For Baobab Ridge's co-founder, Nini Gouveris, life in the African bush is very much part of her DNA. She's the head of the Baobab Ridge "family" - the matriarch, if you will - wisely leading the talented team of staff whose warm, welcoming smiles and easy laughter help to create the wonderful, relaxed atmosphere the lodge is renowned for. She's also a dyed-in-the-wool child of Africa whose playground was the African wilderness...

Born in Johannesburg in 1975 to a German father and Malaysian mother, Nini was a "struggle child" whose parentage was, effectively, illegal under Apartheid law. "My dad's name couldn't be put on my birth certificate as he was white and mom was classified as coloured," she explains. Thankfully, it was a challenge that Nini and her family overcame, in spite of the tough times they lived through.

"My dad had always loved the bush and had spent many years in Botswana before my birth," Nini explains. "When I was born he had a bakery - the Astoria Bakery - in Johannesburg but had always wanted to start a business in the bush and so in the late 1970s he started a safari company and built Tsaro Lodge in the Khwai region of the Okavango Delta. At the time it was the first up-market photographic safari lodge in the Delta," she recounts. 

"I was only a toddler but he would take me up to the site while he was building and I fell completely in love with being in the bush," recalls Nini. "We'd fly up for holidays and sometimes for long weekends, and we'd go camping and pretty soon it felt like Botswana was a second home.

"My dad then developed another lodge at Xakanaxa, and when I left school it seemed obvious for me to follow dad into the industry and study tourism and hospitality and so that's what I did. I went to Switzerland and studied hotel management and tourism there, got my diploma and returned to South Africa for my first job, working at the Grand Roche hotel in Paarl," says Nini.

"I learned guest relations, marketing and banqueting at the Grand Roche, which was an excellent grounding. I then moved to Plettenberg Bay and got a job at Hunter's Country House as the assistant restaurant manager. Then, in 2002 my father was busy developing a new, luxury resort on North Island in the Seychelles and I moved there to help with the construction and to oversee the new development, setting up the reservation system and working in guest relations. Today, it's one of the most sought-after luxurious island destinations in the world and I'm very proud of the role I had in getting it started," she says.

Nini eventually left North Island and returned to South Africa, getting a job at Ilanga Travel as an inbound agent thanks to the fact she's fluent in German. "I worked there for just over three years and loved every minute of it, dealing with groups, upmarket lodges and hotels and air tours. From there I took over the marketing and sales for my father's company, Moremi Safaris and Tours, as well as Xakanaxa," explains Nini, recounting how Moremi Safaris and Tours was set up as Botswana's first tour operator to provide the logistics and reservations apparatus for Tsaro and Xakanaxa - the countries first photographic safari destinations! "There was no-one else to provide that service at that time, so Dad set it up himself," she laughs. Pioneering spirit indeed!

So how did she come to the Klaserie? "My father already had a property in the Klaserie and so when Baobab Ridge came on the market he quickly snapped it up and suggested that I lease it from him with my then husband, Jason Fleischer. I jumped at the chance to have my own lodge and in 2011 we opened, starting out with a small complement of staff as a self-catering establishment and grew it from there, going fully catered in 2016," says Nini.

Although she and Jason are no longer married, they still share their love of Baobab Ridge and Jason leads walking safaris and guides guests at the lodge. Nini married Brandon Gouveris, who helps her manage the lodge, in 2017.

"My background in tourism and intimate understanding of what works and what doesn't and my time spent in the industry, especially as an agent, has given me an excellent grounding in running Baobab Ridge," says Nini. "I've been very fortunate in gathering a fantastic team of staff here and I really think that our people make Baobab Ridge special. Their smiles are genuine and come from a deep sense of happiness and fulfilment and I've been privileged to work with them to achieve this level of contentment," she says.

"I think it's the atmosphere of family here that guests really bond with and that has helped us to stand out from the crowd."

Watch out for more blogs on Baobab Ridge's wonderful team over the coming months and learn more about the incredible "family" that's ready and waiting to welcome you!