Safari guide documents his life on wildlife estate
A photographic safari guide is documenting his life on the Hoedspruit Wildlife Estate (HWE) on his YouTube channel.
Villiers Steyn started The Wildlife Estate Diaries on his YouTube channel, The Safari Expert, in June this year. Episode 2 of the series raked in no less than 80 000 views. “So many people in town stop me to talk about specific trail sightings or simply to thank me for making the videos,” he says. Steyn says his love for nature stems from spending his school holidays in the bush, visiting places like the Kruger National Park with his family.
“It came as no surprise to my parents when I decided to study nature conservation at the Tshwane University of Technology. After completing my diploma, I did my Master’s degree in leopard movements in Botswana’s Northern Tuli Game Reserve. “Then followed a decade-long career as a travel journalist and photographer for local magazines like Weg!, Getaway and Country Life before my wife, Tabby, and I moved to Hoedspruit in 2013. It’s around that time that I became a photographic safari guide,” he says.
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He started The Safari Expert channel just before the Covid pandemic hit in December 2019. “Luckily for me, the fact that people around the world were stuck at home, my channel took off right from the start,” adds Steyn. He says the channel has grown steadily over the past four and a half years and he has been documenting his safari adventures on it. “What I love about Hoedspruit, is how diverse it is in every sense of the word.
It attracts people from all over the country and the globe, and the industries that thrive here include everything from game rangers and conservationists to farmers and other professionals. There’s a true sense of community,” states Steyn. The Wildlife Estate Diaries includes the best trail camera footage from six cameras in the field, plus his own experiences in the estate, doing walks, game drives, and so forth. “It’s incredibly hard work, but I love it,” he concludes. To watch the series, head to The Safari Expert YouTube Channel and look for the video titled: Surrounded by animals.
