PRIVATE GUIDES
A private guide is the difference between a beautiful trip and a journey that quietly rewires how you see the world.
They are with you from the first dawn drive to the last nightcap, translating the language of the bush, moving you effortlessly between camps and countries, and making sure every lodge knows exactly who you are before you arrive.
More importantly, they become the person you didn’t know you needed until you can’t imagine the safari without them.
Brent Leo-Smith
Founder & Heartbeat of Painteddog
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Brent has been chasing perfect light and perfect moments across Africa for longer than most guides have been alive. He still gets stupidly excited about a lilac-breasted roller in good light and can tell you which lioness is limping before the tracker spots it.
His energy is contagious, his knowledge runs deep, and he has a knack for turning a simple sundowner into the kind of evening people talk about for decades.
When the conversation turns to conservation, wildlife behaviour, or the sheer thrill of being out here, Brent is unrivalled.
Alex Colburn
Archaeologist, Storyteller, and Keeper of Deep Time
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Alex can stand on a termite mound and tell you who was knapping stone tools here half a million years ago, then spot fresh rhino middens and connect the two stories without breaking stride.
His easy laugh and endless curiosity make the ancient past feel like something that happened last week.
Whether you’re holding a 40 000-year-old hand-axe or watching elephants drink at dusk, with Alex the land never feels empty. It feels as though it has simply been waiting for you to catch up.
Gareth Nuttall-Smith
Zoologist, Photographer, and Quite Possibly the Most Underrated Guide You Will Ever Meet
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Gareth sees the ecosystem the way musicians hear harmony. Nothing is ever “just a bird” or “just a tree”; everything is connected, and he has the rare gift of making complexity feel simple and wonder feel inevitable.
He’ll spend twenty minutes on dung beetles with the same reverence he gives a leopard kill, then make you feel like you’ve been let in on a private conversation the wild is having about itself.
Guests leave his vehicle smarter, properly awed, and usually with much better photographs.
Victoria Nuttall-Smith
Family-Whisperer and the Person You Want Beside You When the Kids Ask Why Giraffes Have Long Necks
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Victoria has turned hosting multi-generational families into an art form. She knows when to speak and when to let the bush do the teaching, when to detour for a dung-beetle race and when to push on because lions are calling two valleys over.
Warm, unflappable, and quietly encyclopaedic, she makes teenagers put down their phones and grandparents feel twenty-five again.
If you are travelling with people you love (or want to love more by the end of the trip), Victoria is the guide you beg to have twice.
