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2021 SPECIALIST ELEPHANT SAFARI DEPARTURES

@UMLANI BUSHCAMP

Spend 3 nights/4 days with Alan at UMLANI BUSHCAMP following the Timbavati elephant herds. Discover more about their fascinating behaviour on foot or by game viewer. A donation for each safari is made to ELEPHANTS ALIVE in direct support of conservation projects

16th to 19th October
and
29th October to 1st November

Discover more details HERE

ANOTHER ESSAY PUBLISHED IN THE NEW FINANCIAL MAGAZINE

EXCERPT: Knowledge emerges from within. Look deep into the eyes of a seasoned Bushman tracker, a wise Indian shaman or an aboriginal elder and you will see the difference.

FIND THE ARTICLE @
https://www.alanmcsmith.com/articles

ARTICLE PUBLISHED

Check out Alan's article NATURE & 2021 in the NEW FINANCIAL FORUM. The following is a teaser ...

In fact, I cannot be sure where my job ends and my personal space begins, or where the boundary of my office and my home actually is. Or if it even exists at all. My life is a declaration to share both, and to respectfully suggest that the human experience cries out for harmony with nature

Read full article HERE

Inspired by Willem Vreeswijk, NFF is a leading natural-leadership focussed platform that promotes new and regenerative financial models.

SPECIALIST ELEPHANT SAFARI
@UMLANI BUSHCAMP

Alan recently led and hosted a specialist elephant-interest safari at one of our all time favourite camps, Umlani in Timbavati.

4 days of walking driving and stalking, discovering more about the fascinating behaviour of elephants, as well as their intrinsic ecological value in maintaining wild and vibrant ecosystems.

This in collaboration with ELEPHANTS ALIVE platform a greater awareness of elephant conservation. Proceeds of the safari are donated to the EA project fund

OKAVANGO DELTA
PRIVATE WILDLIFE EXPERIENCE

We are thrilled to have co-led a unique wildlife and wilderness experience in the Okavango Delta in Botswana in July/Aug. Proudly in partnership with NATUCATE and The AFRICAN GUIDE ACADEMY.

14 days spent on foot and by vehicle exploring a vast and exclusive concession, this unravelling animal behaviour and ecology, with meaningful conservation conversations as part of the fare. Our mammal sightings list included an incredible tally of 36 species.

2022 departure dates coming soon!

WILDERNESS GUIDES ASSOCIATION

As an invited member, Alan is the first African guide to register with the European Wilderness Guides Association. The group facilitates networking structures for leadership programs, wilderness encounters and conservation initiatives around the world.

VISIT
WEBSITE

ELEPHANT CONSERVATION

AMS has teamed up with Rhino Grohmann's Rhino Safaris to operate interactive elephant awareness safaris in the Great Kruger, SA. This is collaboration with leading conservation organisation Elephants Alive. Proceeds of the safaris are donated to their operational and fieldwork costs.

JULY ELEPHANT SAFARI @ UMLANI

DISCOVER MORE

VIDEO

ALAN AT TEDX AMSTERDAM, 2011
Remote campfires are normally the place, but much like Crocodile Dundee, Alan occasionally ventures out into the big smoke to speak at European boardrooms and events.

SEMINAL ELEPHANT ENCOUNTER
Alan's incredible interaction with a wild bull has over 40M views. Discover the story HERE

A MESSAGE FROM NATURE
The most advanced species ever known has been brought to our knees by a virus, which technically is not even a living organism. Why?

INTERVIEW WITH ALDITH HUNKAR
Exploring the jungles of Amsterdam and bringing a stone from the Motherland to 600 people at the TEDx event.

WHAT CAN NATURE TEACH US?
The earth is the prime source of understanding and knowledge. The gateway to this is simple attention: a little space between our mental and physical worlds; our intentions and consequences. A redemptive stillness to reflect.

SPECIALIST ELEPHANT SAFARIS
One such safari is based from Umlani Bushcamp in Timbavati. The safari may focus on elephant, but the slow pace and attention to detail provides us with clues about the whereabouts of other game.

SNIPPETS

ZAKOUMA NATIONAL PARK, CHAD

Chad? What's out there? Endless brutal desert, camels and wild nomadic people for sure; only crazy travellers go there. So Alan went. And then there is Zakouma; a most unexpected and spectacular wildlife bonanza! An incredible story of a remarkable transition from despair and extreme poaching to one of bounty, renewal and sensational safaris. Alan is one of a handful of guides to have led safaris to Zakouma in the daunting wet season ... an explorers dream beyond expectations. Inshallah!

ENNEDI NATURAL & CULTURAL RESERVE, SAHARA DESERT, CHAD

Imagine a seep of clear cold water emerging from desert springs in a sandstone gorge, somewhere in the Sahara. A legendary oasis lost in time. The 4 dwarf crocodiles that live here are seeing out time. Evolution before our eyes. "Because of this day, and those crocodiles in the pool below, I commit to living with less impact than before", writes Alan. The primitivity of the desert, and it’s conservation, is essential for us all.

AFRICAN PARKS TRAINING CONTRACT

In 2019 Alan was contracted by the African Parks network to design and lead a guide training course on behalf of the Tinga Camp, Camp Nomade and the community guides. There is no guiding qualification structure in Chad so the mission was to create one as it never been formally done before. An exceptional 6-week long adventure unfolded! Good old fashioned human being-ness was abound in a country once considered as the “dark heart of Africa".

GUIDE TRAINING

A long standing associate of EcoTraining, the largest guide training institution in Africa as a contract trails guide and tracker trainer. Alan's base was in the Makuleke Contractual Park, northern Kruger; the remotest big game enclave in South Africa. These opportunities are invaluable to participate in future legacies within aspiring guides and conservationists.