Rung (Ranghild), Durban, South Africa
” Giving up is not an option”. A great role model - woman, wife, mother, grandmother, friend, businesswoman - who enjoys doing exactly what she has a strong vocation for. Home, family and friends, travelling, nature, photography. Birds.
As Mirka says: in the safari, when others were staring downwards to see The Big Five, Rung’s eyes were focused at the sky!
What Jonna (on the 22.12.) says, could easily be introduction to Rung’s story: “don’t plan too much, life tends to surprise you anyway!”. Life can take you to unexpected places.
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Rung tells:
“I was born in Norway, on a farm in southern Norway. I went to school there and attended Oslo University where I did a degree in English.
My father’s brother had left Norway during the Depression in the early 1930’ies as there was no work to be found in Norway. He went by ship to Durban, South Africa, where he had been promised a job by a Norwegian ship-chandler. At that time there was a big Norwegian community in Durban, due to the missionary, shipping and whaling industry. Many Norwegian ships called regularly at the port of Durban (the biggest port south of the equator) and the Norwegian ship chandler supplied them with the Norwegian specialties. My uncle married a woman who was born in Durban, her parents were from Norway. Uncle and aunt came to visit us in Norway each year, and each time they brought one of their five children, so I also got to know my cousins quite well although they were quite a bit older than me.
When I turned 21, my parents gave me a present of an air-ticket to Durban. I was going on Christmas holiday for 6 weeks, and I was going to stay with my cousin during that time. The flight was with SAS: Oslo – Copenhagen – Nairobi – Johannesburg, and from there, another flight Johannesburg – Durban. I had done quite a lot of travelling but only within Europe. I knew it was a long way to Africa but somehow, I had in my mind that Nairobi is in Africa and Johannesburg is in Africa, so they must be quite close to each other. By the time we arrived in Nairobi I was exhausted, and when I realized that there was another 4 – 5 hours flight to Johannesburg, I nearly got off in Nairobi – just to be able to sleep in a bed. Luckily, I stayed on board. I had no idea of the size of the African continent, I don’t think anyone realizes the distances until they travel here. I knew Africa had a warm climate so I assumed there would be palms everywhere. When we landed at Johannesburg airport there wasn’t a palm in sight – what a disappointment. But by the time I landed in Durban and met the family, I could see that Durban had a tropical climate, with palms and flowering trees everywhere.
I had a fantastic time, loved all the places we went, we went on safari and saw Africa’s wild animals; we went high up in the Drakensberg mountains – on mountain roads. We went to a family cottage on the beach and enjoyed the warm Indian Ocean – I loved everything I saw. I also met a very nice man; he was a friend of my cousin’s and he and I went to movies and for day trips in the area around Durban.
I went back to Norway but kept thinking what a fantastic time I’d had in South Africa. I didn’t know what I wanted to study next, and I decided I would take a gap year in South Africa. My cousin said I could stay with her, so I returned mid-March and moved in with my cousin. I enrolled at a secretarial course, learning to type is one of those life-skills everyone should learn. Nobody could pronounce my name “Ragnhild” so soon after I arrived, I got the nickname “Rung”. The man I had met earlier also kept up the contact, and it wasn’t long before we became an ‘item’ as they say. I got a job with a shipping company, and – we got engaged and married 2 years later. And we are still married today – 43 years later, with 3 grown-up children and 4 grandchildren (2 in Netherlands, 2 in South Africa).
After my job in shipping and after having 3 children in 5 years, I started a small catering business with a friend. This was something we could do while we had small children at home. When our youngest was 3 years old, my husband gave me a trip to Israel as a present – I had always wanted to visit Israel. And I loved the history and archaeology, so when I came home, I planned and arranged a new trip to Israel, I got 14 others to join me on this trip. This was the start of my life in travel, I started my own company – initially only doing outbound tour operating, but later the company grew, and we also started incoming to southern Africa. This is where most of my travel career was spent – planning holidays for groups and individual travelers to South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Mozambique. I was lucky and could travel to these areas on study visits and checking on the safari lodges, and safari is what I love most of all. The open spaces, nature, wildlife, un-spoilt by man. I am ‘semi-retired’ now, I work as a project consultant and my focus is now to broaden the safari-experiences for our clients. To suit family travel, honeymooners, guests wanting a walking safari, a birdwatching safari, a photographic safari, a mobile safari. This is what I am spending my time on and this is what I can do best of all.
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Meet Rung, originally from Norway, living today in Durban, South-Africa. A short recap: She is married to a South African, and they have 3 children, all grown up now. One son lives in Netherlands, two of them in South Africa and she has 4 grandchildren.
Today Rung works as Tour operator and destination specialist.
In addition to her life in travel, she was also appointed as the Honorary Consul for Norway (in 2009), and Honorary Consul for Denmark (in 2013), so she also assists Norwegian and Danish visitors and residents with whatever queries or problems they may have.
Rung, Mirka and Tiina used to be colleagues when Rung arranged and personally managed Aurinkomatkat’s tour series in South Africa some years ago. Mirka often mentions that one of the most fabulous trips and one the most valuable and beautiful experiences ever was the one in 2008 when she was visiting South Africa for work in a study visit and had a chance to have a 7 days tour with Rung and some colleagues.
EVERYDAY LIFE
In a normal Tuesday, Rung works: checks emails, is in contact with suppliers, scouts for new and interesting experiences for her clients (e.g. developing new options for wildlife safari options), checks contracts and rates.
In everyday life the worst part would be heavy traffic or illness and the most stressful thing is having to do accounting functions!
The very best and the most important in everyday life are home, family and friends. She loves cooking, good wine, food and music, especially when accompanied by her family members and the closest friends.
Go and check delicious East Coast Beans Curry-receipt, a traditional vegetarian curry from local Indian community, that Rung shared with us.
Doing what she loves – creating travel opportunities – is what gives her energy. Fulfilling the same dream and vocation which started already before and during the second journey to Israel. Today is not anymore about Israel, but South-Africa and Rung’s closer neighborhoods.
Find out more about Rung’s hidden travel gem: The wildlife reserves for safari on the east coast of South Africa.
It’s crystal clear that she loves to travel, nature, wildlife and birds. Something that includes everything said before, is photographing. That is the hobby that she enjoys during her free time and while travelling. When asked how she treats herself, the answer is: “having time for photography or having some new camera gear.”
Go and check Rung’s IG-account
Mercy towards herself and at the same time perseverance are the valuable values that Rung shares with us. “Be kind to yourself. You are valuable. You can do it!”, these are the words that she would like to share to a woman at her age on the other side of the world. It is an ageless advice. As are the words that she says to herself: “Smile and you won’t look your age.”
DREAMS & FEARS, PAST & FUTURE
What are your dreams?
“Travel to my favorite destinations.”
What is your worst fear?
“Losing those closest to me.”
What is the most important advice you have received?
“Never give up!”
What has been the greatest global invention of your time?
“Internet.”
Where would you donate your time/money to?
“1. Children in Africa 2. Animal welfare.”
Has the position of girls/women changed during your lifetime?
“Yes, women are now equal to men in most ways, and can do jobs which were previously ”men’s” jobs. But this has also brought more stress on women, having to be wives, mothers, home-carers as well as having their own career.”
If you could, what advice would you give to your 20-year-old self?
“Do what makes you happy, follow your heart. Don’t postpone experiences ’for later on’, life goes past too quickly.”
Where will you be in 10 years?
“Active, enjoying family, friends, hobbies. Still travelling.”
And how about Christmas traditions? Christmas Eve, Rung’s family celebrates Norwegian Christmas with salted herring, homemade GRAVLAKS and roast pork. After dinner: present! As Christmas is mid-summer in South-Africa and the weather is usually very hot, Christmas Day is often for BBQ or cold salads and meats.
STORY
Just a couple of years after I moved to South Africa and married here, my husband took me on a 2-week safari holiday. We visited Kruger Park and stayed in many of the rest camps. At the end of this holiday, he had booked us into a small private safari lodge close to Kruger. We arrived, it was just the owners/hosts and the two of us at the camp. The second day the owner asked if we wanted to spend the night in the open-air platform out in the bush. We both thought this sounded perfect, so after dinner that evening, we packed warm clothes, torches, coffee-flask and something to eat. We were taken – late at night – into the dark African bush, not a light to be seen anywhere – this area was then very remote. The open-air platform was built into a big tree, and this tree stood next to a waterhole where the animals would come to drink. We climbed up the ladder with our gear and sleeping bags, the owner said ’goodbye, I’ll come to fetch you tomorrow morning’, and he disappeared, we heard his jeep getting fainter and fainter. And there we were – alone – on an open platform high up in a tree, in the middle of Africa. No mobile phones in those days so if we changed our mind, we couldn’t call anyone for help. We lay there and admired the starry skies – it was so quiet, not a sound to be heard. We fell asleep but I woke up quite a few times – each time I looked the stars had moved – it was incredible to be so small in such a big universe and to be able to admire our world and nature completely un-spoilt. We woke up as it was just getting light – with the most incredible loud roar, coming from right underneath us. It was a male lion who had come to drink and decided to roar to show everyone that he was the King. The roar was so loud it felt as if our platform was shaking – almost like an earthquake. We were able to admire this lion as he drank, and then walked off into the bush as quietly as he had arrived. When the owner came to fetch us a couple of hours later, we had this incredible story to tell them. This night will never be forgotten.
The second story – our trip to Antarctica in 2013. I knew we would see penguins and lots of ice, but I hadn’t grasped the size, the distances, the remoteness of this white continent. Our ship (the Norwegian Hurtigruten’s Explorer ship ”Fram”) left Ushuaia in southern Argentina, we sailed to Falkland Islands where we saw our first penguins and albatrosses. Through stormy seas to South Georgia, famous from the whaling era and the incredible story of Ernest Shackleton. Hundreds of thousands of penguins, seals and incredible landscape. Then another few days further south until we came to the Antarctic mainland. The silence, the grandeur of nature, the way birds and animals can thrive in such harsh conditions – the human race is busy creating our own extinction unless we change our ways and allow nature to function as it should. Antarctica changes the way you live; changes the way you think and the way your treat nature. A privilege to have experienced this.
QUICK ONES
Drink: Wine
Favorite food: Steak
Delicacy: Sushi
Restaurant/Café: Ray’s Kitchen (www.rayskitchen.co.za)
Spice: Cumin
Feeling: Harmony
Music: Ballads
Scent: Floral
Travel destination: Southern Africa
Book: Sound of Thunder
Movie: Out of Africa by Sydney Pollack
Favorite public holiday: Christmas
Artist/band: Queen
Plant: Jasmin
Evening routine: TV & handcraft
Favorite piece of clothing: Jeans
Animal: Dog
Scenery: African bush
Sport: Hiking
Motto: Giving up is not an option!