Instead of writing a mega-long story once a year, I’d rather do it twice this year in a shorter version. And also because there are a lot of people who have cared for us over the past two pandemic years, and for them, it’s nice to hear that we finally have some good news to report! Read on for more about the Big Lebowski, waterfalls in Lesotho, photographing tigers in South Africa, Shell Houses, and getting businesses back on track! 😃
I ended my last year in review with a paragraph describing how, at least on a mental level, I had taken a positive step in making the decision to not see myself, however weary I might be, as the powerless victim of a stupid pandemic. To keep looking for the positive, regardless of how hopeless the financial situation still seemed to be. And that went well, I read some inspiring books and made a lot of positive changes in my daily life that were suggested in those books. For example, I decided to wake up and get up an hour before the kids every day (for any parent, this sounds counterintuitive, I know 😂). And to take this first hour of the day for myself, with some exercise, meditation and simply having some time for myself. You have no idea how much of a difference that made in my positive energy for the rest of the day! Voluntarily out of bed at 4:45 every day, I can recommend it to everyone!
As so often with any positive life change, it didn’t take long before life itself threw a spanner in the works haha. You won’t believe it: During the entire pandemic, I retained the two best employees, because they had been part of our team for many years, and therefore also had the most ‘institutional knowledge’ of, and best skills in, our companies. At the end of February, Putin started his invasion of Ukraine, and immediately it seemed as if Covid-19 no longer existed in the media. Who would have thought that just 1 man could suddenly end the 2-year pandemic? Anyway, immediately the emails from customers started pouring in! Shortly afterward, the negative travel advice was also lifted. Almost everyone who had postponed their 2020 holiday with us due to the pandemic, now wanted to come immediately, and there were a lot of new inquiries coming in too! Hurrah! Or not?
Just then, one of those two staff members decided to resign 🤦♂️… And while the other luckily didn’t resign, she just couldn’t settle back into her usual work routine as she had taken on other work commitments and family responsibilities during the pandemic, which she understandably couldn’t just immediately shed now we were suddenly in overdrive again. This left me with two options: I could of course, after having earned pretty much nothing at all for two years straight, now just say no to new inquiries and continue to earn nothing 😒… Or I would just have to do it all by myself… After almost miraculously keeping the company afloat for two years, would I still let it go under now? Surely that wasn’t an option! So really there was only one thing to do; The workload of the resigned employee, as well as most of the workload from her colleague, ended up on my plate, and I just went about doing it the best I could. Whilst also recruiting and training a new staff member at the same time.
Thus, in March and April, I would get up at 2:50 AM every day and be sitting in my office at 3:00 AM with a HUGE cup of coffee with whipped cream. There I would work until 5 or 6 in the afternoon, then had an hour with the kids during dinner, and then went to bed early that evening. Day in, day out, 6 or often even 7 days a week. It sounds worse than it was, after two years of nothing I suddenly smelled money, and I was super motivated, so I didn’t mind putting in the extra hours. You have to make hay when the sun shines…💪 For me it felt like I was digging for gold, and the gold rush had caught me.
Every hour of work = an hour less time for other things. But that was okay, the kids didn’t like it much, but Freya was supportive, and either way, l had no choice in any case. I had to do what I had to do, now was the time. Just a few months of tunnel vision, and 100% focus on work, to get the companies back on track after this stupid pandemic. Unfortunately, no more time for myself, or for exercise, to do something with friends, and there were many days when I couldn’t even find time to walk the dogs. My big and beautiful garden became one giant jungle without maintenance, and my office started to look like a real pigsty. My hair grew longer and longer and I didn’t even take time to put on decent clothes until Freya once took a picture of me at work where she said I looked like the Dude from the Big Lebowski 🤷♂️…
A lot of hard work did really pay off though! Admittedly, customers had to wait way too long, but given the circumstances, I was able to accept that I was really doing what I could. I still managed to handle all the new inquiries and converted most of them into bookings as well. And at this time of writing in July, a lot of people who had postponed their 2020 tour twice, have now already completed their beautiful trip! And we are getting beautiful 5-star reviews again! Hurrah!
There was another factor that provided an additional challenge. All those people who had postponed their 2020 holiday, they had long since paid, and the profit I would have made on their tour had long since been used up during the pandemic. And all the new bookings were for later in the year, so I would only then be able to make a profit there. So even though I was working 14-15 hours a day in March/April, I still had no money. However, we still had to put bread on the table, and although we still received donations, it was important to earn money immediately. And I managed to make that possible by renting out myself… Nobody wanted my body or organs, but luckily they did want my services as a photography/safari guide! So in between my long office days, I also worked as a guide and made beautiful trips with clients to local nature reserves, and to the Drakensberg Mountains, Lesotho, and even to Tiger Canyon (a reserve in South Africa where they have tigers instead of lions, which live completely in the wild, catch their own prey, have territories, fight and mate with each other, etc. Complicated story, but still very cool to see and photograph!). Those were also long days/weeks because I was busy with those clients during the day, but at night I then still had to work on the computer for other clients. But despite that, it was nevertheless also soul food. Being outside, in nature, with nice clients. And getting paid well for it too! It felt amazing to get some self-earned money in the bank again!
By mid-April I was able to slowly take it a little easier. There was still plenty to do, but getting up at 3 o’clock in the morning was no longer necessary. By now, my new staff had been trained, the one employee had started to get herself together and also started to work a few more hours, and for most of the tours almost everything had been well arranged in the meantime. So I found time to go to the hairdresser again, walk the dogs and have weekends with the kids and Freya. And because the tourism industry had also recovered, we could once again take advantage of certain perks of being a travel agent: ‘Try out’ new lodges with family and friends for free or at least at a significant discount. For example, for Freyas birthday we went away for a wonderful weekend to Makongo Hills. You can find a nice video of this on the kids video channel: https://vimeo.com/724379045
So is everything honkey dory financially then? Well, we’re not there yet. We earn money and can pay the bills ourselves again as long as we still live relatively frugally, but a large part of the earnings still goes to filling holes. A lot has to be paid off, and a lot of people still have to be refunded. But as it stands, we may well be able to wrap this up for the most part by the end of the year. And that’s faster than I expected. What helps is that I now only have 2 FTEs working in the office, while I had 15 people there before the pandemic. This makes a big difference in salary expenses, and there are also a lot of other fixed costs we no longer have. As a result, we can now use a much larger portion of the profit margin to rebuild the businesses and pay off debt. So although we are not there yet, I am very satisfied with the standings. And that’s enough for now. No more donations are needed, hooray! And every now and then we allow ourselves small treats again. Last week I allowed myself to buy new razor blades for the first time in two years! That was nice, haha, those old ones were so blunt that I almost had to use two hands to pull them over my throat, and they felt like a grater 🤣!
And there is now also time for ‘other things’ again. Tunnel vision and focus on work are now regularly ‘turned off’ when possible. Watching Formula 1 or rugby with friends, doing fun things with Freya and the kids, doing overdue maintenance at home and garden. The intercom/doorbell has stopped working since September 2021, I hope to finally find time to fix it soon. Last week I also built a new bed for the kids, because Ariel had grown out of her toddler cot 4 months ago already. These are all important and fun things to do. So as far as I’m concerned: Life is pretty good 👌!
So all in all, life is pretty good for us right now. Freya is doing really well. Kids are doing really well, we’re all healthy, things are going well at the horses, my companies are being rebuilt. So let’s close this whole 2-year long pandemic chapter of our lives and continue to enjoy the many blessings in our life!
One last time: Thank you to all of you who have supported us over the past two years, it will not be forgotten! I don’t know how we could have done it without you, because we couldn’t count on government support/assistance either. You people saved us. Thanks to you, we made it through to today and can now continue on our own. And I’m sorry mom and dad that I hardly had time for you when you were with us in Africa for 2.5 months, but nevertheless thanks for your help to often look after the kids and take care of meals!
Enough of an update for now, all the best everyone!
With regards, Nick
Ariel & Amber, wild & free 