Encompass Africa Pty Ltd

07/06/2026

W O R L D O C E A N S D A Y

The ocean covers 71% of our planet and we've explored less than 20% of it.

World Oceans Day is a reminder of just how vast, mysterious, and vital our seas are. From tiny plankton to the great blue whale, marine life sustains life on land too.

Healthy oceans = clean air, stable climate, and food security for billions.

But plastic pollution, overfishing, and warming waters are pushing marine ecosystems to a tipping point.

The ocean is calling. Are you listening?


Images by Danica and Jonathon, South Africa

04/06/2026

W O R L D E N V I R O N M E N T D A Y
One planet. No backup. 🌍

Today is World Environment Day, the UN's biggest call to action for our natural world. Every species, every habitat, every waterway is connected in ways we're only beginning to understand.

Wildlife doesn't have a voice in our decisions. But we do.

Whether it's reducing plastic, supporting conservation, or simply spending time in nature, every action adds up.

What's one thing you're doing for the environment this year? 💬 Share below, we'd love to know and celebrate with you!

02/06/2026

ENCOUNTERS IS BACK...
Africa’s leading documentary film festival is returning to Cape Town this week, opening on Thursday and running until 14 June at various theatres around the city, including The L***a Theatre and Ster-Kinekor at the V&A Waterfront. Drawing approximately 10,000 attendees to Cape Town, this 10-day event showcases exceptional documentary films from South Africa and around the world.

Take a look...

https://youtu.be/oQlrvjjyO_Y?si=_Tq4oYox4C5TM-g3

Enjoy the videos and music that you love, upload original content and share it all with friends, family and the world on YouTube.

01/06/2026

M O M E N T S
Some moments stop you completely in Africa, and this is one of them. Right from the deck at Nehimba Lodge in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, a herd of elephants arrive at the waterhole. You sit right next to the most amazing spectacle, and it's life doing its thing just a few metres away. Nehimba is one of those rare places where the wild comes to you. Dry season brings hundreds of them. This was just one afternoon.

📍 Nehimba Lodge, Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe

31/05/2026

T I M E T O G O
Africa will give you the animals. It always does... So you will travel far for it, and leave with your list ticked but you've missed out on a few extra life lessons.

And that's because the real magic of a South African holiday isn't just in the game drives or the iconic destinations (think Kruger and Cape Town) ticked off one by one. It's in the between. The morning yoga when the world is still waking. The sundowner that turns into a conversation you didn't know you needed. The romantic dinner under milkwood trees lit like something from a dream, where you remember oh, there you are... the person sitting across from you.

It's kids being kids, properly, wildly and certainly without a schedule or any form of routine!

It's adults being present, equally rewarded and equally held by a place.

South Africa has room for all of it, if you let it. We allowed ourselves time with family last December, and it was the most rewarding moments we all cherish to this day.

When it's your time to go, just don't only focus on safari time. You'll regret it later.

📍 Coot Club, Stanford, South Africa


Image 1 The Wilsons, Dec 2026, remaining images thanks to Coot Club

Coot Club .club.rose

29/05/2026

T I M E T O G O ...
To Botswana's Boteti River to see the great zebra migration. Morning, noon and night it's impressive, but somehow it's the afternoon light that gives it the magic glow and sense of awe.

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📍 Boteti River, Botswana
By Michael Rupp
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29/05/2026

B E A U T I F U L L Y U N A N S W E R A B L E

The question every first-time safari guest asks:

"Will we see the Big Five?"

And it's the most beautifully unanswerable question in travel.

These are wild animals, living wild lives. That's not the caveat. It's the whole point!

Africa's wilderness doesn't run on a schedule, and that is precisely what makes it unlike anywhere else on earth. The track in the dust that tells a story. The rustle in the reeds before you even know what's there. The moment your guide cuts the engine and everyone holds... their... breath.

This is the adventure! It's not the arrival and sighting (oh course that's rewarding) but the pursuit.

Every sighting is a gift given on nature's terms. Whether it's a pretty lilac-breasted roller catching the light, an ah moment watching a family of elephants crossing at dusk. Maybe it's a glimpse of the elusive leopard before the bush swallows her again. Each one is your moment, unrepeatable, unscripted, and completely yours.

The tracking is the adventure. The find is the treasure.

Take a look at some of those moments with the impressive mammals of 📍Africa.

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Great footage thanks to our good friends at
Great Plains Conservation
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28/05/2026

T H E B O S S A N D T H E B R A I N S

The king has his crown, but every ruler knows who really runs the empire.


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📍 Mara North Conservancy, Kenya
Great Plains Conservation · Relais & Châteaux
Image by Jonathon Wilson
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Great Plains Conservation

27/05/2026

THE . W I L S O N . G A U G E
Good morning from Tembo Plains, Zimbabwe, and a place that genuinely redefined what we thought a family safari could be.

We weren't expecting Zanzibari doors in the middle of the African bush. Enormous, intricately carved, wooden and magnificent, rising out of the landscape as if they'd always been there. They stopped all of us before we'd even stepped out of the vehicle properly.

Then the welcome singing started, and honestly it felt completely organic rather than choreographed. The kids did what kids do and hung back, a little uncertain. Then they spotted Jono climb out and just start dancing with the staff. That was the moment. Once they saw the team genuinely wanted to celebrate our arrival, and that Dad was already in, they didn't need any more convincing.

By our last evening, when the live music started after dinner, Aidan got up and danced without anyone asking him to. If you know Aidan, you know what that means. Confidence isn't something you can teach in a classroom. Apparently you can find it on a safari camp deck dance floor in Zimbabwe.

Three nights here and we could have stayed for ten.

Breakfast one morning with a herd of elephants drinking and playing in the water in front of us, so close and so unhurried that nobody spoke for a long time. A sundowner on a private island in the Zambezi as the sun did something extraordinary on its way down (and a cheeky swim). And Grace, who has always loved cooking, somehow found herself in the Relais & Châteaux kitchen with a team who couldn't get her there fast enough and didn't want to let her leave!

Our guide Matt was in a category of his own. What made him exceptional wasn't just his knowledge, though it was extraordinary. It was the way he directed questions at the kids until their own curiosity took over and he just had to keep up with them.

Great Plains Conservations' Tembo Plains passed the Wilson gauge. Then it quietly dismantled it and built something better. Thanks Tembo team!
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📍 Tembo Plains · Zambezi Valley · Zimbabwe
Great Plains Conservation · Relais & Châteaux
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Plains Conservation

26/05/2026

W O R L D O T T E R D A Y
Africa has its very own otter and most people have never heard of it.

Meet the Cape clawless otter, one of the largest freshwater otters in the world, found along rivers, lakes, and coastlines across sub-Saharan Africa. And then there's the spotted-necked otter, gliding through the waterways of the Congo Basin and East African Rift lakes.

Today on World Otter Day, we shine a light on these overlooked African gems. Pollution, wetland loss, and human-wildlife conflict are quietly pushing them out of their habitats.

Healthy rivers mean healthy otters. And healthy otters mean healthy ecosystems.

Africa's waterways deserve protection.

If you're going to Cape Town, keep an eye out when you're at the Waterfront. Here's a great video by the team at Two Oceans Aquarium showing you a small population in the heart of the action!
https://youtu.be/Xtth7gflu7Y?si=vk683bvRtLeppQ2Q

Since 2018, Cape Town's V&A Waterfront has been home to surprising residents - Cape clawless otters that have adapted to live amongst the hustle and bustle o...