We are a married couple in our 50’s. We have travelled and worked in different parts of the world all our lives. But for most of our lives, those times were spent separately. We had never met, we were never in the same place at the same time….
Our journeys started on opposite sides of the world – Kat in Belgium, Jeff in Australia. Until one night, a few years ago, in the town of Alice Springs in Central Australia, we met for the first time. Since then our Exceptional Journeys have melded together.
Here is the story of our exceptional journeys, apart and together:
Jeff has led some pretty amazing adventures in his lifetime – from catching and training wild camels in the Australian Outback, or making sure his clients didn’t get eaten by lions in Africa, to researching and operating tours to some of the remotest parts of Asia and the Middle East.
Nowadays, despite the interruption of COVID hitting the world, Jeff delivers highly customised luxury travel experiences for high-end clients from all over the world. He has loved every minute of his work in the travel industry, it has given him the ability to indulge in his lifelong passion for adventure, travel, photography, and sharing incredible experiences.
1961
Jeff was born at a very early age near Sydney, Australia. As a young boy, he craved adventure, avidly reading books of early explorers and adventurers and stories of exotic people and places in magazines like National Geographic. At every opportunity, he was to be found “out bush”, camping and hiking.
1974
Jeff embarked on his first overseas travel journey – for 6 weeks with the family to attend the wedding of his older brother in the USA.
Jeff joins an expedition of 12 people to walk across Australia’s driest and harshest terrain, the Simpson Desert, using camels to carry all of the provisions to survive. Soon after coming home he is offered a job as a ‘cameleer’ for the expedition company and moves to Alice Springs, Central Australia.
1984
Jeff works as a guide taking paying clients on camel treks of up to 2 weeks through the mountains and deserts of Central Australia between working at the Alice Springs Camel Farm. He also competes in Alice Springs’ famous “Camel Cup” camel races. Yep, that’s him in the white helmet just behind the leaders.
1985
Jeff catches and trains wild camels and starts his own camel trekking and adventure tour business, Central Australian Camel Treks. And grows an awesome beard… in his opinion.
1989
Jeff sells his camel trek business and works at Ross River Homestead near Alice Springs. Loses the beard but keeps what will become, for the next 20 years or so, his trademark moustache.
1991
Jeff departs Australia to live in UK, but not for long ….
1992 – 1998
Jeff becomes Expedition Leader for Guerba Expeditions, a UK based African overland tour company. Taking clients into some of the wildest places on the continent, he travels overland from Europe to South Africa, criss-crossing through Africa numerous times
1999 – 2004
Jeff becomes a Tour Leader for Intrepid Travel in China, Mongolia, Russia, Central Asia, South East Asia, India, Nepal and the Middle East
2004
Jeff returns to Australia and becomes an Operations Manager for Intrepid Travel.
2010
Jeff moves back to to Alice Springs to become General Manager for WayOutback Safaris … and meets Kat for the first time. Much to Kat’s relief he has thankfully lost the moustache…
Born in Belgium, the youngest of 4 siblings, Kat was brought up in a family that loved to pack up the car on a regular basis to head all over Europe and enjoy the natural beauty spots across the continent.
Soon enough Belgium felt too small for Kat, and in her 20s she set off on a solo round-the-world adventure. The ultimate goal was to reach Australia and in a moment of madness she vowed to get there overland instead of the sensible way of taking a plane. But that would be too easy….
That was the ‘official’ start of Kat’s exceptional journey:
1966
Kat was born in Belgium (but at a less young age than Jeff). Her first camping trip was at the age of 6 weeks’ old, when the family went camping in a field with an old-fashioned canvas pole tent, no running water and no electricity. This is followed by many more family adventures across Europe.
1989
Kat starts hitchhiking around Europe whenever she gets time off from her job. She hitchhikes around Northern Ireland, and across Europe to many off the beaten track places. During these adventures she witnesses the poverty and devastation in Romania the summer after the Romanian Revolution, and gets caught in the aftermath of the war in Yugoslavia (Serbia).
1992
Kat leaves a very secure and permanent government position to wander the world. She starts her overland journey 500 meters from her parent’s home and starts hitchhiking… bound for Australia.
1992 – 1993
Kat travels solo overland through Eastern Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. After more than 12 months on the road, and more marriage proposals than she cares to remember, Kat finally arrives, by sailing yacht, in Broome, Western Australia.
1993
Arriving in the Northern Territory, Kat works as a volunteer tour guide in one of the most amazing regions of wild Australia – Kakadu National Park.
1993
Kat travels back to Belgium, again overland. She takes on the adventure of travelling through China solo when the country still had restricted access for foreign tourists. She then joined the Trans Siberian, sharing a sleeper cabin with Chinese merchants, to Russia. From there back to Belgium via Poland and Germany.
1994
Kat joins European adventure tour companies Ashraf and Djoser as a Tour Leader in China, Vietnam and, eventually, back in Australia
1997
The tour leading job is finished in Australia and Kat doesn’t want to return to Belgium. She finds a way to stay in Australia, and starts her own adventure tour company, Nullarbor Traveller in South Australia.
2005
Kat sells Nullarbor Traveller and embarks on a journey across the globe, studying a master’s degree in tourism (UK) and working on tourism and economic development projects in the Pacific, Laos, Suriname, Tanzania and Zambia.
2010
Kat returns to Australia once again and moves to Alice Springs, this time to work with aboriginal communities in Australia’s outback on setting up tourism enterprises … where she meets Jeff for the first time.
2010 – 2016
Kat and Jeffs’ exceptional journeys intersect several times during the next few years. They still travel often, independently as well as together.
Jeff goes to India to experience the incredible Kumbh Mela Hindu holy pilgrimage and festival and treks the Upper Mustang region in Nepal. Kat travels back to Belgium every year to go on fun holidays with her ageing mother and sister around the Mediterranean.
2012
Jeff moves back to Melbourne and delivers highly customised and luxury private travel experiences for high net worth clients from all over the world.
2016
Jeff surprises Kat by proposing to her at a concert in Melbourne – where her favourite musician Michael Franti is playing.
2018
Kat and Jeff get married. Even though they are over 50, this is the first time for both to say ‘I do’. So in keeping with the true style of their lives of ‘Exceptional Journeys’, they say these words in the most amazing deserted island in the middle of the Pacific – One Foot Island, Aitutaki, Cook Islands. Combining with another trip to Europe, to celebrate with Kat’s family and friends, Kat and Jeff honeymoon in Sri Lanka on the way home to Australia.
2020
COVID-19 takes hold of the world, and Jeff and Kat have to return back to Melbourne, Australia from one of their extended trips. Travel to Australia is banned, decimating the travel industry and closing businesses. This gives them plenty of time to reminisce about their exceptional life journeys so far, and the idea of the Exceptional Journeys website is born.
2021
The Exceptional Journeys website is born and Kat and Jeffs’ Exceptional Journey continues….
Join us on this unforgettable African wildlife experience Africa has long held a fascination for us. Having spent several years working in tour guiding and living in Africa, we now want to share our best travel experiences in Africa with you. We have developed this tour using our intimate knowledge of Africa, and our network […]
Join us on this unforgettable private journey Africa has long held a fascination for us. Having spent several years working, tour guiding and living in Africa, we now want to share our best travel experiences in Africa with you. We have developed this tour using our intimate knowledge of Africa, and our network of contacts. […]
Kat and I have worked, lived, and travelled the world for over 35 years, including leading tour groups to some of the most difficult destinations, so you would expect we have learned a few things about travelling well and how to maximise experiences while travelling. So, after a lot of thought, we have compiled this […]
