PEOPLE & PLACE
The people who actually know
Guides, trackers, lodge owners, conservationists. The voices we trust on the ground. Short interviews, audio clips, behind-the-scenes from the lodges we send people to.
Listen to who you are buying from
WHY WE PUT THEM ON
A safari is who you go with
You are not buying a lodge. You are buying the guide who reads the wind, the tracker who sees what you cannot see, the chef who knows what you eat at altitude. This is where we put them on the record. What they look for. How they got into this work. What they wish guests asked them.
We sit with one person at a time. We ask plain questions. We let them answer in their own words. Some of these are five-minute reads. Some are short audio recordings from a bush airstrip or a fire. They are the closest thing we can publish to what an actual day on the ground feels like.
6 pieces
Hear from them
Voices
What we would tell a young woman starting out in safari travel
Both of us came out of corporate, one of us with travel experience already. This is the advice we give when a young woman writes and asks how to build a career in luxury safari travel.
Voices
We run on solar and we have not printed since 2019
Vikki and Sian on solar power, paper, and what a small safari company can honestly claim.
Voices
How two women from outside the travel industry built a luxury safari brand from Africa
We are the two women behind Marula Hill. One of us came from IBM, the other from MARS Southern Africa. Here is the long version of how a private safari business gets built from outside the travel industry.
Voices
Safaris designed around the people travelling
Safaris built around the people travelling, not the brochure. How we plan for LGBTQ+ guests, dietary needs, family configurations and accessibility in South Africa.
Voices
A conversation with Vikki Jackson
Vikki Jackson, co-founder of Marula Hill, on moving to South Africa with her family in 1994 and being the one who stayed, why hyenas are the ones to watch, and the small details that make a lodge actually work.
Voices
A conversation with Sian Loehrer
Sian Loehrer, co-founder of Marula Hill, talks about how she designs safaris, where she'd go right now, and what first-time travellers always ask.
WHEN ONE OF THESE STAYS WITH YOU
We can put you with them
Most of the people in this section guide for lodges we work with regularly. If a name sticks, tell us. We will ask if they are available for the dates you are thinking.
The bush has been expecting you