|
Jo Meintjes was born in London in the year... She took to travelling as a way of life with her father as an Army officer "defending the last outposts of the Empire". After a lifetime in boarding school she left home at the age of 20 to travel 'overland' to Australia before it became a well-worn route. Later, she did the same thing through Africa, both trips lasting 6 months.
At the Wildlife Society in Johannesburg in the early 80's she took an interest in the new safari companies in southern Africa and inspected new game lodges and country hotels. She put her existing travel experience to good use and continued to travel to new destinations. In 1986, from the premises of the first Wildlife Shop and Travel Agency in Rosebank, she organised and led a tour to Chile. A year later she took over the Travel operation as sole proprietor. Soon the business grew to IATA status and was renamed Pathfinders Travel to avoid conflict with the Society. By then Jo had secured the agency in South Africa for the leading Antarctic Expeditions company. She pioneered tours to countries that had only recently opened their doors to South Africans, such as Zambia, Zaire, now the DRC and China.
Jo's professional philosophy has been to venture to a new destination first, so she could pass on firsthand information to her clients. Today she has visited some 148 countries on the list kept by the USA Travelers' Century Club of which she is a member.
She sold Pathfinders Travel in 1992 but the requests for new expeditions still flowed in. In 1994 Jo started Jo Meintjes Travel working from home, so she is available to avert any travel crises that may arise outside normal working hours, when other travel agents would be unavailable.
Jo Meintjes has taken nearly all photos in this website unless credits are attributed to others. She regularly gives slide shows of her travels, or asks one of her well travelled clients to do so for her at her home-office in Parkhurst, Johannesburg. These evenings tend to be on Antarctica, South Georgia and The Falklands or the 5 'Stans of Central Asia as you need to be fully au fait with such remote destinations beforehand and then be able to relax and enjoy the adventure more fully. Please let her know if you wish to be notified of these evening lectures.
Jo regularly lectures to other clubs or societies – so please ask if you want her to talk on a number of travel destinations with either slides or power point shows.
These hilarious adventures and misadventures are detailed in a book, "The Borneo Headhunters' Cuckoo Clock" (published in 1996). It was a bestseller in its category that year. The book is still available at a nominal fee to cover post and packing.
‘celebrated 21 years in the travel industry in February 2008'
Further adventures have followed since... |
