Chris Dykes never planned on walking 1,500km through lion country. But between sunrise hikes in the Kruger National Park, dodging snares with rangers and guiding young people from townships to tech start-ups, it all began to make sense. “I have to do this,” he said before setting out.
The six-part hike from one end of the park to the other, completed over three years starting in 2022, shifted something in him. The experience had a deep personal impact, reinforcing his values, among them a passion for unlocking the potential of young people.
Dykes, 53, “barely scraped through matric. But someone showed me how to study better — that changed everything. Since then, I’ve tried to do the same for others.”
Through Infinity Learning, Dykes has spent 16 years working with about 1,000 young entrepreneurs, helping to distribute about 50,000 books to underresourced schools, and training thousands of pupils in study methods, resilience and decision-making.
“For a lot of kids, especially in the townships, the school system doesn’t teach them to think, just to memorise,” he says. “We flip that. We teach them how to think. Everything changes after that.”
It’s not just theory. Lesedi Masina, who runs a digital agency focused on AI and tech, remembers meeting Dykes as a grade 7 pupil in 2009. “He gave our school a proper library — bookshelves and hundreds of books. That sparked my love for reading and learning.”
He gave our school a proper library — bookshelves and hundreds of books. That sparked my love for reading and learning
— Lesedi Masina
As Masina moved into high school and university, Dykes kept mentoring her. “He gave me direction. Later, I landed an international internship in the Netherlands — a big turning point for my confidence.” The seed Dykes planted has grown into Masina’s business “and how I uplift others”.
Much of Dykes’s work is funded through BEE socioeconomic development budgets. He believes small interventions can change lives permanently. “A few shelves of books. A weekend workshop. One mentor. That’s sometimes all it takes to change a kid’s path,” he says.
At Laezonia Primary farm school near Mooiplaas in Centurion, where most pupils live in informal settlements, principal Martha Raholane recalls the excitement when Dykes donated a library: four shelves and about 2,000 books. “It was the first time they held a book of their own,” she says. “Chris made reading real for them — something they could take home.”
He also looked out for the teachers. Dykes held leadership workshops for school principals and managers in Gauteng, among them Raholane. Afterwards, he helped source desks and furniture for pupils and staff.
“Chris didn’t just donate — he listened, he responded, he made things happen. That kind of support is rare,” says Raholane.
Dykes’s impact doesn’t stop at the classroom. In 2024, he co-founded the Notties 100, a 100km overnight walk through the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands to raise awareness of gender-based violence and human trafficking. The event raised R310,000 for Unchain Our Children, a nonprofit. “We walk through the darkness for those still living in it,” he says.
He means it literally too. Dykes has volunteered with the Mountain Club of South Africa’s search and rescue team, helping to find missing or injured hikers. He also often joins South African National Parks honorary rangers on anti-snaring patrols in Kruger — long, quiet walks through the bushveld.
“You see the traps. You see where the animals nearly died. It’s humbling. It’s heavy,” he says.
The hike through the park was more than a personal journey, it was a fundraiser for conservation. “The money protects the very land we walk on,” he says.
His latest project supports more than 2,000 students this year through a partnership with a bursary management firm. His team offers mentoring, business skills and emotional support.
“We focus on grit, clarity, values, communication — the real stuff that helps you survive university and thrive beyond it,” Dykes says.
Over the years, his work has earned accolades, but Dykes says the real reward is seeing someone unlock their own power.
Much of his purpose, he says, comes from his late mother, who had a strong social conscience, and his partner, Michelle, a public health doctor. “Having a solid, loving relationship makes this work sustainable. You can’t pour from an empty cup,” he says.
From lion trails in Kruger to schoolyards and mountain passes, Dykes — explorer, mentor and changemaker — walks the same path: one foot in wild nature, the other in wounded communities.
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