The second month of my sabbatical flew by. Most of it was on travel - see my Africa notes! - and I also flew back in time to finish my final exam online for Certified Expert of Biodiversity Finance.

It was a trip of many firsts for me! Going to Africa, a land of so many stories, was an eye opening experience. The past feels much more present there, and the idea of how people live differently and how they live with their natural environment.

If I link this back to some of the topics I used to look at theoretically at work, I felt like it brought to life for me much more clearly the concept of indigenous communities and the importance of their voice and knowledge. Learning about the type of knowledge that used to be important for survival - e.g. how to get water in the desert, it is funny to think about how in our current society we have transitioned to such a different set of valued skills (speak to anyone in banking or consulting - powerpoint making ranks pretty high up). With the types of skills we value and focus on in modern society, how do we ensure that this knowledge is not lost, such that if we need it in future we can still tap on it? Are we able to keep the type of survival skills that we really need as a species?

The other aspect that stuck out to me was on wilderness and the idea of it, as well as what it means when it comes to land ownership. Africa has vast swathes of land - but much of it will be owned in some form or the other. For instance as we drove through Namibia, a lot of the land was made up of game farms. The idea of something wild - or having nature that anyone can access - how much of that still exists, not just in Africa but across the world?

More broadly, I also got a better understanding of the history and politics of African countries, and some of the relationships and views of Singapore. We got MANY comments on Singapore being “a clean city” - we heard that one point so much I do wonder what kind of news or imagery they hear and see of Singapore. One of the G adventure tour guides was from Zimbabwe and told us Singapore is good friends with Zimbabwe (apparently ex Zimbabwe leader Mugabe went to Singapore for healthcare and passed away in Singapore Gleneagles Hospital in 2019).

As someone potentially at an inflexion point in my career, I also observed with interest that a number of the safari guides who led us had switched to the field from other profitable industries.

One of the guides in training used to be an attorney for a decade, but decided during the COVID period that he wanted to chase his childhood desire of being a safari guide. The guides took a lot of pride in their work. They were knowledgable when guiding and capable, taking precautions to ensure the safety of all guests. It is apparent from the guides that there is pride in the safari guiding tourism industry, as well as the role it plays in the economy. 

This trip also led me to reflect on what it means to solo travel, and my sense and judgement around risk.

While I seek to solo travel, the amount of negative information online on South Africa and Cape Town did absolutely nothing to assuage my fears! I’m glad to say that the truth was not close to what I read online, while noting that I did exercise caution and stayed in the safer more touristy areas. This trip also changed my perception of risk when travelling. Managing risks through precautions such as - if I am pickpocketed or lose my wallet, making sure I have spares kept away as backup. I never needed to rely on these precautions but all in all, the experience gave me more confidence to explore other parts of the world. 

A big thought I had was whether group travel through a tour agency such as G adventures counted as solo travel. I still think it does, and you get many benefits of solo travel with additional safety and guidance. You are still out of your comfort zone and with a group of new people, you are still pushed to socialise and engage and exposed to new elements. It was a great way to meet people from different parts of the world. I also felt like the organised group tour was also more authentic that I expected, and allowed me to be further exposed to the culture than I would have been able to in a trip planned alone. Plus it did feel like we were supporting local businesses in the tour which is something I look for in trips. We had a free day in Cape Town post tour where many of the others in a group went to check out the Cape of Good Hope. I took this as a solo solo day - signing up to paragliding which had been an idea at the back of my head, and truly enjoyed the ability to quickly join free walking tours on a whim.

Travelling with my dad in the last week was a completely different switch, but travelling with family is also something I believe I should incorporate at this age. 

One trip down and time to plan the next ~