The start of a love affair!

​​​In March 1992, Henriette and I received an invitation to spend a weekend in the newly established and mostly unknown Welgevonden Private Game Reserve. The invitation happened to​ fall over Henriette's birthday weekend, so we happily accepted, hitting two birds with one stone. On the one hand exploring a new reserve and on the other, celebrating what happened to be a milestone birthday.

I will rather not reveal which milestone, as that would be giving her age away, and would not be a popular move. At the time, the reserve ​was not a big five reserve, but this did not detract from the impact that it made on us. The wilderness and sheer beauty of the reserve blew us away; animals were only an additional attraction and not the attraction. In the years to come, we returned to several lodges in the reserve and with each visit our love for Welgevonden grew. Little did we know that sometime in the future our lives would become inseparably bound to this place of beauty and serenity.