Andreas Fox Safaris

07/10/2020

I'm proud to be featured in the second edition of Wilder Magazine. It's a short story about a particular walking safari, which turned out to be a formative experience for me as a younger guide, back in 2012. I had the fortune of backing-up a legend of the trails guide industry, Bruce Lawson, in the incredible Makuleke Concession of Kruger National Park.

While I tend to guide much more elaborate safaris these days, if this year has taught us anything, it's that true luxuries include immersion in nature, silence and the right mix of solitude and quality time spent with special people. A wilderness trail can therefore be considered one of the most luxurious experiences possible.

Go check out the second edition of Wilder at https://wilder-mag.com/. Be sure to read the article on a wilderness trail in Akagera National Park, Rwanda, written by Brenden Pienaar of Africa Trails Co., which goes even deeper into the value of these experiences.

10/04/2019

Feast your eyes on the new trailer for the upcoming remake of the Lion King! You can't help but be impressed by the stunning visual effects. Especially how realistically portrayed some of the characters are. I'm particularly impressed with the Hornbill (Zazu).

It's also amazing to recognise so many familiar vistas from Kenya, where the Disney crews spent many months seeking inspiration and filming landscapes. The keen-eyed out there may spot views of Kilimanjaro, the Chyulu Hills, typical Maasai Mara scenes as well as waterfalls and vegetation from the Aberdares and Mount Kenya - all melded into Disney's dream world.

It's exciting to think that the film will inspire more people to travel to Africa's wild places, even if it means re-enlightening a whole new generation about the true nature of Spotted Hyenas!

28/10/2018

Hi everyone, I'm about to depart to the USA for a few weeks and would love to meet up with anyone interested in catching up or to chat safaris. I've detailed my movements and more in my latest newsletter:

Cheers!

16/10/2018

The wildebeest and zebra migration across the Mara-Serengeti ecosystem has rightly developed a reputation as one of the most awe-inspiring spectacles of the natural world.

Unfortunately, it's popularity, especially around river crossings, has come to a point where the human presence is becoming detrimental to the environment and the wilderness experience. Thankfully, plans are finally being discussed to try and regulate it, in the Mara at least.

However, despite the reputation of chaos, there are plenty of opportunities to experience the busy migration season almost entirely exclusively. Venture into the remote corners, there are plenty of wildebeest to go around. Over 1 and a half million of them.

Solitude, just with loved ones, is an under-appreciated possibility of a safari. It's often the highlight too.

13/09/2018

"You can be an artist, a manager, an investor, an engineer, an organic farmer… anyone can pivot to make a real contribution to conservation."

This is a great piece that puts into perspective the infinite ways anyone can play a part in protecting species, biodiversity, livelihoods and with it human physical and psychological health.

For those youngsters out there thinking about ways to get involved in conservation as a career, there are some useful links toward the bottom.

However, a perspective that seems to be missing is that of nature guides. I'm fortunate to be able to be forging a career doing what I love, meeting people from all over the world and exposing them to wilderness experiences. However, a big part of every trip is the also the introduction to projects and people that are at the forefront of field-based conservation. As guides we have a responsibility to promote this great work and focus on sustainable and meaningful tourism.

Changing Planet How to be a Conservationist In Changing Planet, WildlifeAugust 31, 2018Leave a comment Jen Guyton“How can I make the biggest difference for conservation?” Over the past 5 years, I’ve asked a lot of people this question. I was sure someone would have a straightforward answer, ev...

24/03/2018

African birds of paradise.

I've just come back from running a two week course for guides at the lodge in the Central Serengeti. Every time I walked to and from my room I passed this nesting pair of African Paradise Flycatchers.

Their neat little cup of a nest is made from gathered lichen, bark and leaves, bound with spider web. The pair time-shared incubation duties and I managed to snap a few shots of both over numerous days. The male's spectacular tail and turquoise eye-ring is most obvious in the breeding phase. @ Four Seasons Safari Lodge Serengeti, Tanzania

20/03/2018

On March 19th 2018, Ol Pejeta Conservancy’s management and the Kenya Wildlife Service took the incredibly difficult decision to euthanize ‘Sudan’, the world’s last male Northern White Rhino. He was 45 and had deteriorated considerably over recent weeks. I’m really quite sad. However, it was not unforeseen - Rhinos rarely live beyond their late 30’s.

The northern subspecies, Ceratotherium simum cottoni, was wiped out in the wild at the turn of the 21st Century. The demand for rhino horn across the world, for traditional medicinal beliefs, ceremonial dagger handles and status symbols has pushed all rhino species to the brink. That plus the political instability in many of the range states of the Northern White Rhino – Uganda, DRC, Chad, Sudan and CAR – meant there was little chance of sanctuary for these giants.

When four of the last individuals were translocated from captivity in the Czech-Republic to a semi-wild setting in Kenya, to try and get them to breed naturally, many conservationists considered it a waste of resources. Why shouldn’t the money be spent on species and habitats that were not doomed with ‘extinction debt’? I’ll admit, I shared that opinion too.

The project suffered repeated disaster. Reports suggested that some of the rhinos were possibly infertile and then the young bull, ‘Suni’, unexpectedly died from natural causes – he was supposed to be the stud that saved them.

Giving up hope on Sudan being able to sire calves, efforts have turned to ‘artificial reproductive techniques’, using previously collected s***m samples and eggs harvested from the last two females. It’s extremely risky and expensive – is it worth it?

Yes.

While I may have been a skeptic before, I have had the privilege of spending some intimate time with Sudan and the Ol Pejeta team over the years, learning and considering more. The role that Sudan played as an ambassador cannot be understated – not only for his species, but as a metaphor for humanity’s impact on our planet - The cruel destruction of habitats and species for greed, corruption and irresponsible consumption vs. the hope and dedication displayed by people wanting to change that.

Tens of thousands of school children met him, the females and their wild cousins. Tourists from across the world have photographs. Brilliant short films, starring him, were made about the plight of rhinos. The genius 'Tinder' campaign, making him ‘the most eligible bachelor in the world’, helped raise crucial funds.

If the team trying to make this work get it right, the implications for conservation will be felt world-wide. Could we save more species this way, or even carefully bring back ones that we were responsible for wiping out?

Thank you Ol Pejeta for all your hard work and continued dedication to this and many other conservation causes. Please go read the full statement on their page for more information.

04/03/2018

The second edition of the AFS newsletter is live!

http://mailchi.mp/a8f86c9efeb2/safari-journal-march-2018

22/02/2018

Cut off from Lake Turkana by lava flows, the Baragoi and Suguta river systems end up discharging into seasonal water bodies such as Lake Logipe. Highly saline due to shallow depths and rapid evaporation, Logipe is a magnet for hundreds of thousands of Lesser Flamingos that come to feed on the algal blooms that thrive in these conditions.

Flying through the Baragoi river system’s eroded valleys and gorges, you get to see the multicolored soil strata that gives away some of this area’s geological history. Buried floodplains, beaches and seabeds have been turned into sedimentary rocks, overlain by more recent lava flows from the violent creation of the Great Rift Valley. We found signs of stone tool manufacture and a more recent millstone and hand pestle.

Just south of the Jade Sea and west of Baragoi is Logipe. We were fortunate to have timed our trip with a migration of Lesser and Greater Flamingos who had worked their way north from other saline lakes like Bogoria. Harnessed in with doors open, seeing the spectacle from the air was incredible.

@ Suguta Valley

20/02/2018

The Suguta Valley lies in the Great Rift Valley, to the South of Lake Turkana. Dominated by volcanic landscapes, the area used to be flooded, as part of a much larger inland sea that would have swallowed Lake Turkana. A series of volcanic eruptions eventually created a barrier complex that cut off the Suguta River’s flow, creating the seasonal Lake Logipe and forcing the modern shape and size of Turkana, now only fed by rivers from Ethiopia.

Flying North from the Silale Crater, one of the world’s largest Calderas, quickly reveals pitch black, barren lava flows. They abruptly end on the banks of the Doum Palm-fringed Suguta river and a network of springs, stuffed with bird life and Nile crocodiles.

Life-giving water is so precious in the wider region that this relatively lush area has a reputation for volatility. Neighbouring tribes have traditionally fought over access to the river and grazing on its floodplains. In the penultimate photo you can see the skeletal remains of a Turkana tribal village that was built for temporary occupation. Behind the huts are the magnificent Suguta sand dunes - a scene out of the Namib or Sahara, in Kenya.


I’m still blown away.

@ Suguta Valley

17/02/2018

Playing around with Sun stars on the Silale Crater rim.

One of the world's largest Calderas, it takes days to reach, unless you're in a helicopter! More photos and dedicated blog and newsletter posts on heli-safaris coming soon.

Thanks .andrew and for an unforgettable day!