Read About The Wild Journey That Created The Grown-up Travel Company

I’m Andy, and I’m an Africa addict.

I’d like to tell you why I do what I do – and how I went from drifting through office jobs in England… to building a travel company that sends people like you on life-changing African adventures.

It started with a one-way ticket.

In 1991 I walked out of a dead-end job, booked a one-way flight to Spain, and didn’t stop travelling until I hit West Africa. I’d grown up hearing stories from my father, who worked across the continent, and as soon as I arrived, I understood the pull. Africa had me – completely.

It’s actually even crazier than that. I had saved enough money to travel, but didn’t know where to go. I went to my local bookshop and scoured the travel section. India – nah, everyone was going there back then. Australia – ditto. America – not really what I had in mind.

Then I saw it – a massive tome called “Africa on a Shoestring” by Lonely Planet. (The sheer audacity of fitting an entire continent in one book was enough to pique my interest). 

“This is more like it,” I thought as I flicked through that doorstop of a book.

And that was it. Within 5 days I booked the aforementioned one-way ticket. 

Back to the story.

I took the ferry over to Morocco and I was off.

I hitch-hiked through the Sahara(!), got caught in a coup in Sierra Leone, was arrested in Liberia, hung out with French bank robbers in Niger, drank beer with actual pirates in Togo, ate breakfast with an arms dealer in Accra and somehow still had the time of my life.

Eventually, I settled in Ghana and ran a small business from the beach in Accra. Life was colourful, unpredictable, and real. It’s also where I met Marianne, the Norwegian angel who would become my wife – and eventually the reason I swapped the Gulf of Guinea for the fjords of Trondheim.

But Africa never let me go.