Holiday recharge literally life changing for these couples

A couple who turned their passion for the bush into a business and a home. A woman who moved across the world after a holiday romance. A couple who decided to make aliya during a trip to Israel spent in bomb shelters. These stories are proof that holidays have the power to change a life. 

For Jesse and Devorah Lemmer, not only did a series of holidays lead to a business idea, they led to a permanent move to the bush. Though Devorah visited the Kruger National Park for the first time only when she started dating Jesse, she soon began to share his passion for the area. While they were dating, they often escaped Johannesburg city life to enjoy the freedom the bush offers. 

The Lemmers got married in 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Unhappy in their jobs, the couple decided to make a change and ultimately opened a travel company. The pandemic provided the perfect opportunity as game lodge prices were heavily discounted for South Africans. 

For work, they often visited Hoedspruit, which is surrounded by the Greater Kruger Park. Once on a working holiday there, Devorah jokingly suggested to Jesse that they move there. They soon began discussing the idea seriously, and two months later, began looking for a place to live. “It felt like wanting to go on holiday 24/7,” says Jesse. “At that point our jobs allowed us to live here, so we thought, why not?” 

The Lemmers ultimately found a home they loved. Yet over the next three years as their business and family expanded, the couple visited different lodges and began discussing the possibility of starting their own. 

They ultimately found a place in the Greater Kruger atop a hill, where they, together with their business partners, built a lodge from scratch. And so, 18 On The Hill, Greater Kruger Safari Lodge, was born. 

“We moved there at the end of July with our daughter, who is now 20 months old,” Devorah says. “The idea of living in the big five Greater Kruger was initially scary, but now that I’m here, I love it, despite the challenges of living somewhere so remote. It has become normal, but when our guests say that they can’t believe our child gets to grow up in this beautiful place, it reminds me that we’re blessed.” 

Though the couple misses Johannesburg’s rich community life, they have a kosher kitchen, attracting many Jewish guests, with frequent visits from friends and family as well. 

Jodi Bennett’s life changed when her now ex-husband, Barry, came to Cape Town on holiday from London. Originally from Johannesburg, Bennett had been living in Cape Town with a former boyfriend. On a rainy Christmas day in 1995, she landed up at the Ambassador Hotel in Bantry Bay. 

“We were on our way to the beach in Clifton, but because it started pouring, our plans changed,” she says. “There were a few British tourists sitting in the bar, and we started talking to them.” There was a man among the group of female travellers named Barry. He had come on the holiday by chance. when he was invited after one of the other girls cancelled. 

Immediately attracted to him, Bennett asked Barry for his phone number, inviting him and his friends out for dinner that night. “It’s amazing how things pan out,” Bennett says. “I was absolutely not expecting to meet anyone that day.” At dinner, she and Barry sat opposite one another and hit it off. 

The two spent the rest of Barry’s trip touring in and around Cape Town. “It was almost like the universe put this guy on my path – he was even Jewish,” Bennett says. “When he left, I decided that I was going to move to London to be with him. It was a crazy, impulsive thing to do, but we just didn’t want to be without each other.” Though Bennett’s move came with challenges including lack of family support and conflict with Barry’s family, the couple remained in London. They married in South Africa in 1999. 

“I had my son at the age of 27, and then by the age of 30, I was divorced,” she says. Still living in London after 30 years, she says it still doesn’t quite feel like home, but she’s remained to be near her son who is now in his 20s. Though the marriage didn’t last, she says, they had a great story to begin with. 

Instead of moving to a retirement home in Johannesburg, Jeff and Sharon Jeffroy decided to make aliya. They have always loved Israel, especially Ra’anana, where they spent a month last year when they visited for their granddaughter’s wedding. 

While on a holiday in Israel for the same granddaughter’s graduation in June this year, the couple found themselves making multiple trips to a bomb shelter due to the war with Iran. Surprisingly, it was this experience that sparked their decision to move there. 

“While we were there, the whole family stayed in one flat,” Jeff says. “The bomb shelter was a fairly big one downstairs in the basement. In the bomb shelter I learned that when it’s a communal shelter, it becomes a social gathering.” Upon news of Israel’s pre-emptive attack on Iran, the family were very concerned. “I made friends with a woman there, a former soldier who had a radio in the bomb shelter,” Jeff says. She kept Jeff and his family informed. 

“When she told us Israel had taken control of Iranian airspace, I wanted to cry,” he says. “On the third day in the bomb shelter, I turned to Sharon and said, ‘We are going to be moving out of our house, why don’t we move here?’” To his delight, his wife agreed. 

“There’s always a divine plan for whatever we do,” Jeff says. “So, when that urge came to move to Ra’anana, I felt peaceful. I felt I was doing the right thing. That’s the place we must be. Israel is a place of miracles.”