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Rae Safaris Tailor made, personally guided African adventure.

The Arctic.It is...otherworldly...and it exudes a remote sense of wilderness from every shoreline...every fjord entrance...
07/10/2026

The Arctic.
It is...otherworldly...and it exudes a remote sense of wilderness from every shoreline...every fjord entrance and every glacier encrusted valley.

I don't think I have ever felt such distance from the rest of humanity as this time aboard MS Stockholm...a small vessel initially launched in 1953 to deliver supplies to distant lighthouses. Now exclusively used for Arctic tourism with just 6 guest cabins.

Longyearbyen...in Svalbard...population around 2500...was where it began. A flight from Oslo in Norway...a landing on a lonely icy runway...and a bus drive along an inhospitable looking rocky shore...we checked into the hotel...replete with a full taxidermed Polar Bear effigy glaring menacingly at all who entered reception.

We embarked on the charming MS Stockholm that next afternoon.

We explored and reveled in the extraordinarily soft Autumn light on a most arresting landscape. We walked up to Svalbard Reindeer on spongy tundra and photographed Walrus and Arctic Fox from our small expeditionary Zodiac inflatables. Western Spitsbergen is...simply put...beautiful.

We docked to refuel days later in Ny-Alesund...the earth's northern most permanent human settlement...now a research village of around 300 people...formerly a coal mining encampment and...in the 1920's...a springboard to a series of attempts at flying to and landing on the North Pole...including the famous Zeppelin flight by Amundsen.

The search for Polar Bears continued as we navigated around Spitsbergen towards a tiny archipelago known as the Seven Sisters. News from another vessel further north on the pack ice indicated that Polar Bear sightings were in short supply and hard weather was moving in. We decided to move south west between the east coast of Spitsbergen and the endless ice coated vastness of Nordaustland.

On the morning of the 1st of October the call came through from the bridge...Polar Bears...a female and her cub...this was followed by several jaw dropping engagements with the species over the days that followed. Four incredible sightings...six bears in total.

We found Bearded, Harbour, Ringed and Harp Seals...we encountered Orcas, S***m and Fin Whales and Humpbacks and...on the evening arriving adjacent to the Norwegian coast...the clouds parted...and the Aurora Borealis danced and swirled across the northern skies...we were spellbound...standing gazing heavenward in the frigid Arctic wind...overwhelmed by the sheer wonder of this harsh and yet stunning wildlife filled frontier.

Wish you were here.

RAE Safaris Michael Motsumi Rae

I have dreamt about the Congo basin since I was a young lad. The word "Congo" has always ignited in me a sense of advent...
14/09/2026

I have dreamt about the Congo basin since I was a young lad. The word "Congo" has always ignited in me a sense of adventure...of the unknown...where strange and obscure creatures stalk the shadow country hidden in lowland forest undergrowth. This almost infinite wilderness heart of darkness has consistently held me spellbound.

And then...several decades ago...an inspiring fellow named Mike Fay trekked across this region in Africa and uncovered...in his incredible documentary...Megatransect...the natural wonder that is...the bai.

A bai is a natural mineral rich wetland opening in the middle of the rainforest...the word is derived from the Ba'aka language and literally means "open clearing".

A bai unlocks rainforest game viewing. The most secretive and difficult to see creatures are accessible and visible in these spaces...as they drift into the open to warm in the sun, drink the water, feed on the marshland vegetation and the mineral infused soils...a behavior known as geophagia.

It is on the bai that one can witness rarely seen forest antelope like Bongo, Forest Sitatunga and various Duiker species, Red River and Giant Forest Hogs, Forest Elephant and Buffalo...and a vast plethora of primates.

Deep in Odzala Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo on the edge of Imbalanga Bai I beheld this imposing silverback Lowland Gorilla and his family group and I became lost in the utter evocative beauty of the scene.
Astounding wilderness magnificence.

Wish you were here.

Ukuri Michael Motsumi Rae RAE Safaris Worth Wild Africa African Parks | Conservation NGO

There is something ethereal about a Leopard sighting...dream like...surreal...as if one drifts into an alternate dimensi...
10/08/2026

There is something ethereal about a Leopard sighting...dream like...surreal...as if one drifts into an alternate dimension...one where the Leopard decides the nature of the engagement.

We had followed the tracks of the male Lion that had roared his defiance to the universe near our lodge earlier that morning...and had observed the disturbance left in his wake.

Nervous Giraffe...herds of Impala all gazing in a single direction...and this rosette spangled assassin...up a tree and clearly irritated.

We'd been rambling through the hill country of North West province in South Africa...Pilanesberg...where vast herds of Elephant abound.

And then Madikwe...an evocative wilderness on the border with Botswana...filled with the most arresting landscapes and brimming with incredible wildlife diversity.

Another astounding safari with more of our beloved travel family.

Wish you were here.

RAE Safaris Michael Motsumi Rae The KUZO Group Worth Wild Africa

Madagascar...an almost impossible experience to summarize or define.The world's fourth largest island...a break away chu...
26/07/2026

Madagascar...an almost impossible experience to summarize or define.

The world's fourth largest island...a break away chunk of land when the vast super continents began shifting and traveling.

A land of extremes and a country shaped by third world politics and economic mediocrity...peopled by an unusual melting pot of South East Asian and African ethnicities and cultures.

And it has the most intriguing wildlife...it is a massive endemism hotspot...Lemurs, Geckos, Whole bird families, Chameleons and Boas, Tenrecs and insects...all unique to the specific ecological regions of this unusual country...and found nowhere else on earth.

This Indri...largest of all the Lemurs...took a breather in the rainforest canopy at Andasibe one morning...staring at us intently...while the rest of his troop hooted and whined high above us...their calls echoing across the forested hill country as they have since before mankind began measuring time.

Wonderful, diabolical, otherworldly...Madagascar.

Wish you were here.

Photo by Mike Rae

RAE Safaris Michael Motsumi Rae Jay Roode Worth Wild Africa Angela Rae The KUZO Group

In the grand blue expanse of the endless Pacific...there are volcanic landmasses born entirely out of the ocean floor......
27/05/2026

In the grand blue expanse of the endless Pacific...there are volcanic landmasses born entirely out of the ocean floor...and not from any known continental lineage we know or speak of.

Over an infinite stretch of cosmic time and thanks to the random movement of ocean currents...life arrived...floating, swimming or flying...to inhabit this desolate archipelago...this very epitome of the edge of existence.
Charles Darwin called it...the relentless.

And this meagre handful of species began rapidly evolving...adapting...changing...in order to just survive...thus providing the cornerstone to our conceptual understanding of natural evolution over time.

I sat on the side of a motorized dingy staring at this Marine Iguana draped across a rock formation that centuries before had poured from a nearby hillside as flowing lava.
Galapagos...I find myself constantly shaking my head in disbelief...at the diabolical otherworldly nature of it all.

It is the very edge of everything...harsh...unforgiving...and entirely and utterly spellbinding.

Wish you were here.

.kuzo.group .roode

East Africa...Tanzania...a remarkable wildlife region...and the birthplace of the very idea that became our much beloved...
26/04/2026

East Africa...Tanzania...a remarkable wildlife region...and the birthplace of the very idea that became our much beloved profession...the very origin of the safari.

We have rambled once again across this breath-taking countryside surrounding the Rift Valley escarpment...Tarangire...a baobab studded bushscape...Manyara...a liana draped jungle shadowland inhabited by Silvery cheeked Hornbill and Blue Monkey and Crowned Eagle adjacent to an imposing, shimmering soda lake.

And then...the lost world of Ngorongoro...the world's largest collapsed volcanic caldera...containing its own bewildering ecosystem.

These enormous pachyderms stood quietly feeding as dense clouds floated against the steep edges of this most diabolical of natural wonders.

And then...Serengeti...the endless plain...and the vast drifting multitude...Wildebeest and Zebra in numbers too overwhelming to even consider counting...and the myriad carnivores that stalk them, chase them...and devour them.

It is to my mind...emphatic wilderness...seemingly infinite...incessantly begging exploration.

My heart stands vigil still on a lonely hill somewhere on the Serengeti...and I am homesick for it already.

It calls me out...and I must go...

.kuzo.group .roode

There is something fundamental to India...it is extraordinary...essential...thoroughly, chaotically intrinsic...complete...
16/03/2026

There is something fundamental to India...it is extraordinary...essential...thoroughly, chaotically intrinsic...completely otherworldly!

After an alluring time in the Himalayas we gathered additional members of our travel family and began an exploration of Rajasthan and Assam.

We reveled in the sights surrounding the evocative Taj Mahal and the fairytale like vistas of the Floating Palace...called Jal Mahal...near the pink city of Jaipur.

But it was also the iconic wildlife that we sought...and the Jungle Book setting so inherent in the hill country of Ranthambore beckoned to us.

We explored this wonderland over three days...seeking Chital and Sambar Deer, Wild Boar, Sloth Bear, Leopard...and Tiger.

This magnificent male strode down the road under ancient archeological ruins that have occupied the space for a hundred centuries...nonchalant yet defiant...I was reminded of that ageless verse by William Blake..."Tiger, Tiger...burning bright...in the forests of the night...what immortal hand or eye...could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

Kaziranga too...in the east... was utterly spellbinding...One Horned Rhinoceros, Asian Water Buffalo, Asian Elephant and jaw dropping avian splendor.

India continues to call to us and we long to return to her beauty, her archaic timelessness and the wilderness landscapes that still resound with a primordial sense of mystery...of savagery...of infinite, magnificent vitality.

Wish you were here.

Photo by Joel Silverman.

.kuzo.group .roode

It was a day to remember...a day that will forever reside in the tapestry of adventure that populates my mind. We had sp...
15/02/2026

It was a day to remember...a day that will forever reside in the tapestry of adventure that populates my mind.

We had spent two days previously bridging the distance between Delhi and Himachal Pradesh in the Indian Himalayas...two days of driving across some of the most arresting landscapes on earth...on winding roads that defy any kind of logical description...across the roof of the world and into the remote and utterly breathtaking Spiti Valley.

We had come here to seek out Himalayan wildlife...Himalayan Ibex, Blue Sheep, Tibetan Wolf, Golden Eagle, Bearded Vulture...and...Snow Leopard.

I have long dreamt of one day seeing this carnivore denizen of the remote montane stretches of central Asia...have yearned for it since I first laid eyes on a picture of one as a child.

We left the homestay in Kaza early in the morning and headed into snow covered hill country above an altitude of four thousand meters. We joined our leopard search team and they orientated us on the far ridge though spotting scopes and binoculars to the remains of a Blue Sheep carcass lying adjacent to a cave...in the cave and out of sight...lay a Snow Leopard tom.

And the wait began...in sub zero temperatures with the team keeping us fed and hydrated...every lens and scope focused...we patiently held vigil.

And then...great excitement at the spotting scopes...as the tomcat strode out into full view...all pale and wooly and rosette adorned with an imposing head, huge paws and an impossibly thick tail...he was magnificent...this supreme apex predator at altitude...this spangled assassin dominating the earth's ultimate high country.
I was spellbound.

We stayed the day with this beautiful creature...we watched him feed...watched him groom himself...watched him doze...we stayed until the light dissipated and the temperature plunged.

Friday the 13th of February 2026 shall remain ever etched in my memory.

Wow. An entirely surreal day!

It calls me out and I must go.

Wish you were here.

Photo by Pradeep Singh



.kuzo.group

The start to our 2026 season has been nothing short of surreal.Christer Perrsson and his wonderful family flew into Vict...
06/01/2026

The start to our 2026 season has been nothing short of surreal.

Christer Perrsson and his wonderful family flew into Victoria Falls from Sweden on December 27...I was there to receive them.

A dusty neotropical breeze has been steadily moving us along...across wild landscapes and profound natural wonders...from the mighty Falls themselves...Mosi oa Tunya...the smoke that thunders...to the waterlogged wildlife paradise that is Chobe in Botswana.

We then winged our way north eastward into the New Year...to Arusha...at the foot of Kilimanjaro...gateway to one of Africa's most prolific wilderness spaces...the Rift Valley escarpment...Ngorongoro...and the endless plains of the Serengeti.

The migration was in full swing...moving up a lot earlier than expected thanks to early rains and verdant and succulent green pastures emerging on the short grass plains.

Nearly one and half million Wildebeest drift each year across this safari wonderland...and around three hundred thousand Plains Zebra follow suit.

These striped ponies took time out to roll in the surrounding sodic dust...a way of eliminating those irritating ecto-parasites.

We find ourselves now...as I write this...in tropical splendor on the spice islands of Zanzibar...decompressing the visual overload of the last ten days...sipping cocktails...and celebrating this grand thing called life.

Wish you were here.

.kuzo.group

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