An African Christmas

Christmas and New Year normally means a nice long holiday spent with friends and family.  This is not quite the same when you work in the lodge & hospitality industry.

During this time of year most lodges in Africa are completely fully booked.  For the management, guides and staff this means a very busy time as you create special memories and wonderful experiences for guests.  Normally this goes hand in hand with working long hours without having the chance to see family and celebrate the holiday as you normally would.  I truly take my hat off to the people working over this time of year!

During the day you find yourself looking at the people on holiday as they celebrate the togetherness and spirit of the festive season.  Somewhere deep down inside you feel conflicting emotions.  These feelings pendulum between a sad longing to also have the opportunity to share special moments with friends and family and a feeling of satisfaction of having created another moment, another memory for someone else.  

Right now these memories are made up of adventures in the African bush, great meals and the warm hospitality where every little detail comes together to create a kind of magic.

During the last few days of 'silly season' the game viewing at Tuningi has been spectacular.  The last four groups of guests have all seen the Big 5 a couple of times over and the pack of Wild Dog have been very kind to give us the most spectacular sightings.

As we sat watching the sunset below on Christmas eve it was a strange kind of way it feels great to be a part of the memories that some people will hopefully carry with them for a long time to come.  

The only other feeling that is always there is that next year or the year after we will also be able to create memories with family and friends but for now we continue to do what we do and create magic for our guests - a feeling that, for now at least, is worth all the time spent.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas!

Until next time!

Gerry