Amelia Goodhead, the owner of “xamelaix” and “Bloom from the Darkness” joined the Good Things Guy JACPOD to chat about her recent trip to South Africa and gave us some insights to what she thinks about the place we call home.
Johannesburg, South Africa (27 November 2018) – Amelia Goodhead lives in the midlands in the UK working on her blog xameliax.com and full-time Youtube, both focusing on international Luxury Lifestyle.
Her creative platforms have been shortlisted for the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards and shortlisted for Best Vlogger in the Blogger’s Lounge Awards… but it was in 2016 that her empire changed and grew.
Amelia’s life was completely turned upside-down after her long-term relationship publicly fell apart. Just two days after proposing, she discovered her fiancé was having several affairs and Amelia lost everything, her home, and her friends and had to start again from scratch.
Amelia continued to document her life in her weekly vlogs despite struggling through heartbreak and developing depression, in the hope that her story might help others. Filming and posting through both the good and the bad days, Amelia was contacted by many of her viewers thanking her for sharing her struggles and helping them through their own.
After experiencing the support of her online network, Amelia created Bloom From The Darkness, a place for Amelia, contributors and readers to share their stories for people to lean on through their own experiences. Attracting visitors and writers from around the world, Bloom From The Darkness is a place celebrating positivity and healing with a strong community of inspiring users. Bloom From The Darkness continues to grow and reach new users around the world every day.
Amelia also realised through her heartbreak, that she needed to focus on her dreams… with one of them being a trip to South Africa!
“When my life was turned upside down two years ago it hit me HARD but the moment I was able to breathe again I decided to live more in the moment and less for a someday that might never come – after all everything can change in a moment.
I stopped saying ‘one day’ and started staying ‘today’ and I ended up here – in the bush of South Africa, drinking a beer with some incredible humans and living out one hell of a travel dream.”
She joined Brent Lindeque on a 10-day trip around the country… from Jaci’s Lodge in Madikwe to the height of table mountain in Mother City, the two travellers tried to pack in as much as they could!
Amelia has travelled the world over but her recent trip to South Africa has completely changed her perspective and put the country in her number 1 travel destination… globally!
“As a child I only ever saw animals in a zoo – majestic creatures of the wild captured and shipped over to our little island and put in enclosures. I was enamoured by their beauty, their size and their grace but of course didn’t think about how they got there or what their life was like five and a half thousand miles away from home.
I’d see the keepers hand feeding giraffes and walking alongside elephants as the animals went about their days in the carefully curated enclosures or open fields of a man made ‘safari park’, and to my young eyes they seemed happy, well fed and healthy.
Watching these animals in the wild of South Africa, in their home, has given me a new perspective. The rangers keep their distance and the animals fend for themselves. Some wear battle scars, others clearly haven’t made a kill for a while. This is the reality, the real life of the bush and we are as we should be, simply spectators, guests in THEIR home. You can drive for hours and not see anything because these animals aren’t here to entertain and we are constantly reminded that there is a real element of danger to being out here.
These are WILD animals who will do what it takes to survive.”
Amelia joined Good Things Guy to chat about her recent trip to South Africa and gave us some insights to what she thinks about the place we call home.
Listen to the full show below:
Wow just lived and loved this interview, with Amelia. Born and bred in S A, just love our country. Thank you too The Good Things Guy. So enjoy your postings.