Born in Zimbabwe, Phyllis was raised in South Africa. Some of her earliest childhood memories are of traveling with family throughout Southern Africa – where she developed her lifelong love of wildlife and the bush. Having spent most of her life in the Stellenbosch wine district with relatives in the winemaking business, she witnessed South African viticulture from vine to wine. Moving away from the Cape, she pursued a culinary degree from the International Hotel School in Johannesburg, and after several years in the north, the vineyards and coastline beckoned her home. Returning to the Cape resulted in a career shift into marketing, where she became Toyota South Africa’s regional corporate travel and events manager. She became a resident of the United States in 1987, but returned to South Africa in 1999 to start up a chain of local eateries. Now living in the US, but returning to her first home regularly, Phyllis is living her dream: using her years of professional and personal experience, knowledge and love of her native country to bring the best of the Southern African experience to Wild Life Wine Safaris’ clients.