Sonia Marsh - Gutsy Living

Follow Me on My Next Safari to Zambia and Zimbabwe

August 15, 2017 by Sonia Marsh 6 Comments

Ruckomechi Camp in Zimbabwe where we’ll be staying (Photo credit Wilderness Safaris.)

I’m off to Zambia and Zimbabwe on a site inspection trip which involves seeing as many lodges as possible in ten days. This is an intense, but exciting program of internal flights, boat transfers, game drives, and a final-day option of floating on a luxury cruise in Victoria Falls, known as the Ra-Ikane Cruise. The itinerary states that “if you are not too tired,” you can join the boat cruise. When I read this, I thought, how could we possibly be too tired to enjoy a luxury cruise in Victoria Falls?

My First Holden Safaris Blog Post

June 4, 2017 by Sonia Marsh Leave a Comment

I’m inviting you to run over and read my first Holden Safaris blog post where I plan to share exciting stories and photos about my exploratory trips with Holden Safaris to different countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Please ask questions and leave comments. I’ve introduced you to our team of experts on Africa, and I look forward to reading your responses. I’d love to hear your thoughts and other concerns I may not have thought of.

Next week, I’ll write about my first trip to Kwazulu Natal in South Africa, where our team took an “off the beaten path” safari in order to prepare an authentic and unique safari for those looking for an educational and memorable experience. I’m so lucky that my next safari will be in Zimbabwe in August, and I will finally get to see Victoria Falls, and celebrate my 60th birthday in Africa!

Other topics I plan to write about as I’m now connected with researchers, scientists, game managers, lodge owners and non-profits helping with education, conservation and job opportunities in local villages are:

Methods being implemented to stop rhino and elephant poaching in different parts of Africa
Wildlife management in National Parks and private concessions
Village life and job opportunities being created within communities
How taking a safari gives back to sustainable community projects
The latest in gorilla trekking and why Uganda is less expensive than Rwanda
What you may not know about Africa: it’s about history. Visit the Zulu battlegrounds in Kwazulu Natal.

I hope you sign-up to follow my new adventures on the Holden Safaris blog and I promise you’ll get the latest news and discover new “off the beaten path” educational experiences such as our meeting with David Druce, in charge of the “Wild dog project and Black Rhino monitoring program” at the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi park in the heart of the Zulu Kingdom, and feeding the elephants at Bayete Zulu.

(Photo above is Jim Holden, President of Holden Safaris, and myself with Rambo at Bayete Zulu.)

Click here to read my first post on Holden Safaris.

How I Landed My Dream Career at Holden Safaris

April 30, 2017 by Sonia Marsh 22 Comments

People kept telling me, “Sonia, you need to create your own career, your background doesn’t fit the jobs listed on career sites.” I knew that, but I continued taking classes in Excel, grant writing, and attending workshops, so that I could fit the traditional job slots. As the days turned into weeks, and then into three months, I put a ton of pressure on myself to “fit the mold.” As my friend Sylvia said, “Sonia, I cannot see you sitting at a desk filling out Excel sheets, that’s just not you.” She was right, yet I didn’t want to feel like a failure, nor did I want to use my age as an excuse for not getting hired.

So when my British friend connected me with Jim Holden, a man who was born in Zambia, and who has traveled, worked and lived all over the world, it took me a while to realize that maybe I no longer needed to look at Indeed.com job offers, and that I should focus on my contacts who may find value in my background and experience.

I stopped searching for jobs online, and started listening to those who told me to create my own career. As a result, I’m now embarking on the career of a lifetime as an independent affiliate of Holden Safaris. This is a dream come true as it combines everything I love: travel, adventure, networking, making presentations, motivating and inspiring people to discover the wonders of an African Safari, social media, writing, helping with fundraising for wildlife conservation and the education of children in Africa. I am fortunate that everything I’ve done has come together in this 3rd chapter of my life, and is bringing me back to Africa, where I was ‘almost’ born, and lived for the first six years of my life.

So why would you want to go on a Safari, and what exactly is it?

“A Safari is like no other vacation! A safari is on everyone’s bucket list. At some point in your life you have to visit the place from which all mankind originates. It is not uncommon for visitors to Africa to be overcome with emotion, observing the wildlife of Africa, living as it did at the time of our ancestors. There is a feeling of coming home.”

Holden Safaris is a boutique and exclusive safari operator offering East African Safaris in Kenya, Tanzania, gorilla trekking in Uganda and Rwanda, and Southern African Safaris in Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The furthest north of Southern Africa is Zambia, bordering Tanzania. The furthest South is South Africa at the tip of the Africa continent where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. Don’t forget the Indian Ocean Islands of Seychelles and Madagascar.

On May 12th, I’m attending a travel conference called Indaba, in Durban, South Africa. After that I’m going on a one-week trip to discover lodges, Safaris, and meeting the wonderful people who give back to their communities helping with animal conservation. What I love about working with Holden Safaris is that they make it possible to fund animal conservation, children’s schools and local communities when clients book one of their custom boutique Safaris. Don’t forget I served in Lesotho as a Peace Corps Volunteer, where many of you donated supplies to my rural school, and now I feel like I can continue this in many other locations, thanks to all the lodge owners we use, who make a difference.

To follow my new adventures, please sign up here (by adding your e-mail on the right side of the front landing page) to receive automatic e-mail updates about my new travel adventures in Eastern and Southern Africa. I have added Step off the Beaten Path with Holden Safaris, as my next Gutsy Living mission in life. I’ll describe each lodge with my personal touch, sharing lots of exciting photos and videos from all the countries I visit, as well as the wildlife I encounter, and of course, fascinating stories about the people and children I meet.

Please ask as many questions as you like regarding my blog posts or anything else you would like to find out about African Safaris.

I’m Going Back to Africa

April 10, 2017 by Sonia Marsh 13 Comments

Yes, I’m going back to Africa in May, however, this time, I’m traveling as an independent affiliate of Holden Safaris; a boutique and exclusive safari operator located in Newport Beach, California.

Our first stop is at the INDABA conference, one of the largest tourism marketing events held in Durban, South Africa. After INDABA, our team is driving along a special tour of the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa. (The route is shown on the map below. Notice how close we are to Lesotho, where I served as a Peace Corps volunteer.)

Our route by car in KwaZulu Natal province.

Have you read The Elephant Whisperer, by Lawrence Anthony?

Anthony rescued and rehabilitated formerly violent, rogue elephants, destined to be shot. When Anthony passed away on March 2nd, 2012, the elephants sensed his death and loitered around his rural compound. In 2013 and 2014, the elephants returned on the exact same day at the same time. It seems incredible how these elephants knew what had happened.

Holden Safaris has arranged for us to visit Anthony’s lodge: Thula Thula Private Game Reserve, in KwaZulu Natal, which is now run by his French widow, Francoise Malby-Anthony. I’m excited to meet and speak French to Francoise and learn more about the rhino rehab center on the Thula Thula Private Game Reserve . This rhino center was built and run by the Lawrence Anthony Earth Organization. If you watch her video below, you’ll discover how her veterinarian injects rhino horns with poison and dyes to stop poachers from killing the rhinos. There is a myth that the rhino horn is an aphrodisiac and can cure certain diseases in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand and China, where one kilo of rhino horn powder fetches $40,000. The truth is that rhino horns are made of the protein, keratin, which is the same as our finger nails, and has no medicinal value.

Francoise Malby-Anthony raises money to save the rhinos through the “Conservation Fund for the Protection and Survival of Our endangered Wildlife.”

Our next stop on the map is the Thanda Safari Private Game Reserve, which is described as:

“More than a luxury lodge, more than a dream safari destination, more than an African escape… Thanda Safari offers an authentically South African wildlife experience, matched with sincere commitment to the Zulu culture and passionate conservation of the environment. “

On the following day, we head towards the Manyoni Private Game Reserve, one of the largest privately owned reserves in Kwazulu-Natal.

Rhino River Lodge-Click on photo to go to website

“This 23,000 hectare reserve is the product of 17 dedicated landowners who dropped their fences in 2004 to create one protected area for our wildlife. The long term vision of the MPGR is to increase the conservation footprint and to re-introduce species that historically occurred in the area.”

We then continue to The White Elephant Pongola Reserve luxury tented accommodation; our next stop.

White Elephant Lodge, reception and library area-click on photo to go to website.

“Eight luxurious Safari tents, each with indulgent bathroom, out door shower, private verandah and personal bar provide a secluded retreat in an unspoilt savannah bushveld teeming with game and bird life.”

A historical stop at the Fugitive’s Drift Lodge

Fugitives’ Drift Tours-Click on photo to go to website.

“The Zulu War of 1879 is famous throughout the English-speaking world for the great battles of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift. The spectacular Fugitives’ Drift property, a 5000 acre Natural Heritage Site, overlooks both Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift, and includes the site where Lieutenants Melvill and Coghill lost their lives attempting to save the Queen’s Colour of their regiment.”

And our last stop is at the Three Trees at Spioenkop on the Northern Drakensburg.

These wonderful children remind me of the children at my school in Lesotho.

The hosts, Simon and Cheryl Blackburn (ex Singita Private Game Reserve and ex Kwando Safari Experience) are both experienced safari & mountain guides, South African-born, they have spent their time together exploring remote parts of Africa, and they believe in:

“Fair Trade Tourism (FTT) is a non-profit organisation that promotes responsible tourism in southern Africa and beyond. The aim of FTT is to make tourism more sustainable by ensuring that the people who contribute their land, resources, labour and knowledge to tourism are the ones who reap the benefits.”

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you in May when I return to South Africa. If you feel like learning more about Safaris or actually going on a Safari after reading my blog posts, contact me (sonia@soniamarsh.com) and I’ll put you in touch with Jim Holden, President of Holden Safaris. Jim was born in Zambia, and is an expert on Africa. He has been interviewed on Africa with AAA Travel and Peter Greenberg, the CBS News Travel Editor.

I hope you enjoy my next “Gutsy Adventure” in life, and that you might want to experience your own African Safari one day. Feel free to share my post with anyone you know who might be interested in reading about this amazing adventure I’m about to embark on.

Orchestrating Life

March 18, 2017 by Sonia Marsh 12 Comments

I believe in orchestrating life. I don’t wait for things to happen; I try to make them happen. Sometimes I’m all over the place, spreading seeds in many locations hoping they will germinate, and show me the “right” direction for me. Do you do that?

It doesn’t matter whether I’m in Africa, Belize or in the U.S., I take charge, plan ahead, hoping that all will fall into place, and the strange thing about this is that I put in the same amount of passion,no matter where I live in the world.

For example, after I flew from Lesotho to Europe, and then the U.S. to visit family and friends last July, I knew that I wanted to end my Peace Corps service in Lesotho. So I started visualizing how things would proceed, and that gave me the strength to make it happen. I started with the fun part: tracking cheap flights on Google flights via different destinations, to return to Paris, Copenhagen and California, for the Christmas holidays. I then worked my way backwards to July 24th, when I returned to Lesotho, and faced a severe snow storm.

I didn’t want to feel like a failure for quitting early, so I started planning my secondary project so I could feel proud of leaving my mark at the village school. I worked on the grant proposal, and scheduled visits to Maseru, to meet with a Peace Corps staff member to expedite the process. Since I started early, my grant proposal was accepted in record time, and thanks to fundraising and all the donations you sent to my village, we succeeded in raising $5,000 in one week, and completed construction seventeen days later. The timing was perfect; it was scheduled to end by November 30th, and due to the workers’ motivation to get paid right before the Christmas holidays, they were determined to finish on time.

Now, two months after returning to the U.S., I’m in full-swing taking courses in Microsoft Office suite, attending the Association of Fundraising Professional workshops and a grant writing course in April. I’ve had two job offers, and turned them down, for various reasons, however I’m presently working events for the Newport Beach Public Foundation library.

Basically, my calendar is so full, and I choose to make it that way. I like being busy, learning new skills, meeting new people, and orchestrating my life.