ABOUT ME

I enjoy traveling and meeting people. I also own a lodge in South Africa…

Hello

My daughter and I have were living in Calgary for 3 years for her to finish high school. Since then she is studying in Switzerland and I moved back to South Africa to carry on running our lodge.

We came from South Africa (36 Years!) where we still run KwaThabisile Game Lodge. Typically our Game Lodge is a Weekend Getaway for locals or NGO/Company conference and training venue. However, we have hosted Painting Holidays from Denmark, organised Motorbike Trips for guests from Reunion and are currently setting up Tailor-made Tours and Volunteer Tourism projects, collaborating with local business in Dinokeng (a new eco-tourist destination N.E. of Gauteng, 1hr from JHB and 30min from Pretoria … having so much to offer in terms of activities i.e. Abseiling, Ziplining, Tours i.e.. Refilwe and Cullinan, Big5 Game Drives, Quad-biking, Microlighting, pubs and restaurants and so much more ….) and CapeTown!

We are SouthAfrican/Swiss/Canadian and love traveling, being fortunate to have traveled a number of countries across Africa, Europe, North America and Australia. I would not consider ourselves sporty but love adventure ie. White Water Rafting, Paragliding, Quad biking, Ziplining etc…

We love meeting new people but also enjoy relaxing and having quiet times… We enjoy movie nights, theatre, reading and happy to discover new ideas!

Kind regards
Alexandra

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Since being in Calgary, we shared our home through AirBnB and loved meeting people from all over the world. This also opened us up to sharing through CouchSurfing and Wwoofing … from travellers sharing their stories. Although we are new to CouchSurfing, we are happy to open our home / lodge to travellers looking for a place to crash and explore …

We look forward to hear from you and share our home / lodge in South Africa!!

Our area in Dinokeng, is a beautiful with so many fun activities if you want to do more than just relax in the bush ! It is perfectly situated as it is 1 hour from JHB and 30-45 min from Pretoria which makes it easy to hop into the city and escape in the bush!

… Whether wanting to study, settle here or come on holiday, we can help you find your bearings and give you some hot tips!

(see our Facebook page: KwaThabisile Game Lodge - for updated photos, albums, info etc)
If I do not respond soon enough please email me on alex@kwathabisile.co.za

Interests

I enjoy going to Festivals, concerts as well as activities including Ziplining, Quad biking, Parasailing etc…

• wildlife
• birds
• concerts
• festivals
• dining
• running
• partying
• pub crawls
• reading
• traveling
• billiards
• socializing
• painting
• music
• cycling
• paragliding
• business
• geography
• tourism
• volunteering
• tours
• ecotourism

Music, Movies, and Books

All types of music - from classical, rock, Jazz etc. (not into hardcore punk!)

Like all types of movies - (except teenage crap! (although I enjoy watching series like Reign, Vampire Diaries, The 100s') and Sci-Fi) - drama, adventure, comedy, Disney, cartoons …

All types of books … am interested in learning about a variety of topics and go through phases reading books i.e. Da Vinci Code (very old now :) )

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Being part of a conservation project that started 20 years ago and now seeing it flourishing to something way bigger than ourselves !

The 'Amakulu' project started by a handful of people 20 years ago. We bought into the idea & bought a run down farm with 20 hectares of land believing it would one day become a Big 5 game reserve.

Over a period of 20 years, there were a lot of false starts but we did create 'Leeuwkloof Conservancy' which has changed dynamics and geography over that period too. This consists of a number of landowners that came together by putting up a game fence around all of our properties and dropping inner-fences in order to allow game roaming openly across our properties.

Government became involved where they now spearhead the 'Dinokeng' Eco-Tourism Project as a 'Public / Private partnership' which consists of 3 Hubs: Dinokeng Game Reserve, which now boasts the 1st free roaming Big 5 in Gauteng, Cullinan Historical Village and Roodeplaatdam.

It has truly been an exciting adventure and proud to have and still be a part of this Eco-Tourism Project!

(see our Facebook page: KwaThabisile Game Lodge - for updated photos, albums, info etc)

Teach, Learn, Share

Currently there are many tourism and adventure 'products' where you can go on adventures such as Ziplinging, Abseiling, Microlighting, Horseriding, Game Drives … Discovering one of South Africas' unknown destinations!

Besides being into wildlife conservation, we are also interested in self-sustainability and carbon footprint.

We do our best recycle as much as possible (i.e.. glass, tin, paper, plastic and compost). We minimise our electricity consumption use by switching off power whenever we can.

We are starting to grow our own food and looking at having our own honey supply and expanding more into this avenue… Ultimately, we would like to have a food jungle ! and to be in a position to assist our community too …

(see our Facebook page: KwaThabisile Game Lodge - for updated photos, albums, info etc)

What I Can Share with Hosts

We would like to share our home and conservancy!

As we are part of a lodge, we do rent out our units for guests that are typically local who want to get away from the weekend.

We do have international guests from time to time but because we are not on the 'way' to a well known tourist destination that would be an obvious 'stop over'. We are becoming more known as a Eco-tourist destination and find that we are getting more and more requests from international travellers.

On weekends, you would typically find it quiet (we have a NO music policy to protect privacy and quietness of the bush! unless the lodge is booked exclusively then there will no doubt be a party!) but you would have the opportunity to meet people if they are in the mood, unless they have come out specifically to be on their own quiet getaway!

The pool has great sunset views and is a great place to hear the night sounds come to life and watch as the milky way fills up the sky …

We have a number of grazers (impala, wildebeest, waterbuck, zebra), over 250 species of birds, and other game that occur naturally in the area (warthog, jackal, porcupine etc)…

Look forward to hearing from you!

(see our Facebook page: KwaThabisile Game Lodge - for updated photos, albums, info etc)

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Botswana, Canada, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Malta, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Tunisia, United States, Zimbabwe

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, England, France, South Africa, Switzerland, United States