Essential Africa Guided Safaris

25/03/2025

After a busy night out hunting, (you can still see the matted fur around his face and a slight pink tinge on his paws from their kill) a nice soft riverbed is the best place to spend the rest of the day. Typically the only thing that will move them now is if elephants come through and scatter them, otherwise we will see them there at sunset.

18/03/2025

Across most of southern and east Africa right now the bush is dense and green. Good rains have turned scenes such as this with golden brown grasses, into fields of green. When I took this shot we were up in northern Botswana's Selinda Spillway, this herd made their way out of the woodlands and were heading for the water in the permanent lagoons not far from our vehicle. Once they realized we were there, the adults grouped up for a few seconds, instinctively protecting the younger ones before realizing we weren't going to harm them. They then went onwards past the front of us and into the water. That morning herd after herd did the same as we sat quietly watching the full range of sizes from the massive lone bulls, old matriarchs and then all the way down to calves that in some cases were just days old.

10/03/2025

Each area we visit has a massive variety of habitats, in each of these areas I have favorite places to visit during a game drive. One such place is this grove of massive African Ebony Trees or "Jackal berry Trees" in a corner of Botswana's Okavango Delta. As the day warms up, animals such as these zebra make their way into the grove to enjoy the shade. Later in the day as the sun sets a resident troop of baboons filter out of the surrounding bush and make their way up and into the branches of these trees to roost for the night. A number of different owl species also enjoy the dark shaded areas offered by the trees during the day, at dusk they move down and onto exposed limbs, if your timing is right you get some great sightings of them before they head off on their evening hunts. There's always a story, much like any neighborhood in our lives, noisy neighbors, quiet ones, visitors and then trouble makers, if you spend long enough in these parts you get to understand "who is who" in each of these places and the intertwined lives that they lead.

04/03/2025

It seems "family travel fever" is currently in the air, we are looking forward to hosting and guiding some large multi generational families that are traveling over to enjoy time together out on safari. I can honestly think of few better ways to spend time together and create memories that will last forever. Pictured below was a past safari where the morning coffee break involved us all heading up a small granite outcrop to enjoy the views and get a different perspective on the area we were driving in.

26/02/2025

We've had some great rains down here in South Africa's prime game viewing area. The Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve has always produced consistent, high quality big game viewing. Leopards, one of my favorite animals to look for, view and photograph thrive here. The dense vegetation, abundance of small and medium sized prey species and a history of years and years of photographic safaris operating in the area has produced generations of wildlife that is accustomed to being approached and followed at a respectful distance, offering you as the guest what would otherwise be almost unattainable glimpses into some of the more elusive and secretive animals on our planet. We have several groups using these areas and know that they are experiencing some top class game viewing at some truly beautiful lodges.

20/02/2025

I have recently returned from guiding a portion of the safari below that started all the way down in the beautiful city of Cape Town, then headed up north and into Rwanda where our group spent several days up in the Virunga Mountain Range trekking to see the rare Mountain Gorillas that call the range of volcanoes home. From there they headed into Tanzania where I joined them and guided the portion in the Ngorongoro Crater and we ended down in one of our favorite private concessions to experience the annual wildebeest migration. Many thanks to our group for supplying the footage and images from Rwanda that I included in the video to try to give a more complete overview of the safari. We hope you enjoy sitting back and sharing what was experienced. Enjoy!

This video shows some of the highlights and encounters experienced during a safari to Rwanda and Tanzania that covers time with the rare Mountain Gorillas before…

18/02/2025

There are many sights and encounters that are special during any safari to Africa. A big male lion in his prime, striding out across the Serengeti is definitely one of them. This male is part of a larger pride of 14 that we spent time with recently. At this point the females were trotting ahead making their way towards a recent kill site where the remains of a wildebeest were being picked over by vultures. Although there is very little cover out on the plains the sheer numbers of animals leads to confusion amongst them and there's always an opportunity for the vigilant predators. During the few days that we were out on these plains we saw a total of 15 different cheetah, watched as a cheetah mother of two cubs chased and narrowly missed a Thompson's Gazelle, this pride almost took a young wildebeest within meters of our vehicle and the ever present hyenas were always waiting for anything that was missed. As always each day provided a different set of highlights which is what keeps us going out there time and time again, it's never the same!

14/02/2025

14/02/2025

Today we leave the wide open plains of the southern Serengeti where we have spent the last four days enjoying the freedom of the private concession where at times we were surrounded by hundreds of thousands of animals as they move in search of food and water. A big thanks to our group for our time together, we look forward to the next one elsewhere in Africa!

11/02/2025

We arrived yesterday in the immense private concession of Maswa here in Tanzania. After just two drives we are already on cheetah number 11, with these three putting up quite a show this morning. We watched the mother stalk and chase a Thompson's Gazelle and narrowly miss it and then watched as she returned to her two cubs to catch her breath. The plains are alive with thousands of wildebeest, zebra and eland to name just a portion of what we've seen so far. Lots more to come....this afternoon we are off looking for lion that I could hear from camp last night, let's see how we do.

03/02/2025

Here's wishing our group traveling up in Rwanda at the moment to see the mountain gorillas a safe and exciting trip, I look forward to hearing all about when I meet up with you in Tanzania in a few days to guide that section of the safari. Meanwhile in Botswana, this young leopard starts her day on a high point looking out over the wild sage for any potential prey. As it turned out, shortly after I took this image she was chased by a big bull elephant but it didn't seem to phase her as she started stalking a male impala straight afterwards......he got away.

27/01/2025

"Best seat in the house" when the grass is long and wet sitting high and dry is by far the best option....during the rainy season food is plentiful and the bush is thick, so paying attention to where you are heading is important and you never know what's lurking in the grass. This troop of baboons had found one of their favorite meals, large mushrooms that sprout out of the termite mounds at this time of the year are a delicacy for baboons and humans alike. The mother baboon in this image is snacking on the stem of one of these mushrooms, if left to grow the mushrooms can get easily double the size of a large dinner plate!

20/01/2025

We find ourselves in some really spectacular destinations across Africa during our safaris, as guides we tend to get most of the thanks for what happens out there but the hard work starts the moment the first email arrives in the office and the ladies start the piecing together of all the logistics so that scenes such as this one can be enjoyed. It's always nice to receive feedback from our groups and some lovely feedback just received says it all. Thanks to the ladies in our office for their tireless work as they look after and monitor each step of every safari, we couldn't be out there doing what we love if it wasn't for you all!

"Hello Eva.
We arrived back in NYC this morning and just want you to know what a FABULOUS trip you planned for our family.
We are truly grateful for your recommendations, guidance, and maintenance of our trip.
We are thrilled.
Thank you.""

13/01/2025

During this time of the year the mountain gorillas of the Virunga Mountains move down the slopes in search of their favorite food, young bamboo shoots. Often when they find a patch of this, or any of their other favorites, they sit down in the middle of it and get as much a they can all the while making a soft humming like sound as a sign of contentment...

Special moments that are hard to adequately describe to someone who hasn't been there and experienced this first hand. The same goes for many such encounters on a safari, whether its waiting patiently as a bull elephant strolls past the vehicle or waiting with a pride of lions as they get ready for their evening hunt....its all special and all part of a safari...

06/01/2025

We are "back in the saddle" as it were after a little down time over the festive season. Pictured here are a few highlights of the past year, there were so many more and impossible to include all of them. We have a very busy year ahead of us with confirmed safaris across Africa, some of them I will be guiding, others we have arranged and we know our guests will be looked after each step of the way. I look forward to as always sharing some of these experiences as I go with you all as the season unfolds. A huge thank you to all of our regular repeat guests who have become friends over the years, we couldn't do what we do without you and we appreciate all of the support. To all of our new guests traveling this year, we look forward to you all becoming "safari addicts" and friends as well.

30/12/2024

It's not just the wildlife and wilderness that makes an incredible experience during a safari, the ever smiling and welcoming staff at each camp are a huge component of each days enjoyment. Drifting past our camp in a hot air balloon one of the staff popped out to wave hello....smiles all round! Busanga Plains, Zambia.

23/12/2024

In some parts of Africa, the camps move according to where the bulk of the wildlife is during that specific time. In east Africa for example, we make use of luxury mobile camps as pictured here. The camps are positioned, usually for about a three month period in the path of the annual migration and at times are quite literally surrounded by hundreds of thousands of animals as they go about their daily lives. We also plan as far as possible to make use of private concessions so that we can be out there with few others and enjoy what a safari should be about, wide open spaces, nature in an uncontrived habitat and the freedom to explore the area on your own time table. Southern short grass plains, Tanzania.