Active Escapes

Sarah Drew is the founding member of Active Escapes. She completed her Masters in Geography, case studying different models of community based tourism along the Pondoland Wild Coast, worked as a tourism researcher, followed by some UK stints in events management on various EU initiatives.

She is a fervent traveller with a particular penchant for sweat-induced adventure. Many happy months spent backpacking around SE Asia and South America provided first-hand experience with eco and adventure-based tour operators, and inspired her thinking on the untapped potential that existed back in South Africa.

Sarah is passionate about the outdoors and is prepared to try most things at least once. When she gets leave from her laptop, you'll find her happiest on two wheels, or bundu-bashing a new route. She will carve out any excuse for a 'route scouting' mission, and gets ultimate joy from piecing a distinctive adventure together in an off-beat destination.

Tucked away in the village of Hilton, Active Escape's head-quarters are in the adventure packed hills of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. With some of the country's best mountain biking on our doorstep, an hour’s drive from the hiking trails of the Drakensberg, and just 90km from (show to here) the warm surf of the Indian Ocean, it’s no surprises we love where we live!

"Life begins at the end of our Comfort Zone",  Neale Donald Walsch

And how true this is. If you are reading this, then you more than likely in the minority who doesn’t need to worry about where your next meal is coming from. Through our modern lifestyles we have never been so “comfortable”; and yet as a society we have the highest prevalence of anxiety, depression, opiate abuse and suicide, than we have ever seen, across generations.

It turns out that the velvet cocoons that we have created, are NOT what make us happier in the long term. Novelty and challenge are what are at the core of our long term fulfilment.

The ‘plush’ life does not make us happy, because like all external metrics, it doesn’t do anything for us internally – where the real arbiters of gratification, and happiness, live.

We cling to comfort zones because they offer perceived safety, and keep the threat of change from our doorsteps. And they're easy. They require no effort. We're led to believe that non-exertion (be that a physical or mental challenge) is the way to happiness; but the reality is our brains weaken on idle. We wind up with a hollowed-out life of spectating and learned helplessness, without the initiating skills essential to self-worth and a well-lived life.

That is our scholarly motivation for why we offer what we do, but where we choose to do it, is just as important. Our adventures take place in the wilder parts of nature, those places that aren’t easily navigated to through Google Maps, and which remain the terrain of the intrepid.

In the words of John Burroughs “I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my sense put in order”

To realise that if we have lost our connection to nature, we have actually lost the connection to ourselves.

Getting people to challenge their comfort limits, whilst reconnecting with nature, is at the heart of our business. But with this, we also acknowledge a responsibility. A charge to do more good than harm. Minimise wastage, reduce packaging, employ locally and pay fairly. Work to reduce our ecological footprint and instil a sense of mindfulness with our guests.

When you book a trip with Active Escapes you can expect: novelty and a challenge – naturally physical, but we hope also, spiritual. Our destinations are almost all - remote or rural, with your Rands going directly into supporting rural livelihoods, and providing a more earth-friendly and sustainable alternative to other development paths such as mining and commerce.

By nature, our tours are small-group and low-impact, without any wall-hanging certificates to need to prove it; but in this post-Covid awakening, we have set our own challenge to implement this more deeply. We ask that you, as a future guest, question and challenge us to it.