There is an obvious reason for booking a trip through Jolita Safari. It’s because all the logistical details like transportation, accommodation, meals, and of course, the stupid jokes are all organised. This is an advantage on any adventure and is vitally important on expeditions to remote regions.
The responsibility to ensure our clients have an absolutely amazing experience is mind-boggling. When I think of the best adventure tours we are organizing, five stand out: Kilimanjaro Hiking, Zanzibar Zanzibar, and the Serengeti. The common denominator, as mentioned in all of these adventures, is our guide — the passion and love for what they do, coupled with a weird and dry sense of humor, has elevated the experience from good to enriching.
Naturally, not just any guide can create an awesome experience for the client. A great guide is a combination teacher, therapist, entertainer, shepherd, navigator, nurse, and, oh yes, a madman – ensuring clients are safe and satisfied while keeping their own passion and humor intact. It’s an extraordinarily demanding role, but when played well, it can add incalculable value to a trip.
To put a human face on these exceptional people, if you asked a number of our Jolita Safari guides to recount a situation where they had made a difference in their clients’ experience. Their answers illuminate the multiple roles great guides are called on to perform, and the multiple ways in which they can enrich a traveler’s experience.
1. Inspirational Coach
Sometimes guides help inspire travelers to surpass the limits they had imposed on themselves. I can recall such an experience: “We had a lady join us for a Kilimanjaro climbing course for beginners. She had never done anything this crazy before. The look on the ladies face when she reached the top was a mixture of shear terror and exhilaration. After about 3 hours of climbing on various grades of Kilimanjaro, she sat down and looked at me and said, ‘That’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life.’ Before that day, she never would have thought she could have done that. For her, it turned out to be a catalyst into bigger and greater things in both her personal life. how cool is that correlation between adventure and life? The overall Kilimanjaro climbing experience enriched her life so much , and it was just as enriching for me for me.”
2. Insightful Insider
Our adventure experts often share a lot of knowledge and advice about the specific adventure activity, and of course, a dash of extra effort. Hussein, our wildlife expert from Jolita Safari, can describe an example of such an occasion: He said, “I have spent most of my young life being in and around nature, so I believe that I am able to get a feel for what wildlife is doing, or will do. I can use this knowledge to give travelers a better encounter by trying to stay with the action and experiencing it as it is happening, instead of following it from behind. One specific example was when we were following a group of 8 bull elephants in the Tarangire National Park, where we spent about 2 hours tracking these elephants for about 10 km until we got to experience them play-fighting in a waterhole.
3. Cross-Cultural Connector
Saidi, one of our Kilimanjaro guides in Tanzania, has been guiding people up Kilimanjaro for over 15 years. His tale shows how a great guide can weave specialized knowledge and local connections into a tour, stringing a human bridge between cultures: “Once I took a father and son who had just climbed Kilimanjaro to our local village. This was a very rare opportunity to see a fascinating culture at a joyous time. Though they hadn’t planned on having guests that day, the villagers were extremely welcoming, answering questions and laughing with the guests. They joined us for lunch, which my wife had prepared for them. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and a great opportunity for two very different cultures to better understand each other.”
4. Transformational Teacher
In addition to the poor guides’ daily activities, they are also responsible for sharing in their life experiences with the aim of transforming their clients’ lives. “My clients’ most special experiences “have been when we have been closest to nature, be it hiking in the Mt Meru or surviving the slopes of Kilimanjaro. Being amidst potentially dangerous animals without the protection of a vehicle or solid structure is a real leveler for everybody. Very slowly, the reality of being outside our sheltered life kicks in. Soon, people become very respectful of nature. Some may be a little frightened at first, but this soon changes to excitement, especially after having had the privilege to be “studied” by a wild animal. More often than not, at the end of a trip most people will feel incredibly humbled by these experiences. Not only do they learn that most animals are very non-confrontational, but they feel as if they have experienced the natural world at proximity.
5. Wilderness Therapist
Adventure travel can be a form of therapy. Spending time in nature or on a mountain has a powerful way of giving perspective on life. When in nature, all of your day-to-day worries seem to magically disappear. I often ask my clients to try and think of something stressful while hiking on Mount Kilimanjaro, for example. None of them are able to keep a negative thought in their heads for longer than about 5 seconds. The thoughts that do exist are ‘primal thoughts. Survival thoughts that are stuck in the moment. Thoughts like, keep warm, put up the pace, drink, occupy your head. Not the voice of your boss.”
7. Navigating Negotiator
Guides have to be expert navigators, but sometimes they’re forced to become negotiators as well. Sometimes it may involve an Egyptian handshake, if you know what I mean, with a corrupt border official. Sometimes it may involve negotiating with a hot Swedish blonde girl to please keep her clothes on. No, wait, I think we got it all wrong. Why would we do that? Hmmm, too much time at altitude, we think.
8. Impassioned Life-Changer
From all of the above scenarios, it is safe to say that our guides have a massive influence on their clients’ lives, both when on the actual adventure and hopefully long after their return. Hopefully, the spin-off of their influence is not just the client, but their family and friends as well.
9. Resourceful Life-Saver
And finally, guides can sometimes literally save their clients’ lives. “Our hike up Kilimanjaro involves about 90km of trekking mostly at an extreme altitude, where the effects can be quite dangerous. Sometimes it is our job to be able to assess a client’s condition and make the necessary calls to ensure their safety on the mountain. Being able to recognize the symptoms of altitude sickness is critical in saving lives.
In all these varied roles, these guides have harnessed their expertise, compassion, humor and sixth sense of group dynamics to craft an unforgettable adventure for each and every traveler. All of the Soul Adventure team are proud to offer enriching travel experiences. “These trips aren’t just our business; they’re our passion. We want our travelers to love the places we visit just as much as we do, so we make sure our guides are the best in the business. “
