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Southern Africa Safari Expert & Guide | 30 Years in the Field

Bespoke journeys across Cape Town, Kruger, Victoria Falls, Chobe & the Okavango Delta

Wildlife, exceptional stays & stories beyond the game drive

Plan your safari: www.johnfinchtravel.com

02/11/2026

Elephants scratch on trees because their thick skin still itches, and rubbing against bark, rocks and termite mounds helps remove dirt, mud, dead skin and parasites. It’s also simply a good feeling, and watching a four-ton elephant enjoy a tree like a spa is one of the funniest sights on safari.

01/11/2026

Big tusker elephants are rare because poachers and hunters targeted the largest tusks for generations, so fewer bulls lived long enough to grow them. A true tusker’s tusks never stop growing, which means those giant tusks represent decades of life.

31/10/2026

Why are giraffes so tall? 🦒

At up to 18 feet, the top of the tree belongs to them alone. No competition, the best leaves, and an 18-inch tongue that handles the thorns. From up there they can also spot a lion long before it gets close.

30/10/2026

Look closely at these zebras. Every single one is different, like a fingerprint. After thirty years guiding in Africa, I can pick out individuals by their stripes. So can their foals. Within hours of birth, a baby learns its mother’s stripes by heart, and that’s how it finds her again in a herd of thousands.

29/10/2026

Sunset, and these young lions are just waking up. They sleep up to twenty hours a day, saving energy through the heat. As the air cools, they come alive, and they come to the road. Why? It’s easy walking; the surface is still warm, and it carries the scent of everything that’s passed through. The night shift is about to begin.

22/10/2026

Impala to black rhino. 12 animals on one Maasai Mara game drive.

The last one is the reason to watch to the end. Black rhinos are critically endangered, with fewer than 7,000 left on Earth, and they usually hide in thick bush. This one was walking out in the open.

Which one would you have stopped for? 🦏

20/10/2026

Watch an elephant herd follow their matriarch across the dry landscape in search of water, and end with the whole family drinking. In the dry season, a matriarch’s memory of water sources, built over decades, is what keeps the herd alive.

19/10/2026

Why does a pride of lions walk right past an elephant without a second glance?

It’s not fearlessness, and it’s not friendship. It’s arithmetic. An adult elephant weighs several tons and can seriously injure or kill a lion. A pride gains nothing from that fight and risks everything. So they give the elephant space, and the elephant, knowing exactly who it’s dealing with, barely reacts.

In Kruger, lions go after buffalo, zebra, wildebeest and giraffe. Elephants are simply not on the menu, and both species know it.

18/10/2026

Why are these lions blocking the road? See how a pride uses the warm tarmac to recover after a cold night in the bush.

Lions often lounge on the road during a morning game drive. While it creates a dramatic blockage for vehicles, the behavior serves a practical purpose. The tar retains heat much longer than the surrounding grass, giving the pride a thermal sanctuary to rest after overnight temperature drops.

Observing this African safari behavior firsthand shows just how resourceful these predators are when managing their body temperature. They often remain stationary for hours, soaking up the warmth before eventually moving back into the bush to hunt or sleep during the heat of the day.

13/10/2026

Two young lions play-fighting in the African bush. Why do they do it, and what are they actually learning?

Young lions play to practise the skills they’ll need as adults: stalking, ambushing, wrestling and reading each other’s body language. Play-fighting also strengthens the bonds that hold a pride together. Most of it is harmless, and the real danger signs look very different, with flattened ears, hard growls and no relaxed, bouncy body language.

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Hout Bay
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