Allied has always been part of the Tanda Tula family, in fact, his relationship with us started before most. He was born and grew up with his dad, Formen, and Nina and Don at another lodge in the Timbavati. At the age of 5, he left the reserve and went back to his Village so he could start attending school.
Then in 2016, he moved back into the bush permanently, joining his dad at Tanda Tula Safari Camp. Through our Education Foundation Allied was able to start going to Southern Cross Schools, a private school based in Hoedspruit. His initial biggest challenge in this new school environment was the workload and time schedules, but he settled down and made friends. He remembers that when he arrived, at the end of the year in Grade 6, he almost immediately had to go on a school trip, this forced him to forge friendships quickly and these young people are still his closest friends today.
Allied has just finished his final school year, having completed his last exam a few weeks back. The subjects he chose for finals were English, Afrikaans, Maths, Tourism, Business, LO, and Life Science. Now he must just wait for the results which will come out in January, but this young, enthusiastic man is feeling positive and excited to start a new journey.
If you follow our social media pages, you will know what a keen and talented wildlife photographer Allied is. Having first picked up a camera only a few years ago this hobby quickly took over Allied’s life and has become the driving force behind getting him out of bed every morning. He may not be sure exactly what will happen next for him, now that his school career is finished, but he is certain that it will involve his true passion which is wildlife photography and filmmaking.
He is eager to grow his knowledge of filmmaking, photographic postproduction, and how to take his love of wildlife and photography and extend it to the next level. Allied would love to travel to photograph and film wildlife all over the world, seeing new species and creatures in a wide variety of environments. His next big dream is to go to Kenya and see the black leopard as well as the Pantanal in Brazil to see the jaguar.
However, while he is still on home soil, we are going to be taking full advantage of this young man’s talents. So, keep an eye on our various social media platforms for Allied’s first virtual safari…. Coming soon!
