Q&A with Adrian Bantich

Pan-African Safari Guide | Naturalist | Photographer & Astrophotographer | BSC Graduate | Avid fly-fisherman | Artist | Piano player | Live music appreciator | Stargazer | Dreamer

• How did you start out in guiding?

  I did a 1-year professional field guiding & lodge management course through the Bush Academy in 2006.

• What’s your favorite place in Africa and why?

  This is a question that clients are forever asking me & I can never give a straight forward answer! At the moment it is a tossup between Zambia and Kenya, with Tchad having a super special place in my heart.

• Have you ever been really scared on safari?

  Oh yes. But maybe not so much being scared  – more like a ‘respectful fear’. It was in 2018 when I did my first Gorilla trek in Rwanda. We trekked the Sabyinyo Mountain Gorilla group for quite a while as they were well up above the bamboo tree line. When we found the group the old Silverback decided to walk straight toward me. I realized that I was on a game path of sorts and so I took a step to the left, moments before he walked past me and proceeded to slowly stroll off to a nearby bush. I dropped my head so as not to make eye contact and we literally brushed sides with one another. I could hear my heart beating through my eardrums. It was my first encounter with these endangered Mountain Gorillas as well as my closest one yet.

• What three books do you recommend your guests read before going on safari?

  Jock of the Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick.

  Memories of A Game Ranger by Harry Wolhuter.

  Born Free by Joy Adamson.

• What are the three most important pieces of kit for guests to bring along?

  Binos, a hat, and an awesome attitude!

• What is your motto in life and what concepts are sacred?

  You can make a mistake, but you can only make that same mistake once; Manners are for free; In order to experience paradise one must make a considerable effort to get there.

• Which rules have you made, which ones do you follow and which rules do you break?

  I think that asking rather for forgiveness than permission answers all of the above in one go!

• What's your most embarrassing or comical moments ever on safari?

  This has got to be when a habituated Honey Badger crashed a Boma Bush Dinner in 2011. I was guiding in the Kalahari and this was also at the time when the ‘Crazy-ass honey-badger’ was going viral on YouTube. I was in the guides office (which was ‘back-of-house’) when all of a sudden I heard an eruption of screams, wails and curses coming from the adjacent outdoor boma venue. I ran down to this closed circular boma whereupon I saw guests on tables, under tables and complete and utter chaos.

  In the middle of it all was “Badge”, a honey badger that had been rescued as a cub, rehabilitated and released back into the Kalahari wilderness. As honey badgers do, he was exploring and testing his boundaries as a newly released animal. This difference here was that he had grown up observing and interacting with humans and thus was super interested in the some twenty-four guests sitting under Kalahari skies for an African feast – and all of the wonderful smells that go with such a feast.

  I entered the boma via a small 3 foot wide entrance/exit space and proceeded to shout, “Hey! You! Come here!” or something to that effect. I ran towards Badge and grabbed his loose nape between his head and back. Badge immediately rolled and did a 180 in his skin and grabbed onto my forearm with his front and back feet – like that of a Koala Bear holding onto a branch of a tree. I quickly exited the boma with Badge in hand, radioed the Reserve Conservation Team and handed Badge over one of the conservation officers.

  Following all of the chaos and madness I went back to the boma to see if everyone was ok. I also wanted to explain what had happened and and let everyone know that at no point was a one in any danger whatsoever.

  I arrived to people cheering, clapping and slaps on the back! Everyone had thought that I had wrestled the crazy-ass Honey badger and had saved the day!

  I never told them about “Badge” , decided to keep the explanation to myself and enjoy the heroes praise.