Our History

Bushbuck Safaris was started by myself, Boo Chrisp and my father, Mike Shirley-Beavan. Our good friend in Botswana, Tim Liversedge, now a famous wildlife film director, had convinced us that there was a need for a small highly personalised service at the upper end of the safari market. By 1985 Bushbuck was well underway with clients from the UK and US visiting Botswana and Zimbabwe which then were comparatively new destinations.  The brilliant private guide John Stevens led our safaris in Zimbabwe.

We formed The Safari Guides Company (SGC). By this time, we were using the top private guides of six countries on our safaris.  At this time, they can only be described as insular: the divide between East Africa and Southern Africa was as if they were from different continents. So, we put them together under one umbrella as an elite club of the best guides in Africa. That worked well in that we got to know the guides concerned much better than anyone else and we had more experience than anyone in matching a guide to a client’s expectations. Also, the guides enjoyed comparing notes at annual meetings in a different host country each year and cementing long-term friendships.

The privately guided safari is not always affordable to everyone and especially so for a couple or singletons, and so we have always designed camp/lodge style itineraries as well. We use a range of camps and lodges across thirteen safari countries. The criteria from the beginning has been small, exclusive, preferably owner-operated, and located in wild game areas with excellent resident guides.

While there are a number of the original SGC guides still leading safaris, the SGC now includes the next generation of adventurers amongst the newer members.

We are still at the forefront of private guided safaris with more expertise than anyone. It is difficult for other companies to compete with our inspired itinerary design based on our years of knowledge and unbiased recommendations.