Southern Drift Travel - Cape Town

Bush pilot.
Twenty years in the air.
Adventure architect.

Paula Johnson - Founder, Southern Drift Travel

Paula Johnson

The guide behind
the journey.

Southern Drift exists because Paula believes that great trips don't just happen. She knows the logistics of remote travel like few others, and she knows which camp in the Okavango is worth the bumpy road and which one isn't.

Before Southern Drift, Paula spent twenty years in aviation - first as a bush pilot threading Cessnas into remote safari airstrips across Southern Africa, then based in Japan for five years as an international pilot flying Dreamliners across Asia and Oceania.

Born in Zimbabwe, raised in South Africa, with childhood years in Singapore and Kenya along the way - she has been reading unfamiliar places and working across cultures her whole life.

She has seen the world from forty thousand feet and from the waterline. Fifty-eight countries. All seven continents. Every journey filed from memory, not a brochure.

"Experiencing the world through endless second-hand information isn't enough. If we want authenticity, we have to initiate it."
- Travis Rice
58
Countries
explored
7
Continents
visited
20
Years in
aviation
1
Consultant
you can trust
How Southern Drift was built

Not a travel agent.
A fellow traveller.

Southern Drift is a specialist adventure travel consultancy based in Cape Town, serving clients globally. We offer curated experiences across Africa, the Americas, South East Asia and Japan - from ultra-luxury private lodges to mobile tented camps, sailing expeditions, diving adventures, motorbike routes and everything in between.

Paula is an independent travel consultant affiliated with Waybird - which means access to a rigorously vetted network of lodges, operators and experiences, combined with the kind of personal knowledge that only comes from having actually been there.

The Southern Drift approach is simple: no standard packages. Every journey is designed from scratch around the person making it - the season they're travelling, the kind of traveller they actually are, and the experience they don't yet know they're looking for. Paula doesn't sell trips. She builds them.

She is also the kind of consultant who will tell you honestly when a destination is not worth the cost in a particular month, which camp is overrated despite the reviews, and which entirely overlooked corner of the continent will define the trip. That opinion comes from experience, not commission.

What Southern Drift does differently

Three things that matter.
Three things we never compromise on.

01

Logistics expertise

Remote travel is complex. Bush airstrips, seasonal road closures, visa requirements, altitude acclimatisation, equipment logistics - Paula understands the mechanics of getting you somewhere difficult, and making it feel effortless.

02

Tailored itineraries

No two Southern Drift trips are the same. Every itinerary is built around you - your pace, your interests, your idea of what constitutes a great day in the field. The Waybird platform lets you see your itinerary before you commit to it, so nothing is left to imagination.

03

Active pursuits, elevated

Southern Drift is built for people who travel with their boots on. Diving, fly fishing, walking safaris, motorbike routes, canoeing, kitesurfing - the adventure is the point. The luxury is in having someone who understands both sides of that equation.

Ready to plan?

Tell Paula where
you want to go.

Every Southern Drift journey begins with a conversation. No packages, no pressure - just your trip, built from the ground up.

Plan a journey paula@southerndrifttravel.com