Ian and Carol planned a very special honeymoon safari with Guided Safaris® with a memorable Gorilla trek to Rwanda. We caught up with the couple on phone as they kindly shared these amazing photos and safari stories with our team.

The Great Migration was without a doubt the greatest wilderness adventure on earth for our safari guests all through this summer. Imagine coming home from safari with these spectacular wildlife shots to frame on your walls...

Mr. & Mrs. Steve Weeber from Iowa City were joined by their friend Mr. John Donelson, professor in the Science department at University of Iowa, on their unforgettable safari through the Mara during the migration. Steve says “We had a front-row seat at the greatest wildlife shows on earth”. Guided Safaris® helped plan this custom safari adventure for the couple in well-timed September when the plains were teeming with game and the safari experience proved to be a magical one. “The guides, staff, food and quarters were first class”, reflected Mrs. Weeber having previously embarked on a journey through Southern Africa with Guided Safaris a year prior followed by a luxurious jaunt to Cape Town with the San Francisco-based studio specializing in these boutique resorts.

One word that appears over and over in our guest books is 'Family'. Not only for the guests who feel like part of our family once at camp, but also the staff; a close-knit group whose passion to look after our guests manifests in every aspect of making each journey a truly magical experience. This was the case for our Dinetz family safari guests who embarked on a fun-filled journey through South Africa with their children over the school holidays.

“As we like to say: come for the photos, but stay for the stories. The stories are often amusing and, as the title suggests, sometimes downright sarcastic. It is not your typical animal book giving you the gestation period of a giraffe and the lifespan of an elephant. It is our absurdist view of the animal world with excellent photos to accompany it.” - The Lynns

When Richard and Amy Lynn returned last summer from their latest African adventure we received a special email of thanks in our inbox. It began with a simple “We are back” and “Job well done” going on to recount their “Single greatest wildlife experience of all time”. They had a front-row Land Rover seat when the sad events recounting the last moments of Lady Ravenscourt were shed at Sabi Sands in South Africa. This resident alpha female leopard, one of Africa’s great legends and a constant subject for enthralled rangers and travelers in their magnificent records and photographs brought home, met her fateful maternal stand off against a dominant male on that wintery encounter. The email followed through with photos and a tale of sympathy torn from a very personal account. A morning that started with the mother and cub frolicking in the sunlight to the sudden entry of a third leopard on the scene. In their words, “Wow and horrific at the same time”. We pasted this leaf from their journal into our blog and received an outpour of empathy from travelers who had spent time with this beloved leopard and her photogenic posing to the delight of safari guests the world over. Their tale was witnessed as though in person by each traveler dropping in with Guided Safaris that afternoon.

Later, we received a copy of the Lynn's wonderful new book, 'The Sarcastic Lens'.

Guided Safaris® Sophie Hyet shared her thoughts: “I sit here with my copy of The Sarcastic Lens and its glossy postal wrappings on the table. Page after page transports me to a rare, high-treat privilege to see over-the-shoulder, actual places revealed from our Guest’s perspective of journeys that were tailored right here in this very room. Descriptions of camps and regions conveyed to the mind’s eye before they actualized in person on travel, captured and printed in this fantastically weighty document full of life-on-safari experiences. Occasions for laughter and pathos, all the best-loved impressions from a couple’s ample companionship in life and adventure through 40 countries.”