Neeltjie Bower
Neeltjie Bower, professional guide, speaks the local San language (Naro), Afrikaans, and English fluently. A native Botswanan and fifth-generation resident in the Ghanzi district, Neeltjie grew up on a cattle ranch where she and the San (Bushmen) children shared the pleasures of a free childhood in a natural environment. After attending college in Pretoria she received her professional guide’s license and has been working in the industry for over 13 years. She has worked with many of the top safari operators in Southern Africa. With Neeltjie’s vast knowledge of culture, the animals, and the country, she will guide you through a magnificent experience, observing the interaction of the world’s oldest people with nature in the ancient Kalahari.
Andre Joubert
After completing his studies in Wildlife Management and training as a student ranger in the Bontebok National Park, South African born Andre Joubert commenced his career as the Park Warden of the Skeleton Coast Park in Namibia. He then worked as Trails Ranger in the Kruger National Park but after a short while the desert beckoned. He returned to Namibia to conduct interpretative and special interest safaris throughout Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
His first love is to work as a Wildlife Manager and he furthered his studies and graduated in 1996. He has worked as Chief Warden at Botswana’s Khama Rhino Sanctuary, whose main objective is to save Botswana’s last remaining White Rhinoceros, and also managed a small wilderness camp in Northern Botswana. He has a passion for people, a strong wilderness ethic, a realistic perspective of conservation issues affecting South Africa’s wilderness and the ability to communicate these issues with clarity and perception. He currently operates as a freelance guide throughout Southern Africa.
Kane Motswana
Kane grew up in the African bush and is a renowned tracker and photographer. His home is the village of Gudigwa,which is situated in the far north-east of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. Kane spends many days of each year out in the field, leading guests on Landrover safaris and bush walks all over Botswana. He puts his finely-honed tracking skills to good use for observing animals like lions and leopards. Kane is also an enthusiastic photographer and is steadily gathering an impressive collection of high quality images of African wildlife. His website (www.kanethebushman.com) is his platform for sharing these images with interested viewers. Kane can guide a person with any interest: a first time visitor in Africa, multiple/repeat visitors, amateur & professional photographers and people with special interests. He uses a canon EOS 50D camera body and his main lens is Sigma APO 100-300 f4 and a canon 17-85 ultrasonic.
Craig Redelinghuys
Craig Redelinghuys is a native of Johannesburg, South Africa with extensive experience guiding and running mobile safaris in Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Craig owns a ground operation company based in Johannesburg that manages both coach and 4×4 mobile camps throughout Southern Africa, in addition to organizing transfers and activities around the Johannesburg area. Craig is a jack of all trades with a passion for the design and fabrication of all things mechanical, and is more than happy to share his far-reaching knowledge of Southern Africa.
Lisa Reed
Lisa Reed was born in 1974 in Zimbabwe, spent her school years in South Africa, and has lived in Botswana since 1996. She studied Tour Operations formally but has spent most of her working life in or associated with safari camps. She is a professional guide in Zimbabwe and Botswana and has undertaken numerous specialty courses and high level first aid training. She has been guiding professionally for 13 years.
Lisa has managed safari camps since being in Botswana and served as top guide at Kwando Safaris. She has worked or visited most Southern and East African safari countries but still rates Botswana’s wilderness as the best. She now lives in Maun and works as a specialist independent guide. Lisa has a natural affinity with children and enjoys passing on her years of bush love, experience and knowledge to the next generation. She has developed her own materials and special programs for entertaining while teaching children on safari but also enjoys communicating her comprehensive knowledge of the bush to adults.
Benson Siyawareva
Benson was born in the remote village of Zaka in southern Zimbabwe. His love of nature started when he joined the Boy Scouts, where he experienced camping, wildlife tracking and viewing. After teaching at the high school level for awhile, Benson followed in his brother’s footsteps and became a qualified, professional guide.
Benson has been named one of “The Best 15 Safari Guides” in the Condé Nast Traveler magazine. In 2004, he appeared on live television as the Professional Guide on “The Today Show: Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” He is also featured in the authoritative book Licensed to Guide, by Susie Cazenove. Benson runs a guiding company in Southern Africa called Ngoko Guiding Services.
Mohamed Zahidi
Mohamed Zahidi, a private guide in Morocco, was born and raised in the beautiful Dades Valley in Ouarzazate, Morocco. A native speaker of Tamazight (a Berber language of southern Morocco), he also speaks Arabic, English and French fluently. Mohamed has a Masters in English literature from Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech and after teaching English for seven years he became one of Morocco’s most esteemed specialist guides. He has also studied architecture in depth and developed a special expertise in Moroccan and Islamic architecture as well as the contemporary architecture of the Imperial cities. Mohamed has been a specialist guide for institutions such as the American Museum of Natural History, Harvard Museum of Natural History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and has also guided many dignitaries from the USA and European countries. Mohamed’s love and appreciation of his country is unsurpassed, as is his ability to communicate Morocco’s special magic and beauty.