Meet the Wild Horizons Lodge Management Team

The Elephant Camp

Bradley and Annie White

Brad & Annie

The Elephant Camp, General Managers  Brad and Annie are the new general managers of The Elephant Camp situated just outside of Victoria Falls. Together they have spent 7 years sculpting a successful career in the Hospitality and Tourism industry. Brad has an extensive background in hospitality management and Annie has a background in hospitality and beauty therapy. After completing various courses in South Africa, Brad and Annie worked their way upwards from working at South African game lodges and hotels, to running high end lodges in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. They joined Wild Horizons 3 years ago and managed Imbabala Zambezi Safari Lodge.  Brad grew up in Victoria Falls, so The Elephant Camp really is like home to him.
  

Hilda Ncube 

Hilda

The Elephant Camp, Assistant Manager
Hilda joined Wild Horizons 4 years ago as the Assistant Manager at 'The Elephant Camp'.  She has dedicated the past 10 years to the hospitality industry in Zimbabwe, and has worked in and around the Victoria Falls area for most of her time. She previously managed Matetsi Water Lodge. Her experience in managing 5 star lodges radiates through and shows off her capabilities, which seem unending. With a safari background and a hotel management qualification, she brings a strong understanding of customer care and attention to detail to the team.
 

The Elephant Camp West

 

Stacey Howland  

Stacey

The Elephant Camp West, Manager
Stacey joins Wild Horizons as Manager of The Elephant Camp West and we are eager to see her enthusiasm shine through in all that she does. She qualified in the hotel management industry in South Africa and has an advanced knowledge of catering and service brought about through her training at Silwood School of Cookery in Cape Town.  Stacey comes to us after spending the past 3 years managing Spurwing Island on Lake Kariba in the Matusadona National Park.
  

Imbabala Zambezi Safari Lodge 

 

Jon and Sarah Lucas  

Jon & Sarah

Imbabala Zambezi Safari Lodge, General Managers
Jon and Sarah are very much at home in the bush, and are passionate about sharing the splendours of Zimbabwe with visitors from far and wide.  They have both been in the tourism and hospitality industry since leaving school.  Jon went to the International Hotel School in Cape Town and Sarah studied Tourism Management in Pretoria. Sarah’s 10 years of experience have all been in Zimbabwe while Jon’s experience has taken him from top hotels in Cape Town, to a Villa in Italy, onto guiding overland trucks through Southern Africa and finally the opening and running of Chundu Island before they joined Wild Horizons to manage Imbabala Zambezi Safari Lodge.
  

Relief Management

 

Himal Nathoo 

Himal

Himal first joined the Wild Horizons team as a freelance fishing guide at Imbabala Safari Lodge , after which he then joined as part of the management team. He has grown grew up in Victoria Falls and as such a career in tourism was imminent. Himal studied Hotel Management and Hospitality, and enjoys working with people. He now provides relief management across all three Wild Horizons properties – The Elephant Camp, The Elephant Camp West, and Imbabala Zambezi Safari Lodge.

Wild Horizons - giving back to the community.

The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, a trust of which Wild Horizons is one of the founders and main sponsors, endeavours to educate the local community about wildlife conservation. One of the ways VFWT do this, is by having at least two, week-long, courses annually for children who are interested in wildlife and natural resource conservation. During the school holidays VFWT holds each course, which takes up to 20 participants. One course is for primary school children and the other is aimed for high school/senior school students. The participants are selected based on their interest and performance during the weekly interaction and awareness activity VFWT holds every Friday. 

The courses are provided through generous donor funding and are full scholarship to every participant, including room and board. Throughout the courses, experts in their respective fields are brought in to discuss and present some of their findings and the impact on conservation given their field of experience.

I was privileged to attend a VFWT awareness activity that takes place on a Friday, with a presentation about general wildlife conservation, and interaction with the Wild Horizons elephant and Sylvester cheetah ambassador. Here, kids from a local school, could safely interact with the animals and learn more about them and nature conservation. It was truly heart-warming to see the kids interact with the animals.

The children were also enthusiastically participating in presentations about the animals and wildlife conservation in the Vic Falls area. The kids also shared and discussed how they interact with wild animals on a daily basis, and how they deal with human-wildlife conflict, after which, they are taught how to safely deal with human-wildlife conflict (avoid the animal, and don’t antagonise it). They also learn more about the specific animals that they interacted with, like the cheetah, and for instance how to tell the difference between a cheetah and a leopard.

This is definitely a great initiative from the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, to include local school children in the surrounding wildlife conservation efforts and to introduce them to great career opportunities within wildlife and nature conservation. What an unforgettable morning! Fun was had by all!

Wilderness Safaris Team Build @ The Lookout

On Friday 15th August, Wilderness Safaris staff members attended a team building session at The Wild Horizons  Lookout. The afternoon proved to be high entertaining, whilst at the same time further enhancing the bond of this dynamic team.
 
The first challenge required an elected team member to embark on a Zip Line across the gorge, with his task being to “bomb” an inflatable canoe on the river below with a water filled balloon. This was highly entertaining as in most cases, the inaccuracies were something to behold! Those brave enough then had the opportunity to earn their team an extra 5 bonus points if they endured a 70m free fall on the Gorge Swing (only 3 brave souls!). 

The next activity that followed entailed team members hoisting a harnessed teammate up a tree using ropes and pulleys, in order for them to find and retrieve a hidden toy Guinea Fowl. 

After the Guinea Fowl retrieval, the three teams then moved to the new Lookout car park, for a game of “sausage soccer”. This entailed each team lining up in a relay fashion, and then using a sausage tree fruit, tied around their waist, to hit a soccer ball across the playing field to their next waiting teammate. No touching of the sausage fruit was allowed, and many, many laughs were had!

After the sausage soccer, came the tent-erecting race – whereby each team had to work together to quickly and efficiently setup a safari tent, complete with a bed and bedding on the interior. After a suspicious amount of scalduggerous pole-snatching and rope-pinching, the ‘orange’ team emerged victorious in this round! (Their attention to detail clinched it for them in the end, as their bed was made complete with hospital corners, and a flower on the pillow!). 

After the tents, the teams then found respite in the shade of the Lookout platform, and undertook a fun quiz which covered all essential aspects of Zimbabwean life, including the colours of the Zimbabwean Flag, and of course some essential wildlife facts! 

Finally, a Zimbabwean culinary tasting competition saw the end of the day’s activities – team members had to consume an array of traditional Zimbabwean delicacies such as Mopani worms, dried vegetables, a whole chilli, and of course, a coca-cola! 

Once the results were tallied, and the quiz sheets had been marked, it was seen that 2 teams, the orange and the green, needed to compete in a tie breaker. This came in the form of performing a verse of the Zimbabwean National Anthem – some bringing music to the ears of those who listened, and others, well – they got ½ points for smiling ‘n miming!

All had a wonderful afternoon, and the Wilderness team is now undoubtedly stronger than ever before, for having been through a Wild Horizons team build!

You can find out more about Wild Horizons’ team building packages by emailing clive@wildhorizons.co.zw

Zenzo & His Elephants

Zenzo & His Elephants

Zenzo is the manager of the Wild Horizons elephants, of which there are now 2 separate herds which live on the Wild Horizons Wildlife Sanctuary, which is part of the Victoria Falls National Park. He grew up with the four original WH elephants – Miss Ellie, Jumbo, Jock & Jack. The original 4 were part of a large group of surviving orphans that were left after a culling operation in the mid 1980’s. (The Zimbabwean Department of National Parks had a policy of culling what they deemed excess animals within the National Parks. These animals were generally elephant and part of the policy was to destroy the entire herd, apart from juveniles, who were no longer dependent on mother’s milk, yet small enough to translocate. These elephant orphans were sold to various local farmers and to zoos and circuses around the world. Most farmers bought the elephant to restock their farms, however, being hand reared they very quickly became habituated to people and often became a "handful" to have around. Being totally habituated, it was felt at the time that it would be difficult to  safely release them to the wild as it would only be a matter of time before they wondered into a village or town. Zenzo’s father happened to work for a farmer who snapped up four of these orphans – Miss Ellie, Jock, Jack & Jumbo and hand reared them on a farm in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe. Zenzo grew up on this farm as a young boy whilst his father worked as a tractor driver, and from a young age became very close to the elephants, and has been involved in the handling and training of them ever since. 

By the time Zenzo was 17, and the elephants were approaching adolescence at around the age of 10 – the current owner started to see that his elephants were becoming increasingly demanding of attention, discipline and activity – things that he did not anticipate he was going to need to provide, let-alone have the time or resources to provide for his elephants. 

By that stage, the use of elephants in the tourism industry in India was rising in popularity – and so eventually the owner approached a then fairly new tourism company in Victoria Falls – Wild Horizons. Initially skeptical of the idea, Wild Horizons took on the project knowing that in order for it to be a success the welfare of the elephant was paramount. With this in mind Wild Horizons sent two of it’s guides to Riddles Elephant training school, in Little Rock Arkansas. Here they were taught not only how to humanly train the elephant but equally important how to look after elephant in captivity. Zenzo recalls as a teenager seeing Craig White, one of the directors, come to the farm in Chinhoyi to see the elephants with a view to relieving the current owner of his responsibilites.

It was then decided, in 1997, to relocate the elephants to Victoria Falls onto a property where Wild Horizons operated a camp called Jijima, as a trial run to see weather elephant backsafaris would be a feasible product in the Zimbabwean tourism industry. Turns out, it was exactly what the tourists wanted – and the original Elephant Camp was then constructed with the intention of providing luxurious accommodation combined with intimate elephant rides and interactions. Zenzo, at a mere 17 years old, had accompanied the elephants as part of a team of 7 handlers, and has remained with them ever since.

Zenzo quickly rose through the ranks of elephant handling and progressed from being a handler, to a trainer, to eventually the elephant manager in 2003. Zenzo now oversees the entire elephant back safari operation from behind the scenes, from elephant care and training to the logistical and operational aspects involved in keeping these two herds of elephants happy, healthy and safe when taking paying clients out for safaris up to twice a day!

When we asked Zenzo if he thinks he would ever move on from Wild Horizons and the elephants, after a brief pause, he posed the question: “how could someone ever leave their family?”. When asked the tricky question of “elephants or people?” – the answer was out before the question had even been completed!

Zenzo’s wife runs the kitchen and catering at The Wallow (where the elephant back safaris are operated from) and is very good at providing delicious snacks to the guests (as well as Zenzo, it appears! :). 

Another interesting fact about Zenzo is that he used to be quite the soccer player in his youth, playing in the 1^st division for Chinhoyi United, (now the Makonde Stars).

Zenzo is one of the company's most efficient employees, one of the most light-hearted and funny, and one of the most approachable. He truly is an asset to Wild Horizons and we thank him whole-heartedly for his lifetime of dedication to the Wild Horizons elephants!

The Reservations Department meets Sylvester & the Elephants.

Last week, after work one evening, the entire Wild Horizons reservations department was transported to The Wallow at The Elephant Camp where the Wild Horizons elephant-back safaris and interactions are operated out of. Some of the newer reservations staff had never visited the camp or any of the elephants before, and as such were quite excited at the prospect.

First we checked out the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust's laboratory, which is also on the property, and we were impressed to see and learn how much actually goes on there. Jessica Dawson gave the group a brief but interesting talk on the functions of some of the sophisticated veterinary equipment in the lab, which is essential for quick detection of diseases in sick and/or dead animals that are found by the VFWT's rangers. With all of this state-of-the-art equipment, the Trust recovers the running costs of the lab through providing veterinary and pathology services to local livestock farmers, such as cattle and crocodile farmers in the Victoria Falls region. The Vic Falls Wildlife Trust also works hand in hand with the Zimbabwean National Parks, and the community funded VFAPU - the Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit.

Routinely, the Trust along with National Parks and VFAPU respond to reports of distressed/injured wildlife in the local area - which consists mostly of snared animals (laid by poachers) such as warthog and small antelope. The Trust also specializes in identifying outbreaks of disease, which could potentially affect local livestock populations, and even jump across to the human population. Aside from the medical / research side of things, the Trust also provides invaluable education to surrounding local schools, and has a different school attending fun educational afternoons every Friday.

From the lab, we then carried on a short distance down the road to The Wallow, where the Wild Horizons herd of elephants were waiting for us to interact, feed and socialize with them. All of the Wild Horizons elephants are hand reared rescue-elephants, and have been put into the WH elephant-back safari program in order to prevent them from being shipped out to zoo's or circuses, which would otherwise undoubtedly become their fate. The elephants are allowed to live as natural a life as possible within the reserve, and will all eventually be allowed to retire and roam freely once again within the reserve.

One thing which I found most fascinating was the fact that as we were feeding the ele's thier pellets (much like horse cubes), inevitably some pellets would fall to the floor. The elephants would then use their massive trunks to pick them up again, one by one, with the precision of a human hand using a finger and opposable thumb to achieve the same! After the interaction and the feeding, all the ele's stood back, and put thier trunks in the air to salute us goodbye. The elephants know how to respond to around 29 separate commands when instructed to do so by their relevant masters.

An added highlight to the evening was the fact that Sylvester - the Cheetah Ambassador, was also out at The Wallow interacting with some clients, who donate money to the Trust in order to meet and walk with him. He is a beautiful specimen with a very interesting story to tell aswell! He was found in the Bube Valley in the South-Eastern region of Zimbabwe by a National Parks ranger who happened to be called Sylvester. The rangers had spotted a female cheetah getting chased by a male lion, and when she failed to appear again after the chase, was assumed to have been killed by the lion. (Predators regularly attempt to eliminate any possible competition). So the rangers then tracked her spoor back to her den where they found a brand new litter of cubs, only a few days old (their eyes had not even opened yet). Unfortunately, out of 5 cubs, only 2 were still alive - the lion had killed the other 3. Of those two, they sadly could not save the one - and the last surviving cub is now the beautiful 4 year-old boy that we know today as Sylvester.

After Sylvester's rescue, he was hand reared by the rangers as a family pet - but soon outgrew his welcome when he started to bully the other pets and the smaller children. National Parks then put out a tender to private organizations country-wide to see who could viably take over the care of this fast-growing animal. He will unfortunately never be able to be released back into the wild - as he was rescued before his eyes even opened and as such humans are the only thing he knows.

After receiving several proposals from organizations which planned to use Sylvester for commercial gain, The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust decided to put in a bid to take care of him and use him purely for educational purposes - as an ambassador for all Cheetah's and to use him as a tangible, living, breathing specimen with which to educate young children on the plight of big cats in the area. (Culturally, big cats have always been killed by locals if sighted in a populated area as they have been known to kill livestock. This has led to their critical endangerment and now the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust is attempting to educate the younger generations in order to try and stamp out such unnecessary actions).

After the staff had had an opportunity to stroke and get some photos with Sylvester - we were treated to sun-downers and snacks from the kitchen at The Wallow, whilst Zenzo - the elephant-back safaris manager, delivered an interesting and interactive talk to the group about various points in the history of the Wild Horizons elephants, to ironing out some of the operational issues which are sometimes experienced when the reservations staff are sending clients for rides and interactions.

It was a super evening all in all and the staff seemed to really enjoy themselves, and even push a few personal boundaries - as I doubt that any of them would have guessed that they would one day take a photo next to a large male cheetah!

An Introduction to Wild Horizons

Wild Horizons is a multi-faceted tour company that provides a large array of activities, operates out of multiple locations, has a huge fleet of vehicles, 2 luxury bush camps, employs over 400 people and operates at full tilt, 24/7. So you can imagine, that as a new employee arriving on day-one of the job, the introduction is both hugely exciting and somewhat overwhelming. For my first blog post, I thought I would re-count what my first couple of weeks in the Wild Horizons marketing department has been like!

One of the things that struck me first and foremost was the friendliness of absolutely everyone. From the gate-guards, to the mechanics, to the camp managers and the directors – I was instantly made to feel welcome. I started off with a tour of the main HQ in the industrial sites of Victoria Falls, the size of which blew me away. Four large wings of offices surrounding a big courtyard with lush green buffalo lawn and teeming flower beds around the sides. A large workshop at the back and ample room to park the large fleet of vehicles and luxury transfer busses. My tour of the HQ was accompanied by mass introductions to all the staff in every department – around 100 people in total would be my guess. I admitted to myself that it would be pointless to stress too much about everyone’s names as I would never remember them first time round. No doubt I would pick them up one by one as I deal with each department in due course. 

One of my first tasks is to join the marketing team in coming up with a marketing campaign for one of Wild Horizons’ many products - the Vic Falls CanopyTour – the newest of 4 products which Wild Horizons offers from it’s jump site – “The Lookout”.

The Lookout (#wildhorizonslookout) is a thatched deck structure, which is perched right on the lip of the Batoka Gorge, just downstream of the Vic Falls Bridge on the Zimbabwean side. It has a spectacular view of the bridge, and sits overlooking the first ‘bend’ in the zig-zagging gorge which occurs below the Victoria Falls. There is even a tame wild goat called Dixon who hangs out there like all the time! 

The other 3 products which operate from The Lookout are the ‘Flying Fox’ – a foofie slide which extends across the width of the entire gorge; the ‘Gorge Swing’, which is a death defying free-fall off a platform into the gorge attached to a rope, which then ‘swings’ you as you reach the bottom; and the ‘zip-line’ – which is a dual-cabled foofie slide that makes a rather steep downward parabola, but without quite putting you into freefall. Finally, the Vic Falls Canopy Tour is a series of 9 shorter, low speed cable-slides that criss-cross the inside of the first bend of the gorge (below the Victoria Falls Hotel) where the vegetation is thick and very jungle like – with vines and steep drops galore. It offers a very mild adrenaline rush and is the perfect ‘in-between’ activity for those who can’t quite bring themselves to do the more intense adrenalin activities such as the gorge swing, whitewater rafting or the bungee jump.

So off I go with a group of paying clients on the Vic Falls Canopy Tour. We harness up and set off on a path down the side of the gorge, and it’s not far before we get to slide no.1. The guide hooks our safety lines up to a safety rope that runs along the entirety of the course - all the walkways, bridges and even on the actual foofie slides where is a second steel safety cable which we are attached to whilst sliding. My first impression is that the safety is being taken very seriously. 

We step up onto a box/platform that overlooks a cliff and the guide hooks our main & safety lines to the respective cables, and upon hearing a whistle through the trees from another guide  indicating that he is ready to receive us - we step off the platform and start whizzing down the slide. Now we have been given thick leather gloves for our hands, and we have been instructed to hold our harness line which connects us to the cable with our left hand, and then loosely hold the cable with our other hand, BEHIND the pulley. This allows for us to squeeze the cable with our hand to slow ourselves down when we start reaching the end of the slide. It took a few go’s to get the timing right, but before long I was timing my hand-braking perfectly and was landing gracefully on the box as is required for the guide to dismount you from the pulley and hook you back up to the ground safety line. 

This carried on for 8 more slides of varying lengths and speeds, and I looked forward to each slide more than the last – the views were just spectacular and the ambience of being in the Batoka Gorge canopy, with the view of the bridge right in front of you, and the Zambezi roaring beneath you – was just incredible. A really great product indeed, and it even had really nice boarded walkways and rope bridges for the more difficult parts. So far, I’m thinking I love my job!