Sharon & JP

I'm in IT and Sharon is in car finance. We also dabble in tourism, which quite frankly is a lot more fun!

Our interest in nature has its roots in our childhood years. Sharon spent almost all her vacations in the Drakensberg Mountain Range in South Africa (part of the Great Rift Valley). Likewise, most of my vacations were spent outdoors, including in game reserves and hiking in the Drakensberg. Indeed I even lived in the Drakensberg for a short spell during my youth and recall flying amongst the snow-laden mountains one winter's day and being struck by the splendid majesty of the vistas around me.

Since our reunion (more about that later) Sharon and I have spent most of our free time in the bush. We've traveled fairly extensively in Southern Africa, including Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland. Our favorite locations are the Kruger National Park, Savuti, Moremi, Hwange, and Matusadona.

Until 2004, I was also a registered 4x4 guide and together with Sharon and friends with similar interests, designed, built and operated my own 4x4 trail. We specialized in team events involving people who often had never done any off-road driving. Moreover, we wanted our customers to experience something exhilarating, so this was no beginners trail. There were some pretty extreme sections to get the pulses rating, and they had to drive.

We also offered quad biking, but not the high-speed or Sunday-afternoon-cruise type. For the most part, the quad bikes followed the 4x4 route with some technical sections that required concentration and skill.

These activities were complemented by clay-pigeon shooting, archery, horse riding and to calm the nerves what better way to spend the evening than fly fishing for trout. We packed all this into a two-day adventure.

For the most part, our patrons had done none of these activities before, so a lot of effort and ingenuity went into designing and delivering crash courses, and safety measures to ensure that everyone had fun and no one got hurt.

In another venture, Sharon and I hosted activities on a game farm. These were also two-day team events, but somewhat less adventurous. As with the more extreme team bonding offering, we provided all meals and facilitated the evenings entertainment. However, the focus of these events was on wildlife and relaxation.

Whilst Sharon saw to the accommodation and catering needs of the guests, I did the game drives and tubing on the Crocodile River, which included a short section of narrow rapids just to get the pulse going before a nice long relaxing drift to the finish.

Now we offer self-catering accommodation at the Kruger National Park that is rapidly amassing a loyal list of regulars. Why? As with our previous ventures, we offer a truly superior product at extremely reasonable prices, and we do not cut corners.

Do we make loads of booty...no! Why? We're in it for the fun, not the plunder. We simply enjoy the locations and activities and want others to have the opportunity to do the same.

Why don't we do it full time? To be honest, the temptation is always there, but doing it for a living may take the fun out of it. Moreover, until about 2009/10 we have to get three kids through university. Once our progeny have finished consuming our time, exhausting our energy and bleeding us dry, it may be more opportune.

Sharon and I met in Durban (South Africa) during the summer of 1977/78 when she was still at school. After a couple of years of dating, Sharon was offered a career opportunity in Johannesburg that she couldn't refuse. Being 600 km apart and struggling to make ends meet as new contributing members of society, we drifted apart.

I married first, followed soon after by Sharon. We both started our families at about the same time; in fact her twins and my son are only 2 months apart. For some reason, we also started our families well into our respective marriages.

Years later we both divorced - again, I was first - and before long a chance encounter reunited us. This time we decided to commit more formally to our relationship and married in 1993.

We both left our marriages with absolutely nothing, preferring to walk away than fight over money and furniture and really meaningless stuff. As a result, times were tough at the start, but adversity builds character and only served to intensify our relationship. Today we are inseparable soul mates with three really great kids!