Your Local Safari Specialists
Meet The Team
Meet the people behind Botswana. For all of us, it's home - whether by default or by choice. We know Botswana because we've built its camps, travelled it for fun and made it our job.
We all have quirks and distinct personalities and our differences make us great collaborators. Where one of us likes our eggs sunny-side up, another makes the convincing argument for taking them scrambled - there are no rights and wrongs with personal preferences and we take the same approach to safaris. We create your safari as a team - sprinkling a bit of our personalities into the mix and borrowing each other's insight to meet your needs.
Walk on the Wildside
Erica
Erica prefers to run, not walk, to paddle, not be poled. The more action the better!
Erica did the usual ‘gap year' that lasted a little longer, working her way across North America, Europe and Southern Africa before she ended up in Botswana. Having children hasn't stopped the adventure, she often packs them up (along with her safari guide husband) for some bush-bashing and camping both in her native Australia as well as the ‘real bush’ in Botswana!
- Favourite Safari Experience: "Surprising my family with a night at Tau Pan Camp while we were camping in the Kalahari. We washed off three days of dirt and let the camp staff entertain the kids with a night of story-telling and roasted marshmallows."
- Favourite Camps: Shinde Footsteps Camp, a mobile safari in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Selinda Explorers and Hwange Bush Camp
Safari Mamma
Kagiso
Like all mothers, Kagiso is an expert juggler - not just of her four children, but also her many hats.
Kagiso studied as a journalist and worked in South African film production before Botswana beckoned her back. She's worked in as many safari jobs as we've got fingers and toes, putting her love of Botswana hand in hand with her knowledge of the bush.
- Favourite Safari Experience: "Family Christmas in the bush. Once, we got lost on the way to Moremi. We ended up in Khwai sharing Christmas lunch and laughter with people in the village. Our family tripled in size that day!"
- Favourite Camps: Oddballs Camp, Sango Safari Camp, Kwara Camp and Kiri Camp
Bush Baby
Nadine
Originally from Germany, our wide-eyed bush baby brings safari home with her.
She'll turn a quick trip down the road into a game drive (it makes things more exciting!) and lights the fireplace so often that her husband jokes he should remove it. Nadine is happiest bush camping (less facilities, more marshmallows please!) and haggles hard enough to put any born and bred African to shame.
- Favourite Safari Experience: "Camping in the Okavango Delta. Nothing beats finding a hidden island by mokoro and spending the evening around a campfire in the middle of nowhere."
- Favourite Camps: Kiri Camp, Deception Valley Lodge, Ghoha Hills and Somalisa Camp
The Alpha Male
Thatayaone (TT)
TT left his bachelor herd to join the ladies at Safari Specialists; this required tusks of steel and a thick skin but he survived his initiation and we haven't looked back.
TT joined Tsholofelo in the admin team and quickly became another invaluable and respected team member. He is Maun born and bred, went to the big city ‘Gabz’ (Gaborone) for university and then dabbled in the IT industry before returning to Maun. He has an innate understanding of the bush and nature, having grown up here, and quickly become our go-to guy for those niggling IT challenges.
- Favourite Safari Experience: "My best safari experience has got to be my very first one: first time seeing the Delta. I took a mokoro day-trip with Tsholo into the Okavango, to Chief’s Island. We transferred by boat from Maun along the Boro River and, when we reached the mouth of the Delta… Wow! The river just opened up into a huge, vast, magnificent body of water – it was breathtaking! We spent the day meandering through the channels on a mokoro, with game viewing on the way - definitely different from a game drive. I even learnt how to pole a mokoro that day."
- Favourite Camps: Sable Alley, Jacks Camp, Savuti Safari Lodge and Pioneers Vic Falls
The Globetrotting Animal Lover
Bronwyn
Bronwyn’s long-running travel business gave wings to Maun residents for years and her expertise in competitive fares and creating routing ideas is incomparable.
She has been immersed in the safari lifestyle in Maun for ages as her parents managed bush camps in Botswana – giving her regular access to places most people only dream of visiting. Her travelling does not stop at safari but extends to many destinations all over the world, giving her an insight and appreciation of different cultures and people. She has a menagerie of pets ranging from small (think Jack Russell) to large (Great Dane-sized!) and brought Squeaky The Office Cat along with her when joining the Safari Specialists’ team.
- Favourite Safari Experience: "Whilst relaxing in a hammock, reading my book, on the central deck at Delta Camp, an elephant bull who was swimming in the main channel in front of the lodge decided to come say hello to me. I was lying in the hammock, leisurely watching him approach, thinking he would change direction and walk to some nearby bushes but instead he came and put his trunk on the deck just below me. He was so close my camera could not focus on him. But the gentle beauty in his eyes is something I will never forget. (PS – the guide who saw the elephant approaching me, was behind me telling me not to move!)"
- Favourite Camps: Chobe Bakwena, Little Vumbura, Shipwreck Lodge
Force de Femme
Botho
Botho Bafana is a force to be reckoned with. She is a firm believer of hard work and creating your own opportunities.
Hailing from the village of Sebina in eastern Botswana, Botho broadened her horizons at a young age, graduating with a degree in Tourism whilst tutoring overseas students in English. She has grand ambitions, currently pursuing an MBA, studying in the evenings and weekends. You would think this leaves no spare time for personal interests, but she manages to follow her favourite teams in soccer and loves country music!
Botho is a keen traveller who has been around Southern Africa and joined our team to expand her knowledge in organising amazing safaris for our clients.
- Favourite Safari Experience: "Tracking a lion hunt at Tau Pan. A very surreal experience"
- Favourite Camps: Lagoon and Tau Pan camps
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