Travelling man: Pat Mangan with his South African Airlines award. Picture: Tommy Ritchie 54249
Erin Pearson
SITTING among piles of booking sheets and South African travel brochures, Swagman Tours operator Pat Mangan is content.
Already this year he has visited Africa three times as well as China, New Zealand and outback Australia.
Dressed in an unzipped navy blue polar fleece vest, Pat says Australia remains his favourite place despite his travel history.
“I love the Kimberley region of Australia,” Pat says.
“I’ve had a love affair with it since 1982 and every time I go back there I renew that and it never disappoints.”
A chat with Pat is a true geography lesson as he explains the 50 countries where his iconic company takes travelers.
“It’s still confronting in Africa when you need to cross a river and you look at the three wooden boats being lashed together with twine to put your Land Cruiser on,” he laughs.
“I must admit it’s nice to hit ground on the other side.
“I think it’s a realisation of how wonderfully comfortable we are in our lives compared to the subsistence living and lack of amenities that people have in Africa but their happiness and the way they go about there lives is quite unique.”
He began his working life in the finance industry but a chance meeting with an 80-year-old woman yearning to visit central Australia wound up with Pat leading a 35-head trek to Alice Springs in the late ‘70s.
After moving to Geelong in 1987 from northern Victoria, Pat began work on his Australian travel business.
By 1993 his clients were inquiring about overseas trips. In 1994, Pat launched his first tour to South Africa.
“I suppose there was a latent desire that came out in my late 30s and I found my niche,” he observes.
Swagman Tours now travels to around 50 countries and 16 major destinations in Africa.
“I remember my first trip to The Kimberley in 1982 when we left Wyndham to go to Derby on our way to Broome down the Gibb River Beef Road and we could tell nobody had been down in a vehicle before, so it was an adventure – we were totally in the unknown,” Pat recalls.
“I’ve had moments where I doubted the accuracy of my navigation but we’ve never got lost.”
Pat’s pride in his profession is evident throughout his office. Clearly, travel is his life.
Tucked away under a pile of booking sheets, an aged brown leather suitcase with gold buckles is just visible. An explorer doll complete with beard and backpack sits proudly atop travel guides.
Passport photos are pegged to the wall.
“We attract people with a sense of adventure, who aren’t looking for a five-star hotel and beach, who have a certain quest or yearning to tap the unknown,” Pat notes.
“By going off the beaten track they get those experiences.”
Pat says clients add humor to each trip with their “idiosyncrasies”.
“I still remember when I picked a man up from an international airport to do a safari, the most remote sort of tours we do,” Pat reminisces.
“He was a professional gentleman and every stitch of clothing he had on was brand new and he was about to go to one of the most remote, dirtiest, roughest places in terms of bush camping.
“After a few days he decided it wasn’t his cup of tea but we got him around that and he’s been with us now four or five times, but I never forget all the new things,” Pat laughs.
Swagman Tours last month won South African Airlines’ 2010 Australian Wholesaler of the Year award.
Content with his “comfy boots” and home among the Moorabool hills, Pat reassures clients he won’t be retiring any time soon.
“I’ve been a very fortunate man. Twenty-five years ago I got into something that has become my life,” Pat says.
“Where am I going to go next year, who would know? “There are other destinations in Africa to look at…”
