The best trained and most experienced team of game rangers and trackers, under the leadership of Paddy Hagelthorn and Neil Whyte, have been assembled to ensure the most diverse and complete safari experience available.
Trackers – James Ndlovu , Nordick Ragom, Lawrence Masuku, Lybon Nkuna and Julius Sibuyi – were all born in this area. They have a lifetime of knowledge of the African bush and have all undergone extensive training in the art of tracking Africa’s wildlife, ensuring that Savanna provides its guests with a comprehensive check list of sightings.
Paddy Hagelthorn was born and educated in Zimbabwe, formally Rhodesia, where he did his national service after school. From a very young age he took a lively interest in all wildlife and the African bush and knew this was where his future lay. He left Bulawayo in 1983 and came to South Africa where he soon moved to the bush to fulfil his passion for wildlife.
Paddy has spent the last 26 years in South African private game reserves, conducting safaris, managing lodges and training rangers. His wealth of experience in the African bush has enriched his innate talent for seeking out and understanding wild animals. He is a renowned ornithologist and, although he enjoys all game as much as birds, he takes a special delight in leopards.
Neil Whyte was born and brought up in Kruger National Park where his father, Ian Whyte, was a senior researcher and is regarded as one of the foremost experts on elephants in South Africa. Growing up in the African bush has given Neil an incredible knowledge of the flora and fauna of the region and a deep insight into the ways of the wildlife which abounds there.
Patrick Mkansi was born in Buffelshoek in the northern sector of the Sabi Sand and attended school locally, close to the Manyeleti Game Reserve. After school he went to work in the mines, but his heart was always close to nature, so he then undertook a tracker's course in the southern Sabi Sand.
David Wilson was born in the United Kingdom. He arrived in South Africa in the 1970’s and was educated in Cape Town. He has always had an interest in wildlife, a passion that started on a three day visit to the Kruger National Park in 1986.
Greg was born, raised and schooled in KwaZulu Natal where he was introduced to the wilds of Zululand at a young age through family holidays to the local national parks. From this grew a keen interest in nature conservation which lead him to study a Wildlife Science degree at Pietermaritzburg University. He then travelled to the United States where he worked at a ski resort in Vermont. Upon returning to South Africa he studied further for a masters degree in Zoology, investigating whether competition between nyala and bushbuck caused localised declines in bushbuck populations. His findings laid a platform for much needed further research and merited four publications in two leading African ecology journals.
