Campfire Conversations with Brett Horley BHS Safari Company

Our destination of 2024 and 2025 - Zambia - is a "rising giant", an enigmatic safari destination that delivers just as much punch whether it's a first-time or many-time repeat destination. Its alluring national parks are sprawled between major river systems, floodplains, swamps, and ancient trees, and you can explore by boat, on foot, in a canoe, and on game drive. Leopard sightings that match and surpass the Sabi Sand, crazy bat migrations, wild dogs, swamp lions, shoebills, hippos, and elephants that blend into the oversized landscape.

Here to talk with Brett about this wild, wonderful, and vastly underrated safari spot is our BHS safari expert, Jo Cooper, and a repeat podcast guest, professional photographic guide, and eternal adventurer, Charlotte Arthun, who rates this spot higher than the Sabi Sand for predator encounters.

We start off on the banks of the Klaserie River where this conversation over morning coffee is almost drowned out by the dawn chorus, and we discuss the issue of the moment - a 2.8m black mamba in the roof! Jo, Brett, Charlotte and a few of our fellow team members gathered after game drive to talk about what we all truly love - the magic and madness of African nature explorations - and we soon delved into the unique appeal of Mana Pools' northern neighbour, Lower Zambezi, and the Sabi Sand's rival location for leopard photography, South Luangwa.

Liuwa Plains, Kafue, and the Busanga Swamps are fascinating and less explored than the typical two mentioned above, so listen up for some fascinating insights into these hidden gems, and brace yourself for some "horror stories" that come with the territory as Jo looks back on his guiding career and Zambezi canoe excursions.

Brett's regaling tale of an attempted 02h00 escape from Kafue is one for the books (don't mess with off-duty Zambian Game Scouts!)

Before we wrapped up this episode, we changed gears dramatically to talk about another destination that appeals to every nature seeker: Alaska. Charlotte spent 7 months in Alaska and has bear stories that are unbelievable to the inexperienced.

Rule #1: Camp among brown bears and make that morning coffee at your own risk!

Rule #2: Fishermen, beware - hundreds of bears want the fish you're catching.

Rule #3: Pack a bear fence.

We are in awe of places like this where crazy wildlife migrations and seasonal movements invite congregations of different species and create interactions beyond our wildest dreams. Our roots may be in Africa, but our hearts wander far and wide to all corners of this awe-inspiring globe. What a treat to get some insider info into Alaska, and to share some stories about our beautiful Zambia.

Enjoy this episode, reach out with your questions, recommendations, and podcast wish list so that we can keep generating the content and conversations that light you up.

Find us at hello@bhs-safari.co or on Instagram where we share all.

A big thank-you to Karabo Ramuhashi for editing this season of the podcast, and to Trent Ashton for supplying us with his original hand-drum beat for our intro.

This episode comes with a PG warning, and it couldn't be more entertaining. These are truly the UNTOLD stories from behind the scenes on safari involving guides, guests, friends, and colleagues in the industry that some might never have considered would make it onto a podcast. But thanks to our treasured friend and superior safari chef, Christina “Mufasa” van der Merwe, we have a no holds barred Campfire Conversation that takes us through reels of bush bloopers that’ll have you belly laughing throughout. 

Christina and Brett have a 12 year history together in the Lowveld, working together at some of the camps we’ve visited and loved for the longest time. Over the years, early careers and safari inductions have led to daring escapades and mortifying mishaps that are still remembered today. We’ve tried to remember to leave out names and places for the sake of dignity, but if you’ve crossed paths with these two over the last decade, you’re likely to pick up on a detail here and there as you listen. Shout outs to the mates who have given us the material for these tales - you’ll know who you are! 

Accidental rounds fired off, cars stuck on remote bush roads, red-wine walking safaris, rugby tackles around the fire, escape artists and intoxication… These stories just skim the surface of what’s buried in our brain.

There’s no one else on Earth who could have nailed this assignment. It’s colourful and candid and at times we were breathless with laughter, which is all thanks to the entertaining delivery of these stories by our friend, Mufasa. She’s wild and wonderful, and she’s got the charisma and charm that make her irresistible. Above all, she’s a safari chef extraordinaire and the host with the most, and if you’re lucky enough to know her or to have been hosted by her on a BHS safari, you’ve been treated to the best. 

This was one or two stories too short, and we’d love to have Christina around our campfire again. So we’ll rope her in for round II one of these days. But in the meantime, if you’re in the Hoedspruit Lowveld and planning a bash, make sure you get Mufasa’s Private Catering involved. If she’s not already booked up by us, she’s our first recommendation to you. 

Contact her on mufasasprivatecatering@gmail.com (you can be thankful she’s not on Instagram!)

And let us know if you’re ready for the next instalment… 

As always, reach out to us on hello@bhs-safari.co, take a look at our website, or follow us on Instagram to stay in the loop of our never-ending adventures. 

Thanks to Karabo Ramuhashi @karaborej who edited this season of the podcast for us, and to Trent Ashton @trent_ashton_nightingale who gave us his hand-drum beat to use in our intro.

Welcome to another destination-focused episode of the podcast, hosted by Brett. In this Campfire Conversation, Brett is joined by Jo, who is, by now, a regularly featured safari expert on the pod and who's got bush stories crazy enough to match Brett's. When it comes to Botswana, there are stories upon stories of rogue wildlife in campsites, breakdowns, black-outs, and utterly mesmerising moments in some the world's most pristine natural ecosystems.

Brett travels to Botswana on average 6 times per year, and this is the country Jo has spent the most time in (outside of South Africa) over his 10+ year long career as an overland safari guide.

These are two people who know Botswana extremely well. It it South Africa's northern neighbour, it's wild and unfenced, and emergency radios are a staple in each camp (because WiFi and air-conditioning are not a given!) Botswana offers that curious allure of high-end luxury that is not necessarily dictated by amenities, and rather by total remoteness and wilderness. Roads are flooded, camps are inaccessible other than by air, there are paths shared by humans and animals alike. Then there's the sheer magic of being on the water at sunset.

As one of safari's most celebrated destinations, we talk about Botswana a lot with our guests and our colleagues, and we frequently find ourselves debunking some assumptions about what a Botswana safari looks like. For the rates associated with travel in this country, there's an expectation for what 5-star should be, but what we want our guests to know is that the luxury you're getting is defined by something much greater and deeper than satisfaction at the touch of a button. It's in the exposure to true nature, to age-old tradition, to immersion, to close encounters with the big, wild animals in Africa whose territory you find yourself in. No fences, no signal, and sometimes no ice!

Nothing gets these two more excited than diving into a chat about a place we know well and love even more. This conversation had to be cut purposefully short, but not before we covered some of Brett's and Jo's combined memories of best moments, hair-raising encounters, and plans for exploring more of Bots in the future!

Tune in and enjoy (and if you're a previous Botswana guest of ours, enjoy this reminiscent chat about some epic adventures).

Thanks to Karabo Ramuhashi @karaborej who edited this season of the podcast for us, and to Trent Ashton @trent_ashton_nightingale who gave us his hand-drum beat to use in our intro.

Find us on Instagram our website or at hello@bhs-safari.co.

Seeking out the rare and enigmatic creatures of this wild continent has always been a primary motivator for BHS and speaks right to our Explorer archetype. So, when there was barely a chance (but a chance nonetheless) to see a black leopard in Africa back in 2017, Brett and a couple of die-hard friends set off to meet the researchers and guides who had been tracking these elusive cats in a dramatically vast landscape, and that's when we first crossed paths with the legendary Ambrose Letoluai.



A leopard researcher, National Geographic Explorer, NEWF Fellow, award-winning conservationist, and co-founder of community support initiatives, Chui Mamas and Wildlife Kids Resource Centre, Ambrose is a busy man, but he is a friend of BHS and we love that this guy gave us 30 minutes to chat. Tuning in from his home in Kenya, Ambrose joined Brett and fellow black leopard enthusiast, Charlotte Arthun, who is also a professional photographic guide and at the time of recording was a few days away from her next trip to Laikipia to photograph the famous cats!



Ambrose was part of the team of researchers who named Giza - the now well known black female leopard. His ancestors talked about seeing these black cats living among them, and he was one of the first researchers to report the initial sightings on their camera traps. Now, his career is a dedication to mitigating conflict between rural communities and wildlife, working to keep leopard populations healthily independent so that they don't venture into human farmlands.



His Wildlife Kids initiative is something to be proud of and it speaks right to our belief that environmental education for young members the communities living among wildlife is the key to creating a future of wildlife protectors. Ambrose is the guy who does it all with whatever he's got to give and aside from his "dream job" as a leopard researcher, he is truly making a difference through his community work.



Find out more about his initiatives via the links about and follow Ambrose on Instagram to keep up with his crazy life with black leopards and as a conservationist in Kenya. And check out our privately guided BHS Expedition: The Original Search for the Black Leopard to see what it takes to join us in Laikipia.



Thanks to Karabo Ramahuhashi @karaborej who edited this season of the podcast for us, and to Trent Ashton @trent_ashton_nightingale who gave us his hand-drum beat to use in our intro.



Find us on Instagram, our website, or at hello@bhs-safari.co.

Retired animal scientist, elephant specialist, and ornithologist with a career that spanned 37 years at South African National Parks (SANParks), Dr Ian "Masthulele" Whyte has published papers on managing Kruger National Park's elephant population, the value of elephants vs biodiversity, elephants as a keystone species, different contraceptive methods, and translocation issues, to name a few.



This episode is a conversation with a LEGEND. Dr Whyte was one of Brett's earliest influencers and idols, literally "living the wild life" (as is the title of his latest book) as he shadowed iconic wildlife vets conducting groundbreaking work in the 1970s, gained one qualification after the next as a true large mammal specialist, and was integral to the survival and redistribution of oxpeckers in South Africa.



Take a listen to the intro in this recording for a full list of Ian's accomplishments and fascinating career, which all kicked off after he was a self-proclaimed "hopeless case" as a school boy and entered the wildlife research field right at the bottom after being identified during his cricket practice at Skukuza!



Fast forward a few years and Ian and his wife, Merle, were raising their children in the Kruger National Park, following prides of lions and fitting radio collars to track their movement, behaviour, and their impact on other species. From a caravan parked under shady trees, for weeks at a time. A life that would feed any aspiring game ranger's dreams! Working with the likes of Dr Eddie Young, Dr Butch Smuts, and Dr Anthony Hall-Martin.



"Adventure every day and one of the highlights of my life" - Dr Whyte remembers his career among these huge names in wildlife with great fondness.



Ian has been a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's African Elephant Specialist Group since 1992, and a professional member of the Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRAA) since 1988. He qualified as a pilot in the early 1990s and became a published author along the way. One of Kruger National Park's great elephant tuskers is even named "Masthulele" in honour of Ian's contribution.



"Living the Wild Life" is his latest book, detailing some of this extensive careers in a way that resounds with a wildlife-loving public. The book has limited availability, so get in touch with Merle on merle.m.whyte@gmail.com to order a copy directly or find a few right here in Hoedspruit at High Tea With Elephants. We gave away some signed copies to some dear friends, followers, and colleagues.



A huge thanks to Ian for navigating Zoom and joining us online to get this conversation recorded!



Find us online at www.bhs-safari.co or @bhs_safarico on social and reach out directly at hello@bhs-safari.co.



Podcast edited by Karabo Ramuhashi @karaborej

Original drumbeat by Trent Ashton @trent_ashton_nightingale

This episode is the first in a series of destination-focused episodes we'll be sharing in this season of the podcast. We're re-introducing you to Jo Cooper, who was our very first guest back in 2020 in season 1 - he is a safari guru, overland extraordinaire, an expert at African border crossings, navigating roadside marketplaces in the most bustling cities across southern and eastern Africa, and he's as at home on the beach as he is in the bush.

Since our first chat in 2020, Jo has infiltrated our ecosystem as a resident in the Centre of the Universe (aka. Hoedspruit) and a pro in the guiding and safari travel community with his own overlanding business, Footsteps Through Africa. Earlier in 2023, Jo came on board full time at BHS, sharing the knowledge gained during 13 years on the road in African tourism, and the passion he so undeniably has for the wild and wonderful continent. Sometimes more wild than wonderful - we all agree - but the "wonderful" is worth its weight in gold. Which is why we are all here!

Uganda in particular is a special place to both Jo and Brett, and so we decided to launch the destination series with this spectacular country. Brett and Jo's combined knowledge and experience in Uganda is substantial - each having hiked the volcanic slopes of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, canoed the Delta-like Mabamba Swamp in search of the shoebill, sat in the mesmerising chaos of a chimpanzee community in Kibale, fished for the Nile perch in the river of the same name, and explored the seemingly unending sprawl of Queen Elizabeth National Park.

In this informal and entertaining conversation, Jo and Brett revisit some of the best memories, discuss what they've learned about Uganda's lesser known destinations and activities, and ultimately leave you more informed and rearing to press go on that bucket list trip to the equatorial African jungle.

Tune in and enjoy and let us know what you think!

Thanks to Karabo Ramuhashi @karaborej who edited this season of the podcast for us, and to Trent Ashton @trent_ashton_nightingale who gave us his hand-drum beat to use in our intro.

Find us on Instagram our website or at hello@bhs-safari.co