to those who are addicted to africa

[Die.Flicks]

Greetings Travellers
25 OCTOBER 2006
Here's some advice from possibly the most subversive person a stay-at-homer is ever likely to meet: Kingsley Holgate. But first a brief biography in case you don't know who he is.

Kingsley and his family (Gill and son Ross) have done Cape to Cairo up Africa's waterways (why do it the easy way and drive?), circled the planet along the Tropic of Capricorn (that means some African deserts, the South American jungles, the Andes, the Australian deserts and the Madagascan jungles), followed great African explorers like Livingstone, Stanley and Teleki (down the Zambezi, the Rufiji and the Congo rivers) and sailed up the East Coast to the Somali border in a dhow. His next expedition is top secret but expected to be a whammy.

He gave this advice to a friend who had done well in business, was 57, but was feeling somehow unfulfilled. They were on a beach and Kingsley took seven pebbles and placed them in a row. "These are your life," he told his friend. Then he took the first three and threw them away: "Lived so far. Gone. Nothing you can do about that." Then he threw the last one away, saying "your seventies, too unpredictable and maybe too old to do anything meaningful."

He picked up the final pebble and handed it to his friend. "That's the life you have left: 10 years. Keep that in your pocket. Put it next to your bed at night. Finger it. Let your sweat polish it smooth. Think about it."

I was sitting on Kingsley's patio in Zinkwazi in KwaZulu-Natal, drinking Captain Morgan rum when he told me that story. He's a great story teller. He sipped his rum and Coke and let the impact sink in.

"What happened to your friend?" I asked.

He laughed his huge, beard padded laugh. "Sold his business after a year. Bought a farm in Zululand and is happy as a pig in sh*t."

We watches the sky darken over the moody Indian Ocean for a while. "When I give talks," said Kingsley, "people come up to me afterwards and say: 'It's all very well for you. But where would I get the money to have adventures like you? Where would I get the transport? Where would I find the time?' I say to them, set a date, anytime in the future. Decide what adventure will begin on that date. Start working towards it. Make it your dream and focus on that date. You will make it happen. The day you leave you will feel the exhilaration of adventure and you will have a new regard for yourself. You'll be living."

"Some of them do that, most don't. It's a shame, Africa is such an extraordinary place."

He poured another rum, raised his glass and said: "Let's toast to the passion for adventure . . . "

Don Pinnock
Associate editor



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