Tim Ellis (BH 1989-94)

Profile of the Month 

 

My departure from Marlborough in the summer of 1994 led to a year of huge personal growth. It began with my first job of substance – as a white van driver delivering hired televisions to patients in NHS hospitals. With the money-earning part of my gap year out of the way, I set off for the United States and spent 4 months driving a station wagon from east to west, linking up with Ben Barney (also BH 1989-1994) on the west coast. Ben and I continued our travels through the South Pacific to New Zealand and Australia for some heady days before hitting the 3^rd World in Asia and some more rufty-tufty travelling. I arrived back in the UK 9 months later having grown hugely in self-confidence and with a far greater awareness of the world around me than before I had left.

Newcastle University was a revelation. My Classics degree played second fiddle as I muddled through lectures and exams while enjoying the freedom and comfort of a semi-supported life in the north-east. So many new experiences (Ice Hockey, St James Park, the Bigg Market), so many new friends – from all walks of life. Summers were spent earning as much money as quickly as possible and setting off for further travels. Central America in 1996 with Ed Benson (also BH 1989-1994) being the highlight.

Towards the end of our Newcastle days, Ed & I decided to postpone the inevitable world of work for as long as possible. We hatched a plan to fly one-way to India and buy a pair of Enfield Bullet motorcycles and ride them back to the UK. The inevitable stint of earning the cash meant six months in London as a Recruitment Consultant by day and manic expedition planner by night (and sometimes day). Finally at the end of February 1999, we packed our helmets and biker jackets and flew to Delhi.

The Bullet is an old British bike which was bought by an Indian company in the 60s and was still manufactured to (near enough) the original design in 1999. Needless to say, with limited biking experience (test passed a month before) and no experience of driving in the 3^rd world, the learning curve was steep. But we loved it. The freedom of travelling by motorcycle was intoxicating – sleeping under the stars, heading off the beaten track, meeting people outside of the usual tourist circus – our planned three month trip was looking like being extended considerably…

The highlights were: - finally getting out of India; riding through valleys under Himalayan Peaks in Pakistan; crossing the Baluchistan desert; the beaches and azure Mediterranean waters of Turkey; and most of all the extreme kindness and hospitality we met everywhere we went.

The return to the UK in September was momentous, and fortunately the barely-contained excitement I felt at the prospect of a return to a desk job was nullified somewhat by the prospect of a trip to South Africa in December. Little did I know how life-changing this journey would be…

My father had remarried and moved to South Africa earlier in the year, and my visit to Cape Town at the end of 1999 was to visit him and meet my new step-family. Somewhere between the awesome sunset spots of Cape Town and the Millennium party on the banks of the Orange River in Namibia, I fell in love with the breathtaking and beautiful Marileze. I had never met someone with such spark, who had the ability to instantly light up my day and inspire me. With a heavy heart I returned to the UK in January and took a job in the skiing resort of Serre Chevalier for the remainder of the season.

With Marileze in Zanzibar

But in May, I was back on a plane to Cape Town where my savings lasted about three wonderful months. The pattern of working in the UK to fund several months in Southern Africa continued, until I resigned myself to returning to the UK to take up a “proper job” (bet that sounds familiar!) at the beginning of 2002.

Several unsuccessful attempts later, I decided that Accountancy was not for me. Sure, it sounded exciting and I was convinced that the graduate recruitment brochures were true and that everyone at KPMG did like to “play hard too”, but it wasn’t for me. A period of misery and reflection followed, before I decided that I didn’t need to be a corporate animal to be successful. I would pursue what I enjoyed – Travel. The management positions at the adventure travel companies I approached were mostly filled by experienced tour leaders. This became my mission – to gain experience tour leading, head into an operational or product role in an adventure travel company and then keep my eyes open for opportunities. And so it was that I headed back to Southern Africa in 2002 as a truck driver & tour leader for Dragoman Overland…

I spent two years as a tour leader, running trips throughout Southern and East Africa. They were fantastic times, tainted only by extended absences from Marileze. This in the end moved me to leave the itinerant life and return to Cape Town, working freelance for shorter trips. During the course of 2004, I began to visualise my own dreams…

The seeds of Face Africa were sown many years ago, although I never knew it. I had always strived to find a balance of my skills, conscience and desires in my working life. Personal travel has played a huge part in my development as an adult and has always been the state of affairs to which I have aspired and retreated.

Leading groups of travellers through sub-Saharan Africa was to see the joy of travel through fresh eyes and to water these seeds: To share a carton of beer in a shebeen in rural Malawi over a game of Bantumi; to squat in a Masaai hut in Tanzania and consider the collision of a money-free pastoral society with capitalist ‘civilisation’; to share in the exhausted pleasure of building a pre-school to give hope to and inspire tomorrow’s generations in a remote Basotho community.

These were but small elements of trips, yet reflected in the eyes of the participants – these were the real highlights.

Gorilla with baby

The original concept of Face Africa was to provide a combination of overland travel with specific community (and potentially wildlife) development projects. To service a market that wanted to take an extended trip to Africa which would include visits to the numerous and fascinating natural and wildlife highlights, as well as the opportunity to ‘give back’ something sustainable to the local communities. To affirm the link between interaction, participation and fun.

Over the three years of operation to date, we have matured into a “Responsible” Tour Operator offering a number of guided small group tours and bespoke trips. All of our tours involve an element of interaction with one of the community projects we support. Some involve days or weeks at a time spent on specific project work. However our structure enables us to offer a fantastic 2-week off the beaten track adventure to those who have limited holiday, as well as bespoke luxury fly around or self-drive tours. The common link to all of the tours we offer, is that your holiday spend is channelled as far as possible to lodges and operators with solid “Responsible Tourism” policies – where your presence directly contributes to the well-being and upliftment of the local community and environment.

At the Orphanage

Life now is based in Cape Town, chained more and more to a desk and a laptop. However I still manage to lead several trips myself, which satisfies the desire for time spent on the road. Plans for the future include growing Face Africa to the point where I become redundant, and then maybe another trip somewhere…

For more information on Face Africa, visit http://www.faceafrica.com. . Tim can be contacted on tim@faceafrica.com – 5% discount on trips for OMs…