Our Story
Welcome to my little corner of Africa.
I first saw daylight when I was very small—which, to be fair, is how most people arrive—in Cape Town, before my parents whisked me off to Namaqualand, where I grew up. I somehow managed to survive my school years at Vredendal High School (the less said about that, the better).
My working life began as an Air Traffic Controller, a career that took me to various airports around South Africa. After many years of helping other people reach their destinations safely, I retired in mid-2022 and finally had more time to explore my own.
Travelling has always been part of my life. My parents loved the open road, and somewhere along the way they passed that passion on to me.
These days, you'll usually find me wandering the African bush with a camera in hand, enjoying wildlife, photography, and the simple pleasure of sitting quietly in nature. Sometimes with good friends, sometimes armed only with my wife.
Our travels started close to home before expanding into Namibia. Then, in 2009, a friend invited us to join a trip to Botswana. That one invitation changed everything.Botswana wasn't just another destination—it was where Africa truly got under our skin.
Since then, we've travelled extensively through Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa, collecting thousands of photographs, unforgettable encounters with wildlife, and more than a few stories that still make us laugh around the campfire.
Optoer began as a way for me to learn how to build a website and share my photographs. Over time, it evolved into something much more: a place to record our adventures, share practical overlanding experience, and hopefully inspire others to discover the remarkable places that Southern Africa has to offer.
If these stories encourage just one person to take the road less travelled, then Optoer has done exactly what I hoped it would.
