My First Private Guided Safari

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One of the main reasons I love safari guiding, apart from the fact that I get to spend all day in the bush, is the unbelievable impact that Africa and her wildlife has on guests. I can still clearly remember the first Private Guided Safari I did as an &Beyond Private Journey Host and how it affected that families lives. 

I met the Taylor family at OR Tambo International Airport as they landed from Australia and from there drove them the 5 hours to Madikwe Safari Lodge for a 6 night safari followed by 1 night at Sun City. The Taylor family was Carol (mom), Grayden (dad) and the 3 kids, Toby (aged 8 years), Matilda (aged 6 years) and Lucy (aged 4 years).

Trainee Rangers Matilda, Toby and Lucy on Safari

It was a fairly quite drive as the jet lag and exhaustion kicked in but all this came to a noisy end as the first wild animals were spotted driving through the Madikwe Reserve to the lodge. 

The following 7 days of safari was an adventure of discovery for everyone. Apart from the normal safari drives we also had surprise bush pancakes, an afternoon of fishing with a picnic lunch, a day trip to see a tame Caracal, lots of soccer, a bit of cricket, plenty of painting and making and baking our own tea time cookies and pizza’s. Brett, our Ranger, made sure that we got to see the best that Madikwe had to offer and one safari highlight was watching a mother lioness stalk a female kudu, she didn’t manage to catch it and had to return to her cubs hungry.

Lucy, Toby, Matilda, Carol and Jon reading up on African Wildlife

I was amazed at how much knowledge the 3 kids soaked up and we spent many hours on game drives looking at the animals and comparing them to the pictures in the children’s safari books I had. 

It was in emails that we exchanged in the months following their safari that I really got to appreciate how much this safari had touched them. Toby drew a picture for his Dad’s birthday of a scene from the safari, Matilda won a Student of the Week award with her tales from the African bush and Lucy tells everyone about Africa. I’m sure that I will have the pleasure of hosting the Taylor’s again in Africa on safari sometime in the future.