Walking Safari Safety Tips: Finding a Highly-Qualified and Experienced Guide

On January 15, 2010, In African Safari Tours, Safari Safety, By Sandy Salle
There is no doubt that going on an African safari game-drive is the best way to see a ton of animals while in Africa. The vehicle allows you to cover a lot of ground in your search for Africa’s big game and acts as a mobile hide, allowing you to see animals in relative comfort. Game-drives are a great thing to do and makeup the bulk of a person’s safari experience.
More adventurous African safari tours, such as canoeing and walking in the dangerous game areas of Africa, are thrilling experiences. The world around you comes alive in a way that it cannot while you’re in a safari vehicle. The further you move away from the roads and into the bush or down a river, the further you move away from the modern world. This is a liberating experience as we have moved so far away from the world that we all came from. And the thrill of being out with nothing but your own senses transports you back to the world of our ancestors.
Often, you will not see any big game at all on a walking safari but you know they are there as you see signs, such as a fresh leopard track, a worn elephant trail, the warning bark of a secretive bushbuck, or the unmistakable scent of a recently past  elephant herd.
Today, the massive growth in the safari industry makes it quite easy to book a safari that can get you into a lot of trouble. In the late eighties and early nineties very few countries and camps offered adventure activities like canoeing and walking. When I first started working as a guide in 1992, Zimbabwe had so few walking guides you could count them on one hand. Today, nearly every country and every camp or lodge offers walking and canoeing tours, and some even offer horse riding and mountain biking. This is great as there is a lot more to an African safari experience than sitting in a vehicle.
But it is VERY important to be with people who know what they’re doing. We hear more and more about accidents happening when people are out of the safari vehicle. Even the most experienced guide can get into trouble, which is why it’s important to ensure that you are with a guide who has the experience and training to handle the unpredictable situations that develop so quickly. A guide with experience can read a situation and avoid it before it even happens. Simple rules such as “never approach a female herd of elephants” can save a lot of trouble. A good guide needs to be stronger than his guests and not let them push him into going closer to get “that photo.”
There are many great guides in the field today in every safari country in Africa. Each country has its own licensing or grading system, so some are better than others. In Zimbabwe, it takes a minimum of 3 years of intensive training and exams before a guide is allowed to walk with guests. A good guide develops a feel and instinct for the world around him / her, as they spend thousands of hours in the field.
Adventure activities are without a doubt the best way to experience an African safari tour and something everyone should try and do if they can. But, it’s very important that you go out with a qualified guide, and the best way to do this is to bypass Internet sites and to book through experienced African safari travel agents who work with experienced operators.
Canoe Safari Safety

Canoe Safari Safety

by Mark Homann, certified safari guide

There is no doubt that going on an African safari game-drive is the best way to see a ton of animals while in Africa. The vehicle allows you to cover a lot of ground in your search for Africa’s big game and acts as a mobile hide, allowing you to see animals in relative comfort. Game-drives are a great thing to do and makeup the bulk of a person’s safari experience.

More adventurous African safari tours, such as canoeing and walking in the dangerous game areas of Africa, are thrilling experiences. The world around you comes alive in a way that it cannot while you’re in a safari vehicle. The further you move away from the roads and into the bush or down a river, the further you move away from the modern world. This is a liberating experience as we have moved so far away from the world that we all came from. And the thrill of being out with nothing but your own senses transports you back to the world of our ancestors.
Walking safari safety

Walking safari safety

Often, you will not see any big game at all on a walking safari but you know they are there as you see signs, such as a fresh leopard track, a worn elephant trail, the warning bark of a secretive bushbuck, or the unmistakable scent of a recently past  elephant herd.

Today, the massive growth in the safari industry makes it quite easy to book a safari that can get you into a lot of trouble. In the late eighties and early nineties very few countries and camps offered adventure activities like canoeing and walking. When I first started working as a guide in 1992, Zimbabwe had so few walking guides you could count them on one hand. Today, nearly every country and every camp or lodge offers walking and canoeing tours, and some even offer horse riding and mountain biking. This is great as there is a lot more to an African safari experience than sitting in a vehicle.
African family safari

African family safari

But it is VERY important to be with people who know what they’re doing. We hear more and more about accidents happening when people are out of the safari vehicle. Even the most experienced guide can get into trouble, which is why it’s important to ensure that you are with a guide who has the experience and training to handle the unpredictable situations that develop so quickly. A guide with experience can read a situation and avoid it before it even happens. Simple rules such as “never approach a female herd of elephants” can save a lot of trouble. A good guide needs to be stronger than his guests and not let them push him into going closer to get “that photo.”

There are many great guides in the field today in every safari country in Africa. Each country has its own licensing or grading system, so some are better than others. In Zimbabwe, it takes a minimum of 3 years of intensive training and exams before a guide is allowed to walk with guests. A good guide develops a feel and instinct for the world around him or her, as they spend thousands of hours in the field.
African safari tours

African safari tours

Adventure activities are without a doubt the best way to experience an African safari tour and something everyone should try and do if they can. But, it’s very important that you go out with a qualified guide, and the best way to do this is to bypass Internet sites and to book through experienced African safari travel agents who work with experienced operators.

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Could this be one of the best African safari game drives ever?

On August 28, 2009, In African Safari Tours, African Wildlife, Botswana, Family Safaris, Honeymoon Safaris, By Sandy Salle

Dana Allen of Photo Safari Africa is a world-renowned travel photographer from Zimbabwe (yeah, my home country).  He has been leading a digital photographic wildlife workshop in Botswana and recently stayed at Selinda Camp, a beautiful lodge located at the top of the Selinda Spillway in the 320,000 acre Selinda Reserve in Northern Botswana.

This is his story about what is possibly one of the best game drives ever….

lionness“On the morning of May 27th 2009 we were out before dawn as usual in the Selinda Reserve and early in the morning came upon a lioness that was stalking waterbuck. Our guide Motsamai, or “Mots” as he is known to guests and staff, informed us that this young female had been mating during the last week and was now separated from the main pride of lions within the area. We spent the morning with her, watching several fumbled attempts to hunt the waterbuck and a close call for a warthog that narrowly escaped her desperate efforts.

The afternoon drive started on a high note as we witnessed a giant eagle owl stealing a guinea fowl from a tawny eagle that had just made the kill.

giant_eagle_owl_stealWe encountered the lioness again, half-heartedly stalking a herd of mixed wildlife only to retire to the shade of a nearby sausage tree for some rest.

In an instant the scene changed dramatically as a heard of impala came flying through the bush directly at us. Giraffe, kudu, zebra and impala all scattered quickly and quietly in such a manner that we instantly knew that only one creature instils such complete and utter fear into its prey: Lethalerwa, the Tswana name for the endangered African Wild Dog!

African_Wild_DogAfrican_Wild_Dog_feeding

Galvanized into action, we drove in the direction that the startled herds were coming from. As we broke the cover of the brush and came into an open grassy plain we saw one wild dog crossing the Selinda Spillway and race around the corner out of sight. We sped off in pursuit, crossing the spillway at the nearest shallow point and following the path of the Wild Dog. As we rounded the corner we saw the pack, six altogether, wildly feeding on a young kudu that they had brought down just moments before near the edge of the water. We watched and listened as the scene unfolded before us.

The excited feeding frenzy of the Wild Dog is a spectacle difficult to describe but full of calling and quick and ravenous devouring of the prey.

After about twenty minutes an adult spotted hyena arrived at the kill. As soon as the wild dogs saw him, they growled fiercely and chased him to the perimeter of the clearing where he remained for the rest of the day.

African_Wild_Dog_killadult_spotted_hyena

By this time a troop of baboons at the edge of the forest were sounding loud alarm calls and climbing into the tops of nearby trees. The dogs went back to the kill, and now having devoured much of the kudu started playing with each other and giving displays of dominance and submission.

As we watched and photographed this activity a flash of tawny fur just visible through the bushes caught our eyes from across the water. It was the lioness from earlier in the day! She had no doubt heard the commotion of the kill and the calls of the baboons and realized that here was her next meal. As she saw the dogs with the remains of the kill there was no hesitation. She leapt into the water at full speed, bounding through the deep water and across the spillway.

lionness_launch

The wild dogs knew what was coming and instantly scattered before she even reached the other side. Now the lioness searched for the remains of the kill and used her keen sense of smell to locate various leftover pieces of the carcass and started to feed.

Our group was in shock and delight at the amazing sight that we had just witnessed and as the sun was setting, we were all happily recounting the charge of the lioness, the hungry hyena and the spectacle of the dogs. We moved off the kill site, about 100 meters to the west where we started to photograph the wild dogs as they headed off into the glorious African sunset causing small wisps of dust to rise into the air.

Selinda_leopardAt that moment Steve, a Selinda Camp guide on another vehicle, quietly radioed across “Leopard.” Off to our left and across the water was a large male leopard that frequented the area. We could not believe our good fortune! We made our way over to the leopard (a magnificent specimen) and followed him as he made his way along the water and toward the kill. As he saw the lioness, he kept to the cover of the bushes. He gazed longingly at the remains of the kudu but realized that there was no way around the lioness.

As our guides reached for their spotlights to illuminate the scene, another pair of eyes was spotted in the now dark water of the spillway. A large crocodile, perhaps between 2 and 3 meters long was making its way to the kill! We watched in disbelief as the crocodile slowly pulled itself out of the water and up to the place where the kudu had been devoured, smelling some of the blood stained grass and eating some of the remaining intestines.

hyena_crocodile

Several hyenas came near the crocodile, but after a short while determining that nothing much else was left, the crocodile headed back into the water and departed the scene with a brisk splash disappearing back into the darkness of the water.

Our hearts were pounding, jaws open in disbelief; our minds were going over this unbelievable spectacle of wildlife that had presented itself in the past hour. We realized that we had witness what few had seen before, a kill sighting with all of Africa’s Super Predators being present.

As we drove back into Selinda Camp we all knew that this day would never be forgotten. Our fantastic tale would quickly spread. The story of the charging lioness, the wild dog pack with the kudu, the leopard and the incessantly calling hyenas, and not to forget the lone crocodile… their stories would all be remembered and surely would come to be known as the Selinda Spectacular!”

The text and photographs in this article are copyright of Dana Allen, PhotoSafari Africa.  Herewith the contact details for Dana Allen at PhotoSafari Africa.

Dana Allen

PhotoSafari (Pty) Ltd

email: photosafari@zol.co.zw

http://www.photosafari-africa.com/

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