Charles Witlox, also known as Charlie and founder of Charlie’s Travels from Oisterwijk, died in a kitesurfing accident in South Africa. Witlox, 33, has lived in Africa for several years and has traveled across the country to discover new places.
South African news website news24.com reports that a gust of wind caught him kitesurfing and carried him hundreds of meters out to sea. As a result he was seriously injured. Witlox was taken to hospital in critical condition. There he finally succumbed to his injuries.
Two days before the tragic accident, the South African Meteorological Service had warned of strong to almost gale force winds between fifty and seventy kilometers per hour and waves of between 3.5 and 4.5 metres.
“Charles was an example to us, an icon.”
On the website of Charlie’s Travels it is an In Memoriam to be read. “Many know him as the adventurer who crossed Africa by motorbike to discover new places for all his future clients. Looking for the off the beaten track adventure, creating a real connection with the locals so that they, the customers, could once see the real Africa, Africa as they knew it. Not in the way the media presented it every day. Charles was an example to us, an icon.”
