Q&A with Shane Hedges

• How did you start out in guiding?

  I was born Into the industry and all through my childhood I was on safari, learning all there was to know about life on safari and the way of the wild.

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

  Botswana its my home and always will be! I have had the privilege of traveling the continent quite extensively and even after I have visited so many wild and magnificent places there is nothing quite like the Okavango delta.

• 3. Have you ever been really scared on safari?

  Yes on one cold winter night in the Moremi Game Reserve during the early hours of the morning a male lion decided the side of my tent looked quite comfortable and preceded to lie down on it. I spent the next few hours lying right next to him with nothing but a sheet of canvasbetween us. Trying to keep my heart rate down and be still and quite as humanly possible, I did nothing but hope that he would not notice my presence and move on to find another more comfortable spot to spend the rest of the night.

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

  • A marriage of inconvenience – Michael Dutfeild
  • A long walk to freedom – Nelson Mandela
  • Whatever you do don’t run – Peter Allison

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

  • Torch
  • Binoculars
  • A thirst for adventure

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

  • “Be the change you want to see in the world”
  • “Not all those who wonder are lost”
  • “I never new a morning in Africa where I woke up that I was not Happy”

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

  If you think you are to small to make a difference then you have never spent a night with a mosquito

  Mind over matter

  The speed limit