Becoming a Guide in the Okavango Delta
Sleeping in a tent in the middle of nowhere, sharing said tent with a family of lizards, getting up at 5 a.m. every morning to go on game drives and capturing it all: the stunning landscapes, the abundance of wildlife, and the feeling of what it’s like to be a student living in the bush.
And in between: learning about everything from elephants to grass to poo. Lectures came with squirrel sound effects from the roof, sunsets were shared with wild dogs just a few metres away, and I fell asleep to the sound of lions somewhere out in the dark. Not to forget Karl the buffalo, who at one point made my tent his favourite sleeping place.
Welcome to the wild life.
Arriving in the wilderness
This wasn’t my first time in the bush, but it was my first time in the Okavango Delta. From the moment I landed at the tiny airport in Maun and bounced along sandy roads (if you can even call them so) in a 4×4 towards camp, I knew I was in for something special.
There are no other safari cars, no signs of civilisation in this part of the Delta. Just me, my fellow students, the amazing camp staff and of course, lots and lots of animals.
When a photographer becomes a guide
As a wildlife photographer, I signed up for the Nature Guide qualification to dive deeper into animal behaviour and ethical guiding. I’ve been handling the social media accounts and content creation for the African Guide Academy for three months in total, so it just made sense to seize the opportunity and gain a qualification myself. We had daily lectures on everything from mammals to astronomy to geology, but the best classroom was always the bush itself.
Every drive brought something new. One day, you might see absolutely nothing. The next, you stumble upon an aardvark in the morning and witness a pack of wild dogs hunting an impala in the evening.
And that’s the beauty of the bush, you never know what’s waiting around the next corner.
What I brought back
I returned not only with my Nature Guide qualification, but also with a deeper sense of confidence, curiosity, and connection to nature.
My time in Botswana taught me how to lead, how to observe more closely, and how to truly be present in the moment.
It also reminded me why I fell in love with the bush in the first place – and why I became a wildlife photographer. Because in the end, the purpose of a guide is much like that of a photographer: to share a passion for wild places and the natural world, and to inspire others to fall in love with it, too.
