“We shall not cease from explo­ration. And the end of all our explor­ing will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” ~ T. S. Eliot

Explo­ration.  What does that word bring up for you? 

Today I’m sit­ting down to talk with some­one who has lived very much a life of explo­ration.  Please wel­come Sandy Salle here to this space.  Sandy, along with her sister-in-law Mered­ith Hill, oper­ate Hills of Africa Travel.  Sandy, who cur­rently lives in the United States, is a native of Zim­babwe.  Her many years in Africa have given her a deep love of the coun­try, the cul­ture, and the explo­ration of a very remote and untamed part of our world. 

Please read along as Sandy shares about her expe­ri­ence with this great part in our world…Africa.  And in that, feel her deep sense of love for this place, and for an explo­ration not only of another part of our world but also an explo­ration into self…

1. What is it about Africa that really touches your soul?
It’s pure energy.

Every­thing from the smell of the first rains to the melt­ing sun­sets, the bright col­ors to the strong aro­mas, and the mag­netic wildlife to the gen­uine peo­ple, Africa is a place where you leave with a new out­look on life and on yourself.

To me, there is no other place on earth where you can sit for hours on end in com­plete silence as you watch the story of nature unfold before you. And the peo­ple are so gen­uine in their hos­pi­tal­ity and joy that you can­not help but feel trans­formed by their energy.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Sandy, what a won­der­ful view of Africa!  And truly, what a mag­nif­i­cent expe­ri­ence to life.  Being able to expe­ri­ence the beauty of our world — both our nat­ural world and from the inhab­i­tants of that said world…in such grace…beautiful!

2. You have started your own com­pany, Hills of Africa. Tell us about the inspi­ra­tion behind that. And how long you have been doing this?
I was work­ing in NYC and had just had my first child when we took a trip to North Car­olina in March of 2002 to visit my brother and his wife. With the inten­tion of mak­ing a move, we put an offer on a house. Whilst talk­ing about life, my sister-in-law told me of her plans to start a travel com­pany. I didn’t think any­thing of it.

When we went on hol­i­day together a few months later, she asked me if I would like to join her in her com­pany. I eagerly said yes, not even think­ing that I didn’t have any expe­ri­ence in the travel indus­try, but know­ing that I had lots of expe­ri­ence trav­el­ing around Africa from hav­ing lived in Zim­babwe and trav­el­ing around Africa with my parents. So my part­ner is my sister-in-law, my maiden name is Hill—hence the cre­ation of Hills of Africa Travel. We have been in busi­ness since May 2002.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  What I find so great about this is how you have really found some­thing that is deeply mean­ing­ful to you.  And in that, you are cre­at­ing amaz­ing expe­ri­ences for all of the trav­el­ers that come your way!  What a trip this must be!!  And, from our phone con­ver­sa­tions about this and the trips you plan — I have to say — this just sounds like an expe­ri­ence of a life­time!

3.  Tell us about one African adven­ture you have been on and what made it so mean­ing­ful for you.
I trav­eled to Zam­bia to do sev­eral site inspec­tions and ended the trip with spe­cial, one-on-one time with my dad, whom I hadn’t seen in two years. My dad is cur­rently liv­ing and work­ing in Zambia. I took him to the mag­i­cal Zam­bezi Val­ley, stay­ing in two of my favorite camps, Chi­awa Camp and Old Mon­doro on the Lower Zam­bezi River. It was very emo­tional for me (I am a crier!) as my fam­ily means the world to me. One day we were plan­ning to leave on a game drive and went back to our tents to get ready, when my dad came run­ning (or limp­ing as he has a bad knee) out to tell me that there was a fam­ily of ele­phants in front of his tent. So, instead of going on our game drive, we opted instead to walk and visit with the elephants. They even­tu­ally made their way across the river. 

That after­noon we went for a canoe ride and took a detour as we saw a buf­falo in the reeds. Our guide told us that we might have to come back and head into the main chan­nel as he wasn’t sure our route would get us through. On the way back into camp, we saw our fam­ily of ele­phants start­ing to swim back across the river. 

The funny thing is that if we hadn’t taken this detour to see the buf­falo, we wouldn’t have been in our canoes right next to this fam­ily of ele­phants. This fam­ily of ele­phants swim­ming together was the most amaz­ing sight and really meant so much to me. They all had their trunks up in the air try­ing to fig­ure out where our scent was com­ing from. We man­aged to get so close to them; it was one of the most mean­ing­ful expe­ri­ences I have ever had in the bush. It was as if the ele­phants were speak­ing to me.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Wow!  Sandy, this story you’ve shared here really touches upon the beauty of the moment, and of let­ting that expe­ri­ence — within that moment — become a part of our being.  I sense that very much as I read this, and I also sense the true love you have for this place that you have called home. 

4.  Tell us a lit­tle about the Soul Safari trip you have com­ing up in 2011 (which just sounds like an amaz­ing trip, by the way).
Thank you! It is a truly amaz­ing expe­ri­ence. We hosted a Soul Safari in 2009, which was a great success.

The best way to explain the Soul Safari trip is to first, imag­ine your life with­out fear or uncer­tainty and with the abil­ity to con­trol your own des­tiny. A life where you have the con­trol to erad­i­cate both sub­lim­i­nal and obvi­ous fears, and as a result, you receive clar­ity on your life’s purpose.

We all have past-life fears that block and stall us in our lives, and many times, we are unaware of these fears.

This clar­ity of life is some­thing that the Soul Safari Trans­for­ma­tion with Ainslie MacLeod, a psy­chic and fea­tured author on Oprah’s Soul Series, will help you to achieve. Dur­ing the Soul Safari Trans­for­ma­tion, you’ll dis­cover the sim­ple, step-by-step sys­tem for under­stand­ing your soul’s pur­pose, while you uncover a sense of ful­fill­ment and joy you have never known—all in just 9 days while you enjoy a Zim­babwe safari tour, a Vic­to­ria Falls tour, a Hwange National Park safari, and a Zam­bezi River cruise.

Some of the high­lights that will be expe­ri­enced on the Soul Safari 2011 include 9 days of Trans­for­ma­tion lessons and guid­ance by Ainslie MacLeod, all activ­i­ties of a leisure trip to Zim­babwe, an exter­nal ener­getic boost of nature, and an inter­nal ener­getic boost of game viewing.

In these coach­ing talks and Trans­for­ma­tion lessons with Ainslie, you’ll learn how to iden­tify past life fears and find a moti­va­tion that will result in totally erad­i­cat­ing them. You’ll receive power in absolute clar­ity, you’ll have the abil­ity to embrace your authen­tic self and finally love who you are, you’ll dis­cover a free­dom you’ve never had before, and you’ll dis­cover what you were put here to do.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Sandy, this trip sounds so deeply mov­ing and con­nect­ing at a soul level.  What an expe­ri­ence this has to be — out away from the hus­tle and bus­tle of our daily lives…completely focused on that deeper con­nec­tion to self!  And doing all of this, while sur­rounded by the beau­ti­ful nat­ural ele­ments of the African countryside…so, so good.…

5. Are there any com­mon con­nec­tions between the types of trav­el­ers you have on your dif­fer­ent safaris?
I would say that our clients, no mat­ter the coun­tries they plan on vis­it­ing and no mat­ter the activ­i­ties they choose to take part in, have a curios­ity about life. They always want to learn more and expe­ri­ence new adven­tures, cul­tures, foods, sights, sounds, scents, and cus­toms. They come to Africa to gain per­spec­tive on the world and on them­selves. They leave Africa with a new energy and a new zest for life.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Our world is such an amaz­ing place!  That you have shared your deep love for one cor­ner of that…so awe­some! 

6.  I love that we are talk­ing about Africa – and I can’t help but draw sim­i­lar­i­ties the idea of “jun­gle” that touches both you and I. Could you take a minute to describe what the term “Jun­gle of Life” might mean to you.
Being out in the bush—which isn’t a jun­gle, but draws on some similarities—is all about being clos­est to nature and expe­ri­enc­ing com­plete peace and spir­i­tual awak­en­ing. There is no one else around you, just the ani­mals and the sights and the sounds of nature. You can hear the birds singing and the wind rus­tle the grass, and smell the bold aroma of the earth. You couldn’t be closer to your true self than in the bush / plains, as this is where you really get to know yourself. You are able to con­tem­plate life and think about your future and what you really want out of life. 

Our every­day life is so tan­gled with what we have to get accom­plished, how we should work, and our every­day respon­si­bil­i­ties. Being in the bush, or the Jun­gle of Life, is about find­ing your true self again, dream­ing big, liv­ing big, and remem­ber­ing that we are all here for a big­ger purpose.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  Find­ing that space of becom­ing closer to our true self…that’s what I really draw from what you have shared.  Life can seem like a “jun­gle” some­times. (or…like being out in the bush…)  When we begin that jour­ney of work­ing our way through it all (the “jun­gle”, the “bush”…life…)…really work­ing our way through it — very much this takes us toward that place of our “true self”.  Sandy, that’s what I love about all that you have shared, both here and through our con­ver­sa­tions.  I feel even more con­nected to self, just from hav­ing your words inter­sect with mine…

7. What do you love most about the work that you do?
Noth­ing is more reward­ing to me than shar­ing the beauty and mag­netic power of Africa with our clients. If I can make someone’s dream vaca­tion come true, I feel as though my dream has come true.

We also find it highly reward­ing to send clients on a life-changing jour­ney to Africa and to hear about their expe­ri­ence with the ani­mals and the peo­ple. It’s also amaz­ing to see the peo­ple of Africa get to know trav­el­ers and see how the African peo­ples’ lives are changed for­ever by hav­ing been given the chance of get­ting to know trav­el­ers and learn­ing about their fam­i­lies, their his­to­ries, and their cultures.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  What I find so neat is how every­thing you offer can be cus­tomized and designed for the expe­ri­ence each trav­eler desires.  What a gift you give to all those who work with you!

Clos­ing Thoughts:  Sandy, the gift you give this world speaks loudly to the pas­sion you have for this remote and wild part of our world.  As in the words of T.S. Elliot, you have not ceased from explo­ration, and in help­ing oth­ers to explore more deeply them­selves.  And in that…we just get to know “us” so much more deeply.  Keep shar­ing this pas­sion you have with the world!

You can keep up with Sandy, and Hills of Africa Travel by fol­low­ing them on Twit­ter and Face­book.  For more infor­ma­tion about an African adven­ture, visit their web­site.   Just vis­it­ing their web­site is an expe­ri­ence into Africa!