Ikigai is an ancient Japanese word meaning something like ‘your reason for living’. Finding your ikigai is understanding what makes you get out of bed every morning. To meet this purpose, you must follow a five-step roadmap that will require a good deal of self-awareness.

The Sabi Sand Game Reserve adjacent to the Kruger National Park is possibly our favourite place. It’s a place we return to often, lured there by the natural beauty, the abundant birds and game and, of course, the people.

A previous trip to Earth Lodge several years ago had imprinted the lodge on my mind as one of the best I’d ever visited. This second visit confirmed to me that this is indeed so. It was as beautiful as I’d remembered and everyone went out of their way to make our stay memorable.

My “Coming of Age” story in the Summer edition had an incredibly good response, but almost everybody wanted to know more…

Coming of age, nobody suspected me of being gay…
I was all about lifesaving, judo, the smell of two-stroke oil
and racing with the boys.