20th July 2022, marked the 10 year anniversary of Toby's move to Africa. 

What a 10 years it has been!

Toby has written a brief summary of his decade in Africa in a few words below:

In 2012 I arrived fresh faced and bushy tailed with a fair dose of trepidation that I might be on the next flight back to the UK. 

Having completed a successful interview, just hours after landing at Johannesburg Airport, I’d secured a spot on a prestigious Ranger Training selection course, for one of Africa's leading safari operators. The course runs for six weeks and there is zero guarantee that you will be selected to progress through to their second phase. In fact, after the first week of the course, eight people were sent packing. 

Somehow I made it through with four others of the initial 20-odd who started, and so my career in the safari world began. 

To get to this point, we need to look back to when I first visited Africa at the tender age of four, on a family holiday to Zimbabwe. On this holiday, we all caught 'The Africa Bug' and essentially, as a family, became obsessed with safari. 

Many return visits to Southern Africa in the coming years cemented a genuine love of the continent, its people and wild places within me. I was completely hooked. 

Fast forward to 2012, as soon as I’d graduated from university in England, I was on my way to see if I could make that boyhood dream of becoming a safari guide a reality. 

I’m not one to usually talk about myself, and am typically British in my preference to self-deprecate at every opportunity, but for maybe this once I will say that I am pretty chuffed with the decision I made to come out here to Africa. It’s the most amazing decision I could have ever made. 

In the 10 years since the move, I have guided in some of Africa’s most incredible reserves and travelled to pretty much every corner of Safari-Africa. 

In the more recent, Covid years, I have been lucky enough to marry the most amazing woman, Olivia, who also adores everything safari and, in October this year, we will take our beautiful son on his first ever safari (he’ll be 6 months old), ensuring that the love and respect for nature passes on to the next generation. 

Before diving into a quick fire round of questions that the Bonamy team have put to me, I must make a special mention to my Mum and Dad who have made this amazing life that I live possible, through constant encouragement and support. Thank you. 

Right then, time for a quick Q&A!

If you could only go back to one place for safari for the rest of your life where would it be?

Despite that being an impossible question, if you push me for an answer, at this moment in time I think I would say Botswana’s Okavango Delta, self-driving with my family.

Game drives or walking safaris?

Great question, and I'll be giving a fairly boring answer of both. Both are amazing and show you a completely different perspective of the bush. You can also add canoeing and boating to that, but for me being on horseback in the bush is pretty hard to beat!

Most memorable wildlife sighting from the last 10 years?

I've been lucky enough to have witnessed countless incredible sightings over the years, from watching a giraffe give birth to hyenas sadly taking down an injured elephant, via so many others in between. For me the most memorable moments in the bush are those where you can just sit for hours and watch as nature comes and goes, there are few better places for that than in Zambia's Lower Zambezi National Park.  

Where are you still hoping to explore?

High on the list is the Congo Basin and Zakouma National Park in Chad. One of those would be pretty amazing . 

Where will you be in 10 years from now?

With any luck, Bonamy will have gone from strength to strength allowing Olivia and me to finally open our own safari camp somewhere like Zimbabwe. 

Finally, sunrise or sunset?

Both, I'm always a huge fan of being up and out while it's still dark so that you can see the sun rising while out in the bush itself. There's nothing like finding a spot to silently watch the sunrise with a cup of coffee, if there's wildlife in the foreground even better. Equally though, you'll never see me missing my sunset G&T!