about us

Endorphin Expeditions has a close relationship with our sister company WhyAfrica, globally known for its multi-day overland road trips across Africa focussed on investment opportunities and the sustainable development of Africa’s natural resources. 

Endorphin Expeditions specialises in operating fact-finding overland expeditions for professionals and investors, overland adventures, educational road trips and endurance expeditions.

Each expedition offers a clear theme, a learning or experiential outcome and a strong narrative from the African continent connecting places, people and landscapes.  

Endorphin Expeditions is defined by intellectual depth rather that luxury, access and understanding rather than spectacle, authenticity rather than comfort. 

Our Team

Endorphin Expeditions was started by Leon Louw and Nicola Theunissen, both seasoned travellers passionate about the African continent.

Nicola has extensive travel experience and has visited more than 62 countries across the world, many of them in Africa. She has an insatiable sense of adventure and has, amongst many other bucket list items, summited Mount Kilimanjaro, finished two Comrades ultra marathons and tracked guerillas in the forests of the Virunga National Park.

She worked in Africa and internationally, first in the media space as a journalist and communication specialist covering a range of economic sectors, before moving on to work in the humanitarian and development sector in Rome, Italy.

Nicola once took a local bus from Ghana to Timbuktu in Mali, survived a massive storm on an island off the coast of Senegal, and spent a lot of time travelling on her own in South America and Africa.

 

Leon has travelled and worked as a journalist, tour guide and expedition leader across Africa for more than 28 years. He is the founder of WhyAfrica and started the annual WhyAfrica Road Trips through Africa in 2022.

Before that, he worked as a mining journalist and tour guide in most southern African countries, being based in Botswana for five years doing safaris in the Okavango Delta, Moremi, Savuti, Chobe and through remote Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

Leon has led expeditions for journalists through post-war Mozambique and Zimbabwe, undertook fact finding tours for investors to Angola, Malawi and Tanzania, did stories in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Nigeria, and took tourists on multi-day Big 5 walking expeditions and nature trails through large parts of the Kalahari and Namib desert.  

Leon has canoed the croc and hippo infested Zambezi River in Zambia and Zimbabwe 15 times and survived. He would love to do it again.

Why travel overland with Endorphin Expeditions?

  • We have years of on-the-ground travel experience in Africa.
  • If you lack the confidence of travelling alone in Africa, it’s easier, safer, and more enjoyable to join our groups and local guides to show you around.
  • Our local guides are knowledgeable and passionate about Africa, and enthusiastic to share their knowledge with you.
  • Our guides know all the backroads and all the short cuts, they are familiar with animal behaviour, and have a large network of people in the local communities that you might want to meet.
  • You do not have to stress about planning your trip, safety, getting food or rushing from one attraction to the next, we do it all for you at a relaxed pace.
  • With a maximum of 12 people our group size is ideal to not affect the quality of your experience.
  • We focus on special interest tours, so whichever road trip you choose to do, it is an amazing educational experience.
  • If you are a keen hiker or runner and prefer a healthy, active holiday in Africa, our Running Expedition is the road trip designed just for you.
  • Nothing beats sitting around the campfire with the Endorphin group at night, watching the stars and discussing the day’s events.
  • On Endorphin Expeditions’ tours, age do not matter.