Your Guides and Trackers

The people who
make the safari

The people who
make the safari

In the bush, who you’re with matters as much as what you see

A safari is only as good as the people who lead it. At Arathusa, every game drive is brought to life by a field guide and a dedicated tracker, working in unison to read the different layers of the landscape.

The tracker reads the ground: fresh prints, disturbed earth, the direction of a scent. The guide reads the broader picture – animal behaviour, territorial patterns, the story that connects one sighting to the next.

What makes this team extraordinary is where they come from. These are not people who discovered the bush later in life. They were born into it – raised in villages on the edges of the reserve, taught to read the land by fathers and grandfathers who did the same. The Sabi Sand is not a workplace to them. It is home, in the most literal sense. That depth of origin is what turns knowledge into instinct, and a good sighting into something you will never forget.

Getting to know them is one of the great pleasures of a stay at Arathusa.

Meet the Team

Meet the Team

Roy Mkansi

Field Guide

Nickname: Rock a Roy team
Favourite animal: Elephant
Favourite leopard: Tiyani
Guiding runs in my family – rangers and trackers, going back generations. As children, we spent our days in the bush looking after cattle and goats, and the elders were always talking about the animals: their behaviour, their movements, their character. I absorbed all of it without even realising. By the time I was old enough to choose a path, there was really only ever one option. I love the bush more than anything.

Witness Mathebule

Field Guide

Nickname: De Beer
Favourite animal: Dwarf Mongoose
Favourite leopard: Thandi
I grew up just outside the Sabi Sand, and tracking was something I learned from my family long before it became a career. Over thirty years in the bush, and I am still happy – still learning, still finding things that surprise me. What I love most is sharing this place with people from all over the world, and watching them see it for the first time.

Geoff Haslam

Field Guide

Nickname: Masingita
Favourite animal: Pangolin
Favourite leopard: Nhenhe
What drew me to the bush was the concept of freedom – freedom from city life and everything that comes with it. Growing up, our family would journey annually to the Waterberg, and it was there that I discovered my passion for the wilderness. That feeling never left me. It brought me here, and it keeps me here.

Micheal Sithole

Field Guide

Nickname: Mike
Favourite animal: Lion
Favourite leopard: To be confirmed
I grew up in this area, and the bush has always felt like home. As a child, I spent my days caring for my grandfather’s livestock – an early education in patience, observation, and respect for the land. I began my career as a tracker, and with the encouragement of colleagues who believed in me, I went on to study and qualify as a field guide. That support meant everything.

Norman Sithole

Tracker

Nickname: Nox
Favourite animal: Lion
Favourite leopard: Xidulu
I was born in Mala Mala – a child of the Kruger area, in every sense. My grandfather was a professional hunter and my father was a tracker, and I grew up learning from both of them. This land shaped me. I think of myself as an ambassador for nature, and tracking is how I protect it – by helping guests understand what they are seeing, and why it matters.

Ismael Mkanzi

Tracker

Nickname: Ish
Favourite animal: Wild dog
Favourite leopard: TP
I have a deep love for nature and a strong belief that we each have a responsibility to protect it – and to pass that understanding on. The animals in our culture are not separate from us. They are part of how we grew up, bound to us through tradition and through spirit. We do not waste, we do not take without reason, and we do not forget where we come from. That is what I bring to every drive.

Eugine Ndlovu

Tracker

Nickname: Eug
Favourite animal: Wild dog
Favourite leopard: Thandi
I was born in Hluvukani, a small village in the bush. Growing up, we looked after livestock, and I became close to our animals and the land around us from a very young age. When I chose tracking as my path, it felt like a natural continuation of everything I had already learned. Being a tracker means being a protector – of the animals, the environment, and the experience we give our guests.

Adam Nhlongo

Tracker

Nickname: Masingita
Favourite animal: Giraffe
Favourite leopard: Xidulu
I grew up in and around the Sabi Sand, where my family had long ties to the reserve. My journey into tracking began the way most do in this part of the world – tending to cattle and goats, reading the land from an early age. It was Witness – De Beer – who became my mentor, teaching me to read tracks and signs with precision and patience. I owe a great deal to him, and to this place.

Guest Testimonial

Guest Testimonial

De Beer our ranger and Ishmael our tracker put every effort to make our game drives meaningful and a success. Not only did we see the Big 5 multiple times, but we saw all of the Big 5's babies too!

TripAdvisor

Once in a lifetime experiences!

Our guide Roy was outstanding — experienced, knowledgeable, funny, and with an amazing instinct for animal sightings. We had incredible safari moments, including several leopard sightings, lions, wild dogs, rhino, elephants, giraffes, zebra, buffalo and hippos — much more than we hoped for, all within just 2 days!

TripAdvisor

Our guide was Mike and our tracker was Eugene — they were incredible at their jobs. We felt super safe in their hands and they explained everything to us. Mike would always go the extra mile to make sure we got as close as was safely possible to the beautiful animals. We easily saw the Big 5 and then some!

TripAdvisor

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

All Arathusa guides are qualified through the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA), the industry-recognised body for professional guiding in the region. Many hold advanced qualifications beyond the minimum standard, including specialist tracking, birding, or trails guide certifications.

Beyond formal qualifications, what sets the team apart is time. Our guides have spent years, in some cases decades, in this particular corner of the Sabi Sand, which is the kind of knowledge that cannot be taught on a course.

Guides and trackers work as a pair, each with a distinct role:

  • The guide drives the vehicle, interprets what you are seeing, manages communication with other vehicles, and shapes the overall experience of the drive.
  • The tracker sits on a raised seat at the front of the vehicle and focuses entirely on finding signs of wildlife. This includes reading tracks, scat, territorial markings, alarm calls, broken vegetation, and subtle movement in the bush.

Together, they are more effective than either would be alone. The tracker’s skill is what makes so many of the more difficult sightings, particularly leopards, possible.

Will we have the same guide and tracker for our whole stay?

Yes. You are allocated a dedicated guide and tracker on arrival, and they stay with you for the duration of your stay. This continuity is part of what makes the experience feel personal. They come to know your interests, pace, and what you have already seen, and each drive builds on the last.

Many returning guests specifically request the guide or tracker they spent time with on a previous visit, which we are always happy to arrange where possible.

Tracking is a practised skill, built on years of observation. Trackers read the landscape for signs most people would walk straight past:

  • Spoor. The size, depth, freshness, and direction of tracks in sand or soft soil.
  • Scat. What an animal has been eating, and when it passed through.
  • Vegetation. Broken branches, flattened grass, or fresh rub marks on trees.
  • Sound. Alarm calls from impala, baboons, or francolin, which often give away a predator’s presence.
  • Birds. Vultures circling, or oxpeckers on the move, can point to larger animals.

A good tracker pieces these signals together to locate specific animals, often individuals they know by name. It is one of the most skilled and quietly impressive parts of a safari.

 The tracker’s seat is a working position rather than a guest seat, and is reserved for the tracker during drives. Trackers need to focus fully on the environment, and the seat is positioned differently from the guest seats to allow for that.

That said, guests are welcome to chat with the tracker at stops and back at the lodge, and many guests say those conversations are among the most memorable of their stay.

Absolutely, and we encourage this. Let your guide know on your first drive what interests you most, and they will shape drives accordingly. Typical requests include:

  • Photographic pacing, with longer time at sightings and attention to light
  • Birding focus, particularly during the summer migratory season
  • Specific species, such as leopard, wild dog, or cheetah
  • A particular pace, whether slower and more contemplative or more actively exploring

The more you share, the better the experience becomes.

Guides carry a rifle on guided bush walks, which is a standard safety practice for walking in a Big Five reserve. Rifles are not generally carried on vehicle-based drives, as the vehicle itself is the primary safety factor.

All walking guides hold the relevant FGASA Trails Guide qualification, which includes firearms competency and dangerous-game protocols.