The Common Vein

Russel Friedman

Living in:  South Africa

Married to Bonnie

One daughter Gabriella 22

Hobbies, Collecting Bird Books, Mountain biking photography, bird watching and travel.

When I matriculated I did not obtain a university entrance as I had such an aversion to Afrikaans was not able to get a second language to attend varsity.  I was also fortunate to get out of the army and not have to do military service in the apartheid regime.  I joined my late uncle in his technical bookshop which was downtown Johannesburg.  We sold our book business in 1982 to one of the mining conglomerates which freed me up to start a Natural History mail-order book business and also to make an investment in Wilderness Safaris which at the time was running mobile safaris in Botswana.   The two businesses complimented each other as my customers from the book business were all potential clients for safaris.  I sold my mail order business in 2005 allowing me more time in the safari industry.  Wilderness Safaris is one of the largest safari companies in Africa we currently have 61 game lodges in 7 countries.  I travel to the USA twice year marketing to all our USA based agents so will have to look you all up on my next visits.  I currently head up our Environmental division in the Wilderness group and am chairman of our Wilderness Safaris Wildlife Trust.  One of our key projects has been HIV /AIDS which has been managed for us by Clive Evian.

 I have been very fortunate to be involved in a business which is also my passion.  I married Bonnie in 1977 and we are still soul mates with very similar interests.  We were involved in starting the Vulture Study group in the 70?s looking at ways of stopping the decline of the threatened Cape Griffon Vulture.  In 1979 we attended the first Wold Vulture Conference which precipitated the interest in Vultures worldwide.  Due to the nature of our business we have managed to travel over most parts of Africa, Antarctica, South America, Galapagos, India, Cambodia and Vietnam over the past years.

Bonnie is a ceramic potter and has her own studio on our 21 acre property in Kyalami, North of Johannesburg.

Hobbies:  Collecting Bird books from all over the world, mountain biking in fantastic and remote places.  Each year we run a charity MTB ride for one of our programs called Children in the Wilderness where we take under privileged children into our camps for a week?s program.    The cycle ride is about 350 kms long over five days and we traverse some wonderful game parks.  This past August we started our ride in Eastern Botswana ( Tuli Block) rode along about 100 kms of elephant tracks then crossed over to Zimbabwe and finally on the last day ended up back in South Africa.  This year we had over 280 cyclists that participated.  I am also a very keen photographer specialising in Wildlife photography.

We adopted our daughter Gabi in 1987 she is currently in final year Bachelor of Arts at Rhodes University majoring in Anthropology and Organisational Psychology.  She was a very keen horse rider competed in show jumping and dressage prior to starting university.  She is also a keen naturalist and bird watcher.

Photos being sent separately

 

Russel Friedman  rusself@wilderness.co.za
Founding Partner

 

Wilderness Safaris (Pty) Ltd
P O Box 5219, Rivonia, 2128, South Africa
373 Rivonia Boulevard,  Rivonia, South Africa

T + 27 11 257 5016 (direct)
T + 27 11 807 1800
F + 27 865060599 (direct)

www.wilderness-safaris.com
www.north-island.com
www.childreninthewilderness.com
www.wildernesstrust.com
www.pdasolutions.co.za