Trip Leader Profiles

  • 2602_140997170703_6848653_nRhoda has been an adventurer all her life. Born in South Africa, she spent her early years exploring the natural environment with her father, learning skills from tree climbing and foraging to astrology and wildlife identification.

    After moving to the UK Rhoda continued her passion for wildlife, studying Zoological Conservation Management and learning wildlife and man tracking from one of the world’s foremost trackers. Through her studies of the origins of tracking an interest in indigenous people and tribal cultures was ignited.

    Rhoda decided after having her first child (Kai) to set up an adventure travel company and Worldwild Adventures (the UK company) was born. The main focus of the adventures that Rhoda put together, and the reason that she started doing this in the first place, was to connect people with the natural world and also with the indigenous cultures living in the countries that we visited. She was looking to reconnect clients with traditional ways of living, finding a link to our ancestors and often finding a more grounded but also more spiritual outlook on life. It was very much about getting away from the fast paced, urban way of life and back to our roots.

    Rhoda remains passionate about wildlife, indigenous cultures and the beautiful places out there to be explored. She want to connect people with a different way of living, a new way of experiencing the world, believing that spending time in these often remote places, in nature and with cultures who are much more connected to the earth than we are in the Western world is an experience that is potentially life changing for most people.

    Rhoda is also passionate about sustainability, about giving back to the places that we visit. She wants to use these holidays as a means for raising awareness and for helping the communities, wildlife and habitats that we spend time with. Rhoda also has plans to set up a foundation to help indigenous cultures to build sustainable livelihoods through eco-tourism. Something that she has seen done very successfully in Africa, enabling tribes to take back control and rebuild their communities from often desperate situations.

    Rhoda is really excited to be working with Jaime… “We each have different skills, ideas and connections to bring to World Wild Adventures and together we have created something very powerful”.

    ©WWA- (2)

  • jaime
    Jaime was born in Christchurch New Zealand, to a South African father and New Zealand mother (who met in Israel). International travel and adventure is in his blood, from the moment he could walk it has been about adventure, nature and finding his own way through life. His father’s stories of working in the wilds of Namibia Africa instilled a passion for experiencing the wild places on earth, and the even wilder animals that live there. Jaime has now become a Guide, Instructor, Photographer and Film Maker, and all these skills create a wonderful foundation to explore and share the world.

    An avid whitewater kayaker, turned pro sea kayak and wilderness guide, he has worked and paddled in amazing places around the world.He has paddled in many stunning locations around the world, including paddling Class 3-5 rivers in New Zealand, Canada, and Norway; canoe tripping up tropical rivers in Belize, the lake regions of British Columbia. He now predominately sea kayaks, both for work as a guide and for play, all of which has led him to paddle the salty waters of Western Canada & the USA, New Zealand, Croatia, Norway, Belize, Panama, Thailand, and the UK. In 2013, Jaime has run the Grand Canyon on the powerful Colorado River by sea kayak and folding sea kayak. Jaime has lead many a client group on paddling adventures in some of the worlds most stunning countries.

    Aside from paddling Jaime is also a passionate traveler and adventurer, and over the years has also worked and trained in Rafting, Canoeing, Back packing, Rappelling, Sailing and winter Skills. He has also worked in Arctic Canada as a dogsled guide and wolf naturalist, where he got to experience in real life, polar bears, muskox, wolves and many of the other storybook creatures of his youth. Jaime still returns to the far north (of Canada, USA and also Norway) and enjoys taking clients to see the Arctic.

    Jaime is now based out of British Columbia Canada, where the wild nature of the Pacific Northwest has captured his wild soul. Along side Business partner Rhoda He strives to share with clients the less traveled places of the world by facilitating amazing trips,  making fun and educational adventure films, and learning new things everyday, all while hopefully inspiring others to follow their dreams!

    (c)JaimeSharp-3935

  • ©WWA-1000450Born into an expatriate family Stuart grew up in Saudi Arabia, his earliest memories are of exploring the Rub’ al Khali (largest sand desert in the world) in the back of a 1974 Chevy blazer.

    Habitual exposure to this starkly beautiful and unforgiving wilderness developed into chronic adventure seeking behaviour.

    Leaving home at 16 Stuart bummed around the Indian Ocean and Africa for a few years before deciding that, despite years of practical wilderness exposure he needed to increase the breadth of his skill set in order to make his nomadic lifestyle self sufficient. To this end he qualified as an expedition leader, dive leader, motor vehicle mechanic and wilderness emergency medical technician and swift water rescue technician, in addition to undertaking a five year apprenticeship in Canada with Mors Kochanski culminating in his certification as wilderness safety and survival instructor (one of only 7 people worldwide with this distinction)

    Stuart has spent over 30 years traveling the world seeking the last of its nomadic hunter-gathering communities, he has lived for months at a time with the Bushmen of the Khalahari and the Penan of Borneo amongst many other cultures, along the way he has worked with numerous NGO’s, expeditionary groups, consulted for equipment manufacturers, and provided training in wilderness skills to countless individuals and organisations.

    Stuart currently resides in Borneo and continues to travel perpetually, usually alone or in the company of the planets oldest nomadic cultures; he is at his most content in the world’s wildest places, living with nature on its own terms.

  • Martine, our Central America WWA trip leader.©WWA-Martine3

    Being outdoors is a primal urge for Martine. From a young age, she would explore her local wilderness and learn everything she could about the landscape, the animals and all that thrived within it. It was the beginning of a lifelong passion that would one day take her to the rainforests of Costa Rica.

    In 2006 Martine co-founded the successful sustainable travel company, StepOut Experience. This company was inspired by a documentary pilot that she completed for a series that focused on overworked urbanites needing to step away from technology and their everyday lives. Working on this documentary project prompted Martine to step out of her own path as a social worker in Toronto and follow her dreams to become a true naturalist, one that no longer woke up to the sound of an alarm clock but instead to the sound of howler monkeys.

    With StepOut Experience Martine has led hundreds of people in small groups to discover not only the beauty of the rainforest in Costa Rica but the Mayan ruins, caves and islands of Belize.  She is a self-taught naturalist and wildlife expert who continues to inspire and excite. Through her love of nature and the culture of Costa Rica, Martine captures the attention and imagination of those who explore with her, as they discover a world of colors and learn about the intricacies of the rainforest and it’s many wonders.

    monk

  • leo_02

    If modern British adventure has a face, it looks a lot like Leo Houlding.

    Based in the Lake District, UK, at 30 he is one of Britain’s top climbers and among the best in the world. He is a veteran of a score of epic ascents including Everest but specializes in free climbing the most technical peaks and biggest walls in the world. An experienced base jumper he is at the forefront of Para-Alpinism (climbing up then flying down). Leo pushes the limits of exploratory adventure by taking the ultimate in extreme sports to the most extreme environments.

    An articulate communicator he has captivated and inspired audiences around the world with his tales of adrenalin fueled exploits. He sports an impressive television résumé, including an infamous appearance on the BBC’s Top Gear, his own show on Virgin One “Take Me To The Edge”, and an IMAX movie released in 2010: “The Wildest Dream” retracing the last steps of Mallory andIrvine on their fateful expedition to Everest in 1924. In 2009 he produced and featured in the multi award-winning movie “The Asgard Project” an epic, arctic adventure to free climb and BASE jump from one of the worlds toughest and most remote big walls.

    Leo has become an ambassador for the younger generation of climbers and has beencalled one of Britain’s top ten adventurers by The Telegraph.

    Leo Antarctica