Driving back to camp after a splendid morning tracking a lone Lioness for two hours, eventually finding her plus four two and a half month old cubs. We were just passing an area locally known as Jouberts Island. Here the flood plains are drying up awaiting the seasonal flood to return. It has left pools [...]

While there’s no doubt that being alluded to as the Brangelina’s of the safari industry is quite a compliment, there’s much more substance to the work of Dereck & Beverly than appearances. Tiara Walters of South Africa’s Sunday Times weaves a story which we hope will “turn around a billion Chinese”. But it requires your [...]

A new Wild dog pack on the Selinda Reserve has been discovered.  We have named it the “Explorers Pack” which consists of just 4 individuals.  Led by an Alpha female we suspect  that they have split from a pack from the north, possibly the Kwando area. They are incredibly distinct being very dark.  One of [...]

We all talk about the “magic hours” of photography.  Those golden soft light periods, just after and before sunrise and sunset. It is often said that the harsher light of midday is just not good enough for great images as it is too bleached and flat.  One tip maybe then to convert to black and [...]

   Weddings Bells at the Selinda Reserve Every year on the Selinda Reserve we bring in the New Year, and the new season, with a fun day for all the staff. Each year is unique, and this year it included the Botswana Olympics (covered in another post). But it was also unique for another reason. There [...]

Botswana Olympics The inaugural Great Plains Conservation “Botswana Olympics” was held in January. The Selinda Reserve, and then Duba Plains, hosted the all day events on 29th January and 1st February respectively. Mirroring our cousins in Kenya, and their Maasai Olympics held in December, we wanted an equally fun day of camaraderie and bonding. With [...]

Email from Dollar on 15 Feb: “On Friday I went to the Sea Point Beach, I met a guy there called Nicollas and he took me very beautiful pictures.  I saw some big scallops next to me, I never saw that before, I wanted to pick one but suddenly  big big waves came, I tried [...]

Feb 7, 2013, email from Dollar: “Dav, um in the kitchen for a little bit, then I will move to the front then to the office just to see how everything goes,  they run such an amazing service, I  luv the way they do their salads it really cool, 5*. I’m loving the food and [...]

Dollar’s Diaries Throughout the next month we will presenting a short blog following the adventures of Dollar Ngore on his trip to Ellerman House in Cape Town. Dollar is the manager of the new Selinda Explorers Camp in Botswana.  A legend in his own right, from his chef skills to a master in traditional dance, [...]

We are always seeking new ways to nurture children’s love and appreciation for the bush. And corollary to that, is giving them ways to express their new found adoration for something as magnificent as a shiny dragonfly or gigantic baobab tree or the huge flock of queleas in the summer sun. It’s often as easy [...]

Lara Logan of CBS 60 Minutes profiles “The Last Lions” filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert on location at their Great Plains Conservation Camps in Botswana Scheduled to air Sunday November 25, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT Lara Logan and a team from CBS 60 Minutes profiled filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert at their Great Plains [...]

Today, CNN featured both Ride Kenya and Selinda Canoe Trail in its article titled “9 Ways to Travel Africa in Style”. We are honored to be part of this adventurous round-up of authentic African experiences which slough off the glitz & glam and get real in the bush. Come join us soon.

Great Plains Conservation is not simply a tourism venture. As our name suggests, we are actually primarily focused on conservation and use tourism as a vector to achieve our conservation goals. Hence we we call ourselves a “Conservation Tourism” company. To this end, Dereck & Beverly Joubert founded Big Cats Initiative in partnership with National [...]

Our friend and fan, Dan Achber of Trufflepig, crafted this entertaining and informative video of the Selinda Canoe Trail. It’s a must-see, if for no other reason then to know what to do when you face a pod of hippos be it in in Botswana, or elsewhere in your life. Glad you enjoyed it, Dan! [...]

We were initially very disappointed to learn just before we left for Botswana, that the Selinda Canoe Trail had been cancelled due to the sudden drop in water levels along the Selinda Spillway.  We were therefore very pleased when Josh, our guide, informed us at the airstrip that we would be after all be able [...]

The Selinda Canoe Trail departure we were on was cancelled because of sudden drop in water levels along the Selinda Spillway in October but we decided to spend 5 days at Selinda nonetheless. Fortunately we were able to do three sessions of paddling on part of the canoe trail, including an overnight stay at the [...]

Recently our friends and colleagues at Ellerman House, based in Cape Town, hosted the annual ArtAngels charity art auction and party for the first time this year, following the success of the inaugural 2011 event at CIRCA on Jellicoe in Johannesburg where R1.6 million was then raised for charity This year, and going forward, ArtAngels [...]

As many of you know Dereck and Beverly recently made a new movie called The Unlikely Leopard Why not take 2 minutes and enjoy the short clip available here ? Easy Prey scene – The Unlikely Leopard

Today, 30 September, Botswana celebrates 46 years of independence. The celebrations are in full swing! Watch this space for some more pictures of the action with guests and staff. Pula, Pula, Pula!!!!  

Our canoe trail reports have been a bit quiet recently but rest assured that’s not due to a lack of excitement and adventure! We had the most incredible trips over the past few months, which have just flown by. We’ve been non-stop since June with every safari (set departure date filled). Now with only a [...]

Michael Gebicki recently traveled with Sydney based, Classic Safari Company to experience our Selinda Canoe Trail in Botswana. His recent write up following his trip appeared over the weekend in both the Sydeny Morning Herald and The Age newspapers Selinda Canoe Trail, Botswana – Sydney Morning Herald Selinda Canoe Trail, Botswana – The Age

This is for all those folks who are looking forward to doing a touch of DIY around the house this weekend… Have a look at what the Selinda Lion Pride did when they saw us wanting to remove an old Jetty we had on the Selinda Reserve recently… Guess it is always a good idea [...]

It is with great excitement that the Selinda Reserve shares this wonderful news. About 5 weeks ago now the alpha female of the Selinda Wild Dog pack denned in an area we call Fish Eagles nest which is about 25 minutes from Selinda Camp. At that point we closed off all the roads leading into [...]

Great Plains Community Outreach has been very active in all spheres of our outreach over the last few months. Our conservation education program has continued with a follow-up holiday workshop with the Gudigwa Primary School Environmental Club and our craft groups have been working on new products. A workshop was held over 2 days during [...]

Jini Reddy writes of her amazing experience whilst with us on a recent departure of the Selinda Canoe Trail in Botswana http://www.tripideas.co.uk/posts/view/7116/Rock-the-boat-in-Botswana

Dereck & Beverly’s latest film, The Unlikely Leopard, airs July 15 on Nat Geo WILD channel, and tomorrow night (July 12), an interview & a behind-the-scenes with the Jouberts will be airing on ABC Nightline. Tune-in, US friends!

The Unlikely Leopard, a brand new film by Dereck and Beverly Joubert, which premiered recently in New York City and Washington DC will be released on the National Geographic Wild Channel on the 15th of July in the USA at 9pm, with a  roll out internationally following that. “Enjoy a heartwarming tale that follows the [...]

The new Selinda Explorers Camp, set on Botswana’s Selinda Reserve is being erected right now and will be ready for opening on the 15th of August. There will be four rooms, with the camp being sold on an exclusive use basis. Activities will be focused around  canoeing and walking with a game drive vehicle handy [...]

We’ve had a brilliant start to our Selinda Canoe season, being incredibly fortunate enough to find lions on foot on the first trip. Since then we witnesses two Sable Bulls fighting in the river itself for nearly two hours completely oblivious to our presence. See the action sequence photos below They were both sometime up [...]

The Last Lions DVD is now available in South Africa at all leading retailers.