Kwando Predator Safaris

There are more Elephants on the Kwando concession than in all of South Africa!

Vacationtechnician personalized luxury adventure travel transports you to the most exquisite wilderness and chill out retreats on Earth. Conserving rare biodiversity through low volume tourism; our aim is your indulgence -at no one's expense. Plan now to be assured a rejuvenating escape at a restful pace -to an unspoilt gem in the purest sense.

Botswana Safari Field Reports
Meet our expert Botswana Safari Guides

" best guides = best safaris ~ a bad guide in the best camp will ruin your safari."

Predator Safaris at Kwando, the un-fenced private game reserve in northern Botswana, with Mark Tennant.

'I had just done a game drive with clients at Kwando and was driving back from the camp at night and alone when suddenly I was in the midst of a big breeding herd. In many other parts of Africa elephants are often well habituated to humans, their vehicles and to their lights at night. At Kwando, however, many of the herds migrating through the reserve are from areas as close to wilderness as you get and they have no experience of vehicles. The lights terrify them, so we have a strict policy of switching them off the moment we encounter elephants after dark.

'There were about 150 elephants in the herd, and they were drinking. It was a dark night and I couldn't see, but I could hear them all around me and decided to sit tight until they had passed. As soon as I thought it was safe I switched on the headlights and got ready to move. Only one problem - right in front of me was a massive bull which had clearly been in the area all along and had been disturbed by the herd moving through. He was not impressed to be suddenly looking down the twin beams of my headlights and came straight for me, hitting the front of the vehicle at an angle of about 45 degrees. The impact was so great that his tusks snapped like the crack of a high-powered rifle. Undeterred, he kept thudding the vehicle into the ground. 'He backed off momentarily and frantically I tried to start the engine. But he came back at me, lifting the nearside wheels off the ground. He was so close that his left eye was about a foot in front of my face. My impulse reaction was to stick a finger into his eye, but reason prevailed and instead I just clung to the steering wheel for dear life. He then flipped the vehicle onto its side and set about bashing the engine. 'Then, just as suddenly as he had attacked, he withdrew, leaving me sprawled half in, half out of the vehicle. Decidedly shaken, awed by the elephant's enormous strength and suitably reminded of my own insignificance, I managed to call the lodge on the two-way radio to ask for help'.

'I have always had enormous respect for these creatures,' he says, 'and, yes, I was lucky to come away with my life. But you need to be cautious in the presence of wildlife at all times. I love to be close to elephants.'

'Do you know', Mark recalls, 'we have one guest who comes to Kwando every six months and has been on 120 game drives with me. We often explore the reserve on foot and once when we came across an elephant we tried to conceal ourselves under a bush. As luck would have it, the elephant, unaware of our presence, decided to feed from that self-same bush...'. Clearly we are off on another adventure and I try to steer the conversation back to his photography.

'I guess it has always been an interest,' Mark says, and begins to muse about his career in wildlife management and tourism. 'I studied graphic art after leaving school. Later, my interest in wildlife became a passion and I worked with the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Vulture Study Group. The passion became an obsession and I joined CCA (Conservation Corporation Africa) and worked at its Phinda reserve on the Maputaland coast, ending up as head ranger. After that I did a short stint with wildlife filmmaker John Varty, whose family owns the world-renowned Londolozi reserve in the Mpumalanga lowveld.

Then, early in 1997, I joined Kevin Leo-Smith, erstwhile head of Phinda who was now getting things moving at Kwando Safaris, a new, privately owned ecotourism venture in Botswana. He needed someone to help - everything from building roads to habituating game for the tourists they hoped to attract - it was an opportunity I just couldn't pass up.'
And the photography? 'Oh yes, I hone my skills at every chance I get and I'm very serious about it. My equipment is really quite old, you know, and I don't have the range of lenses that many of the leading wildlife photographers such as Daryl Balfour and Richard du Toit have.' This doesn't seem to have inhibited Mark's creativity and as I go through a good selection of his work I sense his artist's eye for composition, detail and playing with light and shadow. I also sense his keen anticipation for what an animal will do next - a vital skill for any wildlife photographer bent on moving beyond just pin-sharp perfect portraiture. This is more than a learned skill; it comes from layer over layer over layer of experience.

On a recent bush-walking trip to CCA's Ngala reserve in the Kruger National Park I had met up with Hugh Marshall, head of CCA's ranger training programme. Mark has touched on this several times in our conversation and is clearly committed to the highest standards of guiding. 'Of course,' he says, 'without a properly trained guide the experience for people visiting game areas is hugely compromised, as is their personal safety. I have had about 10 years' experience of training within the industry, and this has been aimed at both new recruits and experienced guides. In carrying out my training, I have consulted to a number of well-known lodges in Africa, including CCA. My training programmes consist of lectures, field trips, field identification courses, conservation projects, biology courses and seven-day survival courses. For the more experienced guides I concentrate on specialist identification courses: birds, frogs, butterflies, trees, grasses, wild flowers... I also spend a lot of time teaching these guides how to approach dangerous animals on foot.'

Mark is confident that the reserves in southern Africa have some of the best-trained guides on the continent and that this gives the region a decided edge over others. 'When booking a safari, prospective clients should ask about the experience of the guides who will be leading them through their African adventure. This is very important and a marketing opportunity that is very often missed in the wildlife tourism industry. My tip - always pick the lodge or reserve with the best guides. Not only will they do their best to show you, close up, the Big Five (which is often, and understandably, the main reason behind booking a safari), but you will learn so much more about the smaller creatures, the plant life and how African ecosystems work. Altogether a far richer experience. And don't forget safety - the bush is a dangerous place where the unexpected can and often does happen, and that is when you want to be with the best experienced and trained guides. Safety of guests is paramount.'

Kwando is well known for its high density of predators and this is one of the main reasons we have chosen the reserve for our readers' predator tour. Visitors have a better-than-average chance of getting close to lions, leop ards and cheetahs and, with a modicum of good fortune, wild dogs too. Few experiences are as thrilling as coming across these highly social and engaging canids that are acknowledged as the most efficient of all Africa's predatory species. Are the chances better than even? 'Well, nothing can be guaranteed in the bush,' Mark begins, 'but, yes, we have enjoyed regular and very good sightings of dogs - Sir Richard Branson likes Kwando for this very reason, as these are among his favorite animals. We will always do our very best to ensure that guests get what they come for, but it has to be within the context of the unpredictability of the animals. After all, Kwando and places like it are not zoos. The animals might be habituated to vehicles, but they are wild and cannot be choreographed to perform in a certain place at a certain time. What I can promise, though, is a life-changing experience - there is something about the African landscape that does that.'
We continue to sift through Mark's photographs, chatting about particular images, conservation, hunting, and about the selling of Africa, and especially southern Africa, to the world travel market. Not surprisingly, he has a strong opinion on all scores. He is passionate about the continent and upbeat about its opportunities and future as a world leader in tourism. He travels abroad regularly to market Kwando to the world and knows just how tough it is. 'It's hell of competitive,' he says. 'It's a bit like a football league - unbelievably hard to get to the top and then even harder to stay there. Consistency and all the stakeholders pulling together are the key.'

I stop to look more closely at a photograph of a hippo yawning. Mark picks up on this and asks, 'Have you ever seen hippos mating out of water? I've got this amazing sequence...'. We're off on yet another wildlife adventure.

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