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Ben Swanepoel

Goodreads Author

Born

in Cape Town, South Africa

Website

https://www.ben-swanepoel.com

Genre

Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography

Influences

John Steinbeck, Earnest Hemmingway, Richard Halliburton

Member Since

November 2021

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I was born in South Africa very close to the Southernmost tip of Africa. My formative years were spent on lighthouse stations along the South African and Namibian coastline until we moved into the city for schooling. It was a struggle for me to settle into city life, feeling restless and out of place in the built-up environment.

For reasons I never fully understood then, I grew up painfully unconfident, a situation reenforced through an incident at school. On the flip side, I developed an insatiable appetite and longing for adventure and independence. It has been this internal tension, this yin and yang, that has made every adventure or minor incident in my life stand out as something special, something worthy of note.

From my early primary I was born in South Africa very close to the Southernmost tip of Africa. My formative years were spent on lighthouse stations along the South African and Namibian coastline until we moved into the city for schooling. It was a struggle for me to settle into city life, feeling restless and out of place in the built-up environment.

For reasons I never fully understood then, I grew up painfully unconfident, a situation reenforced through an incident at school. On the flip side, I developed an insatiable appetite and longing for adventure and independence. It has been this internal tension, this yin and yang, that has made every adventure or minor incident in my life stand out as something special, something worthy of note.

From my early primary school years, I was involved with a small group of friends, and together we explored the mountains of the Cape Peninsula, the caves of Kalk Bay and, later, the mountain ranges of the Western Cape. Two years of military service, first in Cape Town then later up north, in Namibia, guided my transition from innocence to young adult, and on re-entering civilian life, I fell headlong into the dazed and confused years of my early 20s.

With no opportunity to study further, or any real career guidance, I took on a series of dead-end jobs, and although I was conscientious and moved quickly up the ladder, I must confess that I was motivated purely by the need to fund my surfing and social life.

Eventually things fell apart, and I reached the point where I cried out, “Not another day!” From that point on, my life was transformed. I left my job in retail, sailed across the ocean to St Helena, met and married my wife, and finally found the career I was destined for, Nature Conservation.

As a nature reserve manager, I worked on some of the most iconic reserves in the Western Cape of South Africa, and my family grew and flourished in the freedom that the environment provided. Living inside the parks away from the city, my children experienced a childhood few can dream of now days. It was during this time that I picked up on my studies, and through distance learning, received first my National Diploma in Nature Conservation, then later a BA degree in Environmental Management.

As a family, we took a few detours during this time, and I left conservation for 5 years, during which I started my own small construction and maintenance business, briefly ran a youth group, managed a sheep farm, and later, a poultry hatchery. When I finally got back into conservation, things had changed, and I found myself in a mountain catchment area where wildfires and alien vegetation control were the primary conservation activities.

In 1994, the political situation in South Africa changed for the better and I soon found myself at the forefront of the reconstruction and development program within the context of conservation in the new South Africa. I had much to learn and was perfectly placed to do so. After playing a key role in a very successful community conservation project in the Western Cape, my reward was an offer to management one of the flagship conservation areas in the Western Cape where we lived and worked for many years among the animals on land and the Southern Right whales along the coastline. Instead of leaving for the city as my parents had done, we home-schooled our 3 children for a major part of their schooling life.

When my wife and children packed up and left for the city to continue their post school education, I found myself, once again, alone. Alone has never been a negative for me. For the next few years, I focused on re-building my confidence, and rediscovering myself, which had somehow got lost in the whirlwind of the past years. I competed in 2 ultra-long (2,300km) unsupported mountain bike races across South Africa, trained for and completed 2 ironman events, cycled across South Africa from North to South, and competed in a series of local running and cycling events.
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Combine Editions
Ben Swanepoel’s books

Average rating: 5.0 · 3 ratings · 1 review · 2 distinct works

	OMAN ORACLES: Views from my saddle it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	NOT ANOTHER DAY it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Ben Swanepoel's Blog

Pt 5 - Test print - November 2021

Test print – 7-10 November

Early in November, I sent the Print PDF documents to our local printer here in Vientiane, Laos. I have used them many times before for small projects during my InDesign training days, and they always did an excellent professional job. I had them print 4 copies for me. I was excited and a little nervous when I went to collect them, but they were fine. The professional edit

Ben is Currently Reading

Ben Swanepoel is currently reading

Moby-Dick or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

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Nov 22, 2021 12:26AM

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Ben Swanepoel rated a book it was amazing Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 23, 2025 12:37AM · like