Dusty Boots To Boardroom; follow your dreams

Adrian Stratta

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English

Integral Growth Ltd
12 June 2025

Autobiography: general; Adventure holidays; Expeditions

Life is short-so why not follow your dreams?

After years of building separate careers, Catherine and I were drifting apart. The solution? A bold leap into the unknown: a journey deep into the wild heart of Africa.

What followed was a journey of reconnection, challenge, and discovery. From unexpected detours to transformative encounters, this is the true story of how an African adventure reshaped our relationship, our perspectives, and ultimately, our lives. This is a tale of one couple's long drive home.

This is more than a travel memoir, taking the slow, less driven road, it's an invitation to embark on your own adventure and emulate our journey. We capture the true voice of Africa, those making the continent work. Unexpectantly, we also bumped into the 'great and the good'; Hollywood actors and environmentalist, the odd mercenary and past warriors.

What does one do after a military career?

The book reflects on how the military mind adapts to the Boardroom.

After 35,248 km on a single slow puncture (two Land Rovers, a few clutches and a bent steering rod), they arrive home in England, wiser, closer and more assured. They will not be the last, nor were they the first African adventurers, for very single journey is unique. Go find yourselves!

By: Adrian Stratta
Imprint: Integral Growth Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781068485503
ISBN 10: 1068485507
Pages: 165
Publication Date: 12 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Prologue Part 1: Why and where in Africa 1. Landing in South Africa on 9/11 2. What is Overlanding - Why Africa? 3. Daphne gets her kit on Part 2: Southern Africa 4. Kalahari rehearsal 5. Prior preparation and planning 6. Who Knew? Forming the Holybourne Sand Club 7. The highest country in the world 8. Africa's iconic city and coastline 9. We can rebuild you 10. Dark skies over the Namib Part 3: An Extended Classic Safari 11. The Okavango ecosystem 12. Boy scout was a revelation 13. We weren't feeling the 'warm heart of Africa' 14. In the footsteps of Burton and Speke Part 4: East Africa 15. Crossing the Equator 16. The 'Pearl of Africa' 17. High Expectations for the Roof of Africa 18. Changing our religion Part 5: The Unknown and amazing Sahara 19. The kindness of strangers (you are pointing that gun at m, aren't you?) 20. Parlez-vous francais? 21. Following a hunch 22. Joy from an unexpected bonus Part 6: Home...what's next? 23. After Cap Blanc, we change continents 24. Making sense of it all Epilogue - Catherine Stratta's 2024 reflections on the circularity of life Acknowledgements

Adrian and Catherine are a couple of Home County grammar school kids who met at Sheffield University in the mid 1980s. We have lived in our Hampshire village for the last 30 odd years, walking our dogs, although we have lived and worked abroad during this time. Catherine remains the 'brains trust' having studied medicine. She attained her place with Arts A-Levels, which she converted to three sciences in her first university year. We have been together since university, despite our divergent vocations. Post-university, Catherine went into pharmaceuticals, working and managing drug trials to test the efficacy of nascent compounds. I spent 17 years within the Parachute Regiment, leaving with an MBA and MoD experience. Commercially, I found there was little need for parachute assaults upon the city, yet I became adept in making sense of, and creating order from, disorder, to form and storm divergent teams. As a global interim executive, I focused on transformation, change and turnaround in big corporates/programmes, start-ups and on sustainable growth; getting parachuted into companies (no pun intended) with a mandate to transform. Takes me back to where I began!