Ranger training in the Okavango Delta

The African Guide Academy grew out of the Okavango Guiding School. It was registered as the first private training center for tour guides registered in Botswana to train tour guides both on the Field Guide Association of Southern Africa (FGASA) and the Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) platform.

The African Guide Academy is owned and managed by the Reed family. The well-known Reed brothers Grant and Brent hosted the National Geographic Wild series “Safari Brothers.”

The team of highly qualified and passionate instructors will teach you to interpret the behavior of animals and understand the complex and fascinating interactions between Okavango species and their environment. The African Guide Academy has a team of safari guide trainers who are second to none in terms of their qualifications and experience.

The African Guide Academy is just the right place for your ranger training!

The Kwapa Camp has ten 3 x 4 Meru-style tents with private bathrooms with bucket shower, flush toilet and sink with running cold water. Each tent is equipped with a small closet, two camp beds, bed linen, pillows, duvet and towels. There is battery-powered LED lighting in the tents. There is a comfortable deckchair on the veranda.

Since our courses are modular and include an element of self-study, we can avoid a rigid schedule and the trainer can create a weekly training program that is completely tailored to local conditions, wildlife movements and water levels.

We do everything we can to ensure that every course participant who takes part in our programs takes part in all our training courses. This means that every week we do at least one mokoro trip, a boat trip, a wildlife viewing trip, a hike, an overnight stay on an island, basic weapons training (not for the bush or bird watching course), tracking, navigation, survival training, hydrology, ecology, etc.

The talks are informal and relate to areas where course participants feel they would like further explanations of the topics covered in the handbook. We prefer to encourage discussion rather than give long, tiring talks.

Please note that the floods in the Okavango are seasonal. The water-based activities during ranger training depend on the water level. Our high tide is usually mid to late August.

There are a few years in which the water does not reach the Kwapa Training Camp.

The instructors of the African Guiding Academy train all over Africa. But our home, Kwapa Training Camp, is on a wild and remote island in southern Okavango.

The Okavango Delta has been declared a World Heritage Site for its pristine ecosystems, scenic beauty and abundance of wildlife. The Okavango is one of the most scenic wildlife reserves in the world. The countless crystal-clear canals and animal-rich islands are a unique habitat.

Your learning experience is influenced by the natural beauty of the area and the diversity of habitats. Kwapa consists of a combination of river canals, floodplains, lagoons as well as riparian forests, savannas, mopane bushes, mopane forests and grasslands.

Equally remarkable is the fact that this wilderness stretches across hundreds of thousands of square kilometers unfenced through the Moremi Game Reserve, Chobe National Park, the Caprivi Strip in Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Central Africa.

The southern Okavango, like most of southern Africa, is currently being hit by drought. This area is said to be as dry as it hasn't been for almost 90 years, and for this reason, boat trips and mokoro have been suspended. However, the natural drought and humidity cycles are an important part of the balance between populations of lowland animals and species that prefer seasonally flooded floodplains. With constant drinking water near the camp, the area still has abundant wildlife and an incredible sense of wilderness.

Here you can find a series of videos that can introduce you to the African Guide Safari and Ranger Trainings. The links on this page open a new browser window with the YouTube video. Please note that you are on a website outside of Ajimba.com and that YouTube's privacy policy applies there.

African Safari Academy - Introductory Video

African Safari Academy - Sleep-out Video

African Safari Academy - Game Drive Techniques 1

African Safari Academy - Nature Guide Introduction