisingly soft-spoken for a man who all but single-handedly waded into war-torn Iraq to save lions, bears, tigers and other zoo animals in the capital city of Baghdad, he comes across as a genial and gentle giant, deeply concerned about humanitarian issues, animal welfare and the degradation of our planet.

But you’d be a fool to mistake this humble man of the bush for a softie.

Known as the “Princess of Africa”, the glamorous Soweto-born South African musician, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, has matured from young African pop star to a singer of international acclaim.

She recently received an award in the Arts and Culture section of the Most Influential Women in Business and Government 2009 Awards. She also received the Lifetime Achiever Award at the 2009 MTN South African Music Awards.

Arguably best known for her popular signature song Umqombothi (meaning African beer) our home-grown music diva has produced 20 albums in a singing career that has spanned 22 years, while developing her own record label and expanding her repertoire to include talk radio and television shows as well as acting. But the road to stardom for the award winning Chaka Chaka, considered by many to be a South African and even African icon, was not an easy one.

Self-made South African multi-millionaire, Mac van der Merwe, is the antithesis of one’s expectations of a man who has made it big in the hospitality, tourism, and wine industry.

He’s affable and easy to speak to, humble and looks no different from you and I.


The middle son of a poor white South African family, Van der Merwe grew up near Vereeniging just outside Johannesburg, ironically not far from the Riviera on Vaal, one of the five-star properties he now owns. The 61-year-old says the first time he ate out was at the age of 19 or 20, at the restaurant at the Riviera on Vaal. Little did he realise then that he would buy the hotel in December 2003 and turn it into a top class tourist destination.

Knowing that adventures are conceived as romantic dreams but birthed through very real labour pains experienced as personal and life-transforming moments,

and knowing the stature of the man to be as imposing as the epic “firsts” he selects as a fun family adventure, it was hard not to have preconceived ideas about South Africa’s intrepid adventurer, Kingsley Holgate.

Holgate - a man who dreamed of following in the footsteps of David Livingstone and his ilk; of circumnavigating his way around the African continent; of following the imaginary line of the Tropic of Capricorn around the globe – turned those dreams into very real and tangible adventures.

The long, comfortable strides of a man accustomed to walking and the piercing steel-grey eyes that seemed to bore deeper into my soul than I would like, fitted my preconceptions perfectly.