About me
Hi! My name is Lies - and this is the story behind Soulstride Africa
I was born in the Netherlands, but spent my early childhood in Guinea-Bissau (West Africa). When I was five, we had to flee because of a civil war and returned to the Netherlands; but Africa has always stayed with me.
In 2022 I discovered the world of horseback safaris in Africa. Since then I’ve done a WorkAway in Zimbabwe, spent three months working at a stable in South Africa and from 2024 until the end of 2025 I worked at various horse-focused places across Southern Africa.
I got to know the people behind the safaris: the guides, the teams, the horses, the landscape. Not as a tourist, but as a colleague and part of the daily life. That connection, that realness, is what I want to share through Soulstride.
Soulstride Africa is my way of sharing my story and helping riders find the safari that truly fits them. I work with a small selection of places I know and trust personally. Not as a tour operator, but as a bridge between you and an experience that feels right.
Because in the saddle, somewhere out in the African wilderness, something special happens: time slows down and you come closer to yourself.
Soulstride stands for travelling in a way that moves both the body and the heart. A stride is the rhythm of the horse, the soul is the rhythm of the rider. Together they create journeys that will stay with you, even long after the dust settles.