Jan Barrie & Jeremy Perks, Directors, Global Gypsies Pty Ltd

• Winners of Gold Medal for Adventure Tourism at 2011 WA Tourism Awards
• Winners of Bronze Medal for Tourism Education & Training at 2011 WA Tourism Awards
• Winner: 2004 Facet Golden Guide Award (WA Tour Guide of the Year)
• Established in 1997, National Accreditation through Tourism Council WA
• Licensed to operate by the WA Department of Parks & Wildlife Services
• Jeremy Perks is a qualified mechanic, an Honorary Ranger WA Department of Parks & Wildlife Services and is experienced in first aid & bush survival
• All 4WD instructors are polite, intelligent & articulate & hold Certificate IV in Workplace Training & Assessment
• We offer a full-day recreational 4WD driver training course on scheduled dates
• We offer unique, private half-day towing training courses on days to suit. If you live in/near the Perth CBD, our experienced instructors will even come to your home to do the training!
• We offer a unique, award-winning Tour Guide training course - a live-in weekend program focusing on practical knowledge, hands-on experience & group interaction
• We've published a top-selling book entitled "How to be an Award-Winning Tour Guide" - purchase soft copies from our website or read it on Kindle!

Jeremy Perks and Jan Barrie established GLOBAL GYPSIES in 1997 to give travellers around the world the opportunity to join them on escorted, remote area adventures to such exciting destinations as the Australian outback, China, the Silk Road, Peru, Ecuador, Antarctica, Alaska and more.

A "Global Gypsies" safari is not just any old adventure...why? Because it's designed FOR travellers BY travellers.

Our training programs in four-wheel driving, towing and tour-guiding are designed to give our students not just the information they require to make them confident and competent, but also to give them a greater appreciation of the environment in which they are operating and how they can help protect it.

Here's some background about Jan + Jeremy and our company.

Born in South Africa, Jeremy is a professional tour Guide and the Winner of the prestigious FACET Tour Guide of the Year Award. In his youth he served as an Officer in the South African Defence Force where he learned bush survival and leadership skills. He's a qualified mechanic (petrol & diesel) and an experienced four-wheel-driver who loves the flora and fauna, is a hobby photographer and has a certificate in remote area first aid. In addition to designing & running safaris, he also trains other aspiring tour Guides and has developed a reputation as an outstanding trainer and recruitment officer within the industry. He is also an accredited trainer in towing and a range of advanced driver training skills and holds a Certificate IV in Workplace Training & Assessment (TAA).

Now based in Perth, Jeremy spends most of his life "on the road". Because of the vast distances in Australia, he often covers 10,000 kms in a month! He has a full range of driving licenses ranging from motor bike to 50-ton truck, and has been known to fix a broken vehicle with a rubber band and a piece of string!

But Jeremy didn't always work "in the bush". For many years he was the Managing Director of a major Johannesburg advertising agency - suit, tie, the works! After he successfully expanded the business into East Africa, he made a big decision - he decided to quit the "9 to 5" rat-race, and went off to manage a safari camp in Kenya's Rift Valley.

The camp was exquisite - a few small tents dotted around the edge of a lake in the heart of an extinct volcano, about an hour's drive from the town of Naivasha. The bush was thick and mysterious, and each day brought new sightings of exotic birds, black & white colobus monkeys, giraffe, warthog, gazelle, even the occasional leopard. From then on, he was hooked on the outdoor life, and now it's become a career.

Jan was born in London, but spent most of her early life in the USA. She studied journalism there, and worked in Washington DC for a lobbying and marketing firm. But soon she got the travel bug, and it wasn't long before she was exploring Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.

She fell in love with Australia, and after working on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef and in Melbourne, she settled in Perth, Western Australia. She held senior positions in marketing and public relations there, but itchy feet struck again, and in 1992 she headed off to Nairobi, Kenya. She joined a multi-national advertising agency heading up their PR division and also began writing travel articles about her African adventures for Kenya's national newspaper & a host of international travel magazines.

Jan and Jeremy met up in Nairobi, and thus began a partnership which has resulted in the formation of "Global Gypsies". They teamed up, personally and professionally, initially as a photo-journalist team. They were soon being invited to travel all over Africa to write about their experiences.

In 1994, they both quit their jobs, and bought a 20-year old Land Cruiser which they christened "Lucy". For more than a year they visited Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zaire (now the Congo), and South Africa. They stayed in fabulous safari camps and lodges, rode on camels, elephants and mules, stalked rhino and elephant on foot, and met and interviewed some of Africa's most eccentric and fascinating characters.

They flew in balloons, helicopters, light aircraft, even micro-lights, seeing some of the most beautiful countryside in the world and sharing it with thousands of readers. But it wasn't all roses! They were also chased by hippo, hugged by gorillas, mugged by thieves, lost in the bush and struck down by malaria.

While they were on the road in Africa, so many people said to them - "We'd love to do what you're doing, but we wouldn't feel safe, or don't have the mechanical ability, or wouldn't know where to go," and so on. It was then that Jan and Jeremy decided to coordinate escorted convoy expeditions.

The couple moved permanently to Australia in 1996, and established Global Gypsies the following year. Since then, their 4WD tag-along-tours to such destinations as the Canning Stock Route, Rudall River National Park, Kakadu, the Kimberley & more have earned international acclaim.

The principals are enthusiastic and experienced with Jan running the administrative and marketing side of things, and Jeremy running the safaris. With the assistance of a dedicated team, the company has also expanded into such areas as Four Wheel Drive Training, Tour Guide Training and towing training for caravans & camper trailers.

Jeremy & Jan also escort personalised, small group tours to such exciting overseas destinations as Antarctica, Borneo, Botswana, China, India, Kenya, South America, USA and more working in conjunction with such reputable companies as RAC (WA).

In their spare time they ride their 1200cc Harley Davidson, "Babe", and indulge in their passion for travel independently.

Why not join these Global Gypsies on one of their fabulous tours or training courses? They've made their dreams come true. Now it's your turn...