City slickers run from rat race
Giving up the rat race and seeking a better life abroad is a familiar dream for Londoners, particularly during the dreary month of January. But few ever act on it.
Barry Van der Mas, his wife Tara, and his brother Sean are among the minority who did - quitting highflying careers to gamble on building a safari business in Africa.
Less than a year ago Barry, 28, and Tara, 29, apparently had it all - with well-paid jobs in stockbroking and fashion design. Sean, 34, was also well set up, working in a City insurance company. But the trappings weren't enough.
Sean said: "I was just dying in London and realised a few years ago I didn't want to sit in an office all my life. I had to find out what I wanted to do with my life and then find the guts to do it."
Barry and Tara felt the same, and the trio decided to swap London for a calmer life in Africa, where they would set up a safari lodge and chalets.
A trawl of the internet found them a suitable site in north-east Zambia's Luanga Valley, and they agreed to gamble their combined £70,000 savings on buying the land and setting up a safari business. Barry said: "The initial idea came from all our travelling throughout Africa. Alternatively, I could have spent the money buying myself lots of nice things but none of it was what I wanted in the years to come."
He and Tara quit their jobs and moved to Zambia last May, while Sean took up work at a South African insurance brokers to raise more cash.
Building a tourist lodge and five guest chalets in comparatively primitive surroundings was bound to be a challenge. However, none of them anticipated the scale of the problems they faced - including lazy workers, reams of red tape over a tourism licence, 12-hour trips to the nearest shops when supplies ran out, and a feisty local chief.
Finally, by the time they were ready for business, it was the middle of the rainy season, which lasts until April.
Despite all this, however, Barry is happy, saying: "I don't get caught up in traffic, there's no pollution, and I don't have to sit on a train jammed up inside someone else's armpit."
