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Our Story - A short history of VentureCo. In 1983 I saw an ad' in a Sunday paper asking for young men to train in Africa as "Expedition Leaders". My careers teacher had never told me such jobs existed and it certainly sounded better than other options: being paid to do something I was desperately keen to do anyway! There was an interview in London followed by a couple of months training and before I knew it, I was in the Sahara learning about driving on hot, soft sand and how to tell good piste from bad. What followed were three of the best years of my life; the serene beauty of remote Saharan sandseas; the bizarre tribes of West Africa and their violent history; crossing Zaire in the rainy season where potholes 10 feet deep and full of rainwater are a daily reality! The grasslands of East Africa and the mind-boggling numbers of animals: Vic Falls, Kilimanjaro and the Namib Desert. How many people in their first job look forward to each new day with such enthusiasm?! I look back on those first years in Africa as my apprenticeship: learning about expedition dynamics, handling obstructive bureaucracy and juggling priorities: it sounds a bit naff, but there really is no better teacher than the open road: if you get something wrong, you pay the price! At the same time that I was in Africa, Dave Gordon was in South America, learning the rules of the Latin roads. Subsequently, Dave and I each bought an expedition vehicle of our own and started to run our own expeditions, Dave with OLA (Overland Latin America) in South America and me with Nomad Africa. I was the first to "hang up my steering wheel" (which still hangs on my office wall!) and returned to England to set up an “adventure travel agency” which was a great way to learn about the “back office” side of expeditions, there's a lot more to building a comprehensive travel plan than meets the eye. Innovative, imaginative itineraries have to be married to financial bonds, airline contracts and the dreaded EU regulations! Each topic presents its own fiery hoop that must be jumped through and it’s this depth of experience that provides VentureCo with its sound foundation. A chance conversation between Dave and Mark in a back street cebiche bar in Quito, Ecuador in 1998 gave rise to the idea of combining our experience and creating VentureCo. Our brainstorming identified three crucial elements to a successful expedition: people need to be able to converse with host communities, even if it's at a basic level. Second, we, as expedition leaders, had always worked directly with local people, haggling for diesel on the black market, arguing with welders in local workshops and cajoling reluctant border officials, so we had gained a different perspective of indigenous society. And the final "must do" is to get off the beaten track and explore the backcountry as well as the famous heritage sites. These three elements, communicating, working and expeditioning, combined into one massive experience, form the fundamental ethos of VentureCo. In 1999 we put our money where our idea was, and VentureCo was formed. An ATOL licence was granted by the Civil Aviation Authority and the VentureCo Trust was added in 2005. Our first venture was Inca Venture in 2000. We added Patagonia Venture in 2002, Himalaya Venture in 2003 and Caribbean Jungle Venture in 2004. Rift Valley and Indochina Ventures arrived in 2005. Our work with charity groups includes organising "The Trail of the Incas to Machu Picchu" which is a horse riding trek to Machu Picchu, and is a unique VentureCo itinerary. We have also arranged several challenging fundraising treks including The Great Wall of China Trek, Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya and The Aberdares, Mountain Biking in Peru and camel treks in the Rajasthan Desert of India. We also design personal or "Bespoke Group" itineraries for school teams, university groups and private groups of friends, many of whom have travelled with us in the past. Looking back over the years, the travellers' tales and experiences that we have to share would fill volumes! The satisfaction of life with VentureCo today is that hundreds of Venturers, as well as our friends from all over the world, also have stories, experiences and, most importantly, an understanding of each other that can only be for the good of the global village in which we all live. Looking to the future, we relish the prospect of developing our current Venture programme and of introducing southern India, Madagascar and the Trans-Siberian Express to the "Venture World". Watch this space! Special thanks go to:
We wouldn't be where are today without you!
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VentureCo worldwide Ltd, The Ironyard,
64-66 The Market Place, Warwick CV34 4SD, Phone Number 01926 411 122 |
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