What is a Private Guide and why would you need one?

Private guides are the cream of the safari profession. They are individuals who have a wealth of knowledge and excellent people skills gained through academic training or years of experience. They are genuinely passionate about their work and have the ability to turn a seemingly ordinary occurrence into the highlight of a safari. Their presence throughout your safari ensures the highest levels of personal attention and their knowledge and skills complement those of the resident camp guides.

It is widely known that the most important aspect of any safari is your guide as this is the person with whom you will be spending the majority of your time with whilst on safari.

What we have to say

We believe a professional guide should be genuinely passionate about his work which should be more of a way of life than a job to him. He should be bursting with enthusiasm to impart his knowledge of the bush and wildlife he so loves so much to his guests and should be attentive to each guest's needs and interests.

He should have a broad knowledge of not only wild creatures and their environment but a holistic appreciation and respect for the people that co-habit these wild areas.

A guide should give unfailingly spectacular experiences to his guests and his main priority should be his guest's genuine safety, care and comfort.

What others have to say

As Garth Thompson, fellow guiding colleague highlights the qualities of some of the best guides in his book "The Guide's Guide to Guiding"

PEOPLE AND WILDLIFE ENTHUSIAST

"These are the best guides in the profession. They have true love, appreciation and understanding for all things wild, with equal attention paid to the two-legged animals who have saved up and paid for someone to show, share and interpret this gift to them.

These guides have all the qualities of the people-orientated guide, but combined with those of the true bush lover and naturalist. At the top of the guiding pyramid, they are few in number and high in demand. Possibly the best indicator of the success and abilities of these guides is the number of clients who return and seek out their services, often booking him or her as an exclusive guide for the duration of the entire safari. These safaris may cover a variety of parks and wild areas in a number of countries, where species and habitat differ considerably. This type of guide often has the skills to guide on foot, by vehicle, canoe, boat, kayak, raft, mountain bike, on horseback or underwater - among the diverse life of a coral reef.

They have an in-depth knowledge of mammals, rock art, birds, plants, African history and culture, conservation issues, geology, reptiles, fish, insects and astronomy, apart from human skills. They make life long friends with most of their clients through this common bond of nature's uncomplicated and diverse beauty, enhanced by unorchestrated experiences.

They are proud of their profession and take it seriously. It is often a lifetime occupation. They raise, educate and house their families from their vocation. Their families share their friendships with people from all corners of the earth."

What Travel Africa magazine has to say about the importance of one's guide

"…Tracking wildlife may be how most people envisage a typical safari guide, but there is a great deal more to the job than that. A guide's day begins well before dawn. As the guests receive their wake-up call, he will be discussing the sounds of animal movements during the night with the trackers and night watchmen and making plans for the first activity of the day. By the time the guests appear at the campfire, the guide is waiting for them, proffering coffee and biscuits, enquiring after their night, enthusing about the day ahead.

Safaris are every bit as much about people as wildlife. From the moment the guests get up in the morning till the time that they eventually go to bed, the guide is their host, teacher, friend and, at times, saviour. He or she must quickly assess their level of experience, identify their likes and dislikes and work out what it is that they are looking for from their safari. Those on safari for the first time generally want a quick 'fix' of big game. They have come to see the Big Five and may not be impressed by interminable lectures on the hierarchical structure of a termite colony, even though it is the guide's pet subject. Conversely, experienced safari-hands may be looking for just that level of interpretation. Keen ornithologists may well have done lions and wish to spend days scouring the country for a rare cisticola. Children often have a shorter attention span and generally cannot take long periods exposed to the sun, so families may need shorter activities with a greater emphasis on safe adventures. All this has to be factored in if the safari is to be a success.

Once out on a walk or game drive, guides come into their element. The best guides do far more than simply spot and identify game. They lead you on a fascinating journey of discovery, unveiling layer upon layer of secrets that make up the complex web of the natural world. For a true guide there is never nothing to see. There may well not be any big game in view, but there will always be birds, insects, flora and animal tracks. All guides worth their salt can hold you enthralled as they share their passion for the bush.

Guides come in many forms. There are driver guides, pilot guides, canoeing guides and, most skilled of all, the walking guides who will lead you on foot into wilderness areas populated by dangerous large game. The latter two categories must be totally in tune with the environment, alert for grouchy old bull buffaloes or nervous cow elephants with calves, careful not to get between hippos feeding on land and the water that offers them safety, sensitive to the direction of the wind, always conscious of the way out of any situation.

As you trip along on your walk, with your camera in one hand and your suncream in your pocket, you may notice your guide carrying a suspiciously heavy-looking pack. Aside from rifle and binoculars, he is likely to be carrying a radio, emergency first-aid kit, water, hopefully tea and snacks and the odd field guide to show you the plumage of the small bird he just pointed out, which frustratingly flew away. I have even seen John Stevens produce iced flannels soaked in lavender water for his guests to freshen up. Now that is service.

At the end of a long morning, the guide delivers the guests back to camp, where he instantly reverts to the role of host, serving breakfast, brunch or lunch as though he was born to be a maitre d'hotel in this bush restaurant and listens attentively and encouragingly as they recount, often interminably and inaccurately, the events of the morning. As the guests head off for a well-earned siesta, the guide now has two to three hours to turn his attention to the many demands of camp life. A guide must be jack-of-all-trades: bush mechanic, camp builder, radio expert, field medic and sometimes even cook. In the heat of the day he is to be found fiddling with the nether regions of a Land Cruiser, re-siting long-drop loos, fighting to hear messages from a distant office over the crackling radio or bent over a laptop balanced on top of an old orange crate which is wired up to a satellite telephone. For some extraordinary reason, it is normally at this time of day that there will be a guest-related drama. Piercing screams can signal anything from the sighting of a snake in a tent (normally harmless, but requiring the deployment of staff with spears and guns) to an elephant wandering through camp or a guest running out of water mid-shower when she is totally lathered up and can't work out how to get the bucket shower refilled without the staff seeing her naked.

Having sorted out those aspects of a business which take most self-employed people a full working day, the guide just has time to put on a fresh shirt and polish his boots before meeting the guests for tea with enthusiasm restored for the evening game drive. Sundowners in the bush may well be followed by a night drive spent hunting for elusive leopard and fending off requests to be shown an aardvark. Even after all of this, the guide's day is not done, as he will almost certainly be expected to join guests for dinner, where once again he will need a ready supply of charm, tact and amusing stories.

On any safari the clients are going to spend many hours in their guide's company. Most guides are dedicated bush lovers, passionate conservationists whose greatest wish is to share their knowledge and enjoyment of the wild with you."

Article written by John-Warburton Lee: Tracks of the Trade: Safari Guides, Travel Africa Magazine, Issue no.25