Shamwari to offer specialised guided bush walks

Guests at Shamwari Private Game Reserve near Port Elizabeth will soon be able to enjoy insights into the ancient skills and wisdom of San hunter-gatherers during guided bush walks.

Renowned Ju/’hoansi trackers from Nyae Nyae in remote northeast Namibia will be teaming up with Shamwari guides to offer something really special. The Ju/'hoanis are the last of the San people in Southern Africa who still command the full suite of hunter-gatherer skills.

They track and hunt with bow and poisoned arrow, and the fittest among them engage in persistence hunting – pursuing an animal until it drops from exhaustion. 

Only a handful of trackers across the Kalahari Basin have been accredited as Indigenous Masters, the highest possible level of accomplishment. 

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Because it’s Women’s month in South Africa, we though we’d introduce you to Queen. This lovely lady is 21 years old! She arrived at Shamwari on the 7th of April in 2015. Queen is an ex-breeding farm lioness who was donated to Sanbona Game Reserve, in South Africa, in 2003. Sanbona had hoped to rehabilitate and release her into the reserve, but sadly their attempts failed. @Bornfreefoundation offered her a home and she now lives happily at our big cat sanctuary, sharing an enclosure with Brutus. 📷 : @georgeloganphoto #tbt #throwback #wildlife #bornfree #shamwari #sanctuary #keepingwildlifeinthewild

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In January, two of the very best, Master Trackers /ui-Kxunta and /ui-G/aqo, will join with Shamwari’s own skilled rangers on the first trail, limited to a maximum of six guests on each excursion.

Other ace trackers such as Dam Debe - who played a cameo part as a child in "The Gods must be Crazy" - will make their appearance on later trails. 

While tracking is their forte, the trackers will also offer demonstrations of their fire-lighting skills with fire-sticks and bow-and-arrow performances (sans poisoned tips). 

Guests will be invited to try their hand at tracking, archery and rock art interpretations, and be able to listen to fireside stories of the old ways in distant times.

Joe Cloete, chief executive of Shamwari Private Game Reserve explained: “We can imagine no better way to experience the African wilderness than on foot with these custodians of ancient wisdom and unsurpassed skills of tracking and bushcraft.

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Whilst out on the reserve doing lodge inspections, CEO Joe Cloete and Hospitality General Manager, Theo Cromhout came across this large herd of cape buffalo in the north of the reserve.

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“Only a handful of bookings are available. This is a rare opportunity and one to be seized upon and treasured: tracking in the bush with custodians of millennia-old skills, combined with unsurpassed luxury at an Explorer Bush Camp,” added Cloete.

Dates of the 2020 specialized Explorer trails:

January 28 - 29

January 31 - February 1

April 14 - 15

April 17 - 18

For more information see www.shamari.com