The former president of Botswana recently became my hero when he publicly condemned the killing of two of Africa’s largest elephants in Botswana.
Intelligent, sentient beings, reduced to hunting trophies on the wall of a wealthy person. In our world, where capitalism has assumed monstrous proportions, conservation has to pay its way. There will always be a battle between the short-term profit of a hunter and the long-term value of conservation.
The hunter pays an absolute fortune to kill an animal, and it is then gone forever. You can only kill it once. Compare that to an animal who can live its natural lifespan, leave its genes for subsequent generations, and give joy to scores of nature lovers simply by being there.
Go on a safari, and the money you pay helps secure a future for wildlife. It creates jobs for local people – sustainable jobs, not ones that will be lost once all the animals are hunted into extinction. That’s the one reason.
The other is the spell of the wilderness, the magic that natures weaves around you. I believe this comes from the fact that the wilderness positively vibrates with life. Everything is connected – from the tiniest insect to the biggest elephant, from a grain of pollen to a giant tree. And on a safari, you find your place in the great fabric of life.
This is the reason why we keep our safaris small and personal. We can adjust schedules during the safari, we can spend more time with anything a guest is particularly interested in. And I have to admit that it is also for selfish reasons. Almost all my guests turn into lifelong friends, and I could not possibly bond with a whole busload of people!
We still have limited space available on a 17-day safari starting on 19 August 2022.
The experience includes the mighty River Chobe, the Chobe Reserve in the north, wild Savuti, the Okavango and even the vast plains of the Central Kalahari Reserve.
Africa is our home – let’s make it yours as well. Safari greetings!
