In the early 70’s Stefan’s father was involved in farming activities near Lubango and Caraculo in Angola. Growing up on a cattle and game farm Stefan always lived close to nature. After the end of the border war in 1990, with the official opening of the border posts between Namibia and Angola, he came to Angola to explore the tourism potential.

During his student years at university, he often visited Angola on his own, scouting the landscape for tourism opportunities. In 1995 he founded Bush Pilots Namibia, a tourism company in Namibia who pioneered pilot guided safaris in the region.  Since the safaris included Angola, he started to spend more time in Angola than in his country of birth, Namibia.  After establishing the first tourism camp on the coast south of Moçâmedes in 1997, he decided to leave the venture in 1998 to pursue his quest of discovering more areas in Angola.  And during 2000 the decision to relocate to Angola permanently was easy to make.

Settling in Angola

One of Stefan’s greatest passions is to accurately record and map the Angolan battlefields of the 1970 to 1998 period, and to preserve these battlefields for future generations.  When time permits, he guides veteran excursions to these areas as part of his service to the veterans of South Africa, Angola, Cuba, Namibia and Russia.

During the 2000’s he was in the aviation business in Angola which provided him with the means to invest in his other great passion, conservation in Angola. The first conservation project was launched in the Cuanza Sul Province in 2005 and later in January 2013 in the Cuando Cubango Province of Angola. Friends and contacts insisted on joining him during these Angola uncharted safaris and expeditions, and he once again became involved with tourism full time combining both his passions, to conserve and promote tourism in Angola.

Stefan is married to Denise van Wyk a born Luandese, and she lives with their kids in Luanda. If Stefan is not on an expedition somewhere in Angola, he is dividing his time between his family in Luanda and his conservation project in the Cuando Cubango Province, Cuatir. With the home language being Portuguese, his most challenging task to date is to teach his kids some English and Afrikaans.