Ranger Trainings in the Okavango Delta

The African Guide Academy evolved from the Okavango Guiding School. It was registered as the first private guide training school in Botswana to conduct guide training on both the Field Guide Association of Southern Africa (FGASA) and Botswana Qualifications Authority (BQA) platforms.

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 animal behaviour and understand the complex and fascinating interactions between the Okavango's 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.
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Kwapa Camp has ten 3 x 4 Meru-style tents with en-suite bathroom with bucket shower, flush toilet and sink with cold running water. Each tent is equipped with a small hanging locker, two camp beds, bedding, pillows, duvet and towels. There is battery-powered LED lighting in the tents. There is a comfortable deck chair on the veranda.

Because our courses are modular and include an element of self-study, we can avoid a rigid timetable and the trainer can create a weekly training programme that is fully adapted to local conditions, wildlife movements and water levels.

We try to ensure by all means that every trainee who participates in our programmes attends all of our training sessions. This means that every week we have at least one mokoro trip, one boat trip, one game drive, one walk, one overnight on an island, basic weapons training (not for the bush or birding course), tracking, navigation, survival training, hydrology, ecology, etc.

Lectures are informal and relate to areas where course participants feel they would like further explanation of the topics covered in the manual. We prefer to encourage discussion rather than long, tedious lectures.

Please note that the Okavango floods are seasonal. The water-based activities on our guide courses are dependent on the water level. Our high water is usually mid to late August.

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

The instructors of the African Guiding Academy train all over Africa. But our home, Kwapa Training Camp, is located on a wild and remote island in the 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 scenically spectacular wildlife sanctuaries in the world. The countless crystal clear channels and wildlife-rich islands are a unique habitat.

Your learning experience will be influenced by the natural beauty of the area and the diversity of habitats. Kwapa consists of a combination of river channels, floodplains, lagoons as well as riparian forests, savannahs, mopane shrubs, mopane high forests and grasslands.

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

The southern Okavango, like most of southern Africa, is currently in drought. The area is said to be drier than it has been for almost 90 years, and for this reason boat trips and mokoro have been suspended. However, the natural dry and wet cycles are an important part of the balance between the populations of lowland animals and species that prefer seasonally flooded floodplains. With constant drinking water close to camp, the area still has abundant wildlife and an incredible sense of wilderness.

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

African Safari Academy - Introduction Video

African Safari Academy - Sleep-out Video

African Safari Academy - Game Drive Techniques 1

African Safari Academy - Nature Guide Introduction