Ballings, Petra

Petra grew up in a town called Hasselt in Belgium and after completing a degree in biology at the university of Leuven she spent a few years teaching science in secondary schools.
In 1996 she decided it was time to see a bit more of the world. The first country she visited was Zimbabwe, where she met what was going to be her husband Bart ….. lightning had struck and the world had been put on hold ….

They ran safaris together and showed mainly Dutch tourists the beauty of Zimbabwe and Botswana, until in 1997 they found a place in the Vumba and Ndundu Lodge was born. Here Petra’s particular passion for ferns started and she very quickly discovered how rich the biodiversity of the Vumba is.
From 2006 till 2008, based on their experiences with eco-tourism in mountain habits, Bart and Petra were offered to work for Carr Foundation, which privately funded a project to rehabilitate the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique and protect the biodiversity on near-by Mt Gorongosa. Petra was responsible for building up a herbarium collection of the plants of the National Park as well as of the mountain. She also participated in several botanical expeditions on Mount Gorongosa.
Meanwhile she kept managing Ndundu Lodge till 2008 when they lost the place during the election turmoil and were forced to move back to Belgium.

Currently Petra works for the Botanic Garden Meise while staying involved with the online Flora projects where she has taken the Pteridophytes of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana and the Caprivi under her wings.
Petra and Bart return to Zimbabwe yearly, still exploring and gathering data for the project.