From Cape Town to Botswana’s waterways, Victoria Falls and Sabi Sand, Chris Renshaw shares a guide’s perspective on the continuity that shapes a privately guided family safari in Southern Africa.
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June/July | Southern Africa | A guide’s perspective
A note on this journey: I guided this safari on behalf of a trusted industry partner. While Safari Craftsmen did not design or book the journey, the reflections that follow are mine from the guide’s seat.
I regularly guide for trusted partners across the safari industry. On this journey, I joined a family travelling through Cape Town, Botswana, Victoria Falls and Sabi Sand, moving with them from One&Only Cape Town to Duba Plains, Selinda Camp, Victoria Falls Hotel and Singita Boulders.
A private guide is often the only person who sees the whole journey. Lodge teams know their particular areas intimately, and I work closely with them. My role is to remember what held someone’s attention several days earlier, understand the different personalities within the family, and recognise when the group needs momentum or a little more room.
As the days passed, I came to understand how each person experienced safari. That allowed us to travel at an unhurried pace and helped the family feel settled wherever we arrived.
Cape Town gave us time to settle into travelling together before the safari began. Staying at One&Only Cape Town, the family explored a landscape shaped by mountains, the ocean and the changing weather of the Cape Peninsula. The photographs take me back to penguins among the granite boulders, cold Atlantic water and those wide coastal views.
Before heading into some of Southern Africa’s wildest places, Cape Town offered an important change of pace. We didn't need to hurry to the next experience. We had time to get to know one another and allow the journey to find its natural rhythm.
The pace changed when we reached Duba Plains. We watched lions hunting during the day, following them as they moved through shallow water and across land filled with lechwe. It was the kind of sighting that held everyone’s attention, not because we knew how it would end, but because every movement shifted what might happen next.
As a guide, my role in a moment like this is to read the behaviour, explain what matters, and then give the scene enough space to unfold. We stayed attentive to the lions as they adjusted their approach and to the lechwe responding around them, allowing the family’s questions and reactions to become part of the experience.
Duba offered a completely different perspective from the water. Gliding through its channels and lagoons by boat and spending time fishing brought a gentler, more unhurried rhythm to our days. The conversations became more relaxed, and we began to appreciate the landscape beyond just the excitement of its predators. That balance between action and quieter time was an important part of what made Duba so rewarding.
To understand why the lion encounters at Duba feel so different, Eternal Enemies by Dereck and Beverley Joubert is worth watching. Filmed in the area, the documentary follows the enduring relationship between its lions and buffalo across the floodplains.
What struck me most about Selinda was its scale. The concession felt immense, with elephants appearing across the landscape and some wonderful leopard viewing along the way. One photograph captures a leopard resting in a tree directly above a safari vehicle. It is a remarkable perspective, but it also reflects the character of the place: extraordinary wildlife surrounded by an immense amount of space.
Exploring the water channels revealed a whole new side of Selinda. Drifting along at a slower pace gave us time to notice the landscape's smaller details and enjoy the easy conversations that flowed along the way.
By then, I understood the family’s different ways of experiencing safari. I knew who would immediately reach for a camera, who would continue scanning the distance, and who preferred to sit quietly with the scene. We could simply settle into each day without needing to establish a new rhythm every morning.
From Botswana, we continued to Victoria Falls Hotel before returning to South Africa and Singita Boulders in Sabi Sand. Victoria Falls brought another change in scale and atmosphere, while Singita offered a more refined way of experiencing safari, with the wildlife and landscape still firmly at its centre.
By then, the family had settled into the journey. Each destination brought something new without feeling disconnected from the places that had come before it.
“From the action at Duba to the vastness of Selinda and the refined take on safari at Singita, this was a real gem of a journey, bringing together so many different aspects of Southern Africa.” - Chris Renshaw, co-founder and private guide at Safari Craftsmen
A journey through several regions depends on the people along the way. I have worked with many of the local guides and lodge managers for years, and that trust helped us take care of special requests and adjust small details as the journey unfolded. Most of it happened quietly in the background, leaving the family free to enjoy their time together.
I remember the lions moving through the water at Duba, the leopard above the vehicle at Selinda, elephants crossing open country, and the stillness of the channels. I also remember the less photographable moments: conversations continuing from one place to the next, the family settling into an easy rhythm, and the point at which nobody felt the need to fill every silence.
For me, that is the privilege of private guiding. I am there for the wildlife, the local knowledge, and the decisions that help each day unfold well, but I am also there to understand the people travelling together.
When that understanding grows, a collection of remarkable places becomes one shared story.
This journey was guided for an industry partner. Still, it reflects the same belief that shapes our work at Safari Craftsmen: the best privately guided family safaris are built around the people taking them.
Tell us who is travelling, what draws you to Africa, and how you want the journey to feel. We will craft it from there.
