Tour Leaders

Michael Wright

Principal Tour Leader

Michael is a passionate naturalist, conservationist and explorer who loves birding, rare mammals, walking trails, and photography. He is a registered professional in natural science, nature tour guiding and ecotourism consulting with 24 years’ of industry experience. He has travelled extensively through Southern and East Africa, Mauritius and North America, and further to his great passion for birds; also enjoys animal behaviour, flyfishing, butterflies, herping, trees and wilderness.

Michael currently holds a Southern African bird lifelist of 725 species, a Southern African mammal lifelist of 125 species, a South African butterfly lifelist of 104 species, and a South African frog lifelist of 36 species.

Although Michael has developed valuable knowledge and experience in the field over many years, he loves taking every opportunity to immerse himself in nature, to continue to learn from it, to teach others about its extraordinary beauty and value, and to share nature-based experiences with people from all over the world.

His work life has largely been entrepreneurial in nature: relating to the nature guiding, environmental consulting, ecotourism consulting, safari lodge development, operating and marketing fields.

Michael has worked in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Eswatini (Swaziland), Mozambique, Lesotho, and the United States of America, and has visited Mauritius and Mexico several times on holiday. During his Southern and East African adventures he has explored 119 National Parks, Game Reserves and Nature Reserves, and to date has stayed in 157 safari lodges, bush camps, resorts, hotels and campsites, while having visited many more.

When combined with his dedication and enthusiasm for nature and outdoor adventure, these experiences should ensure that he hosts and guides you with professionalism, skill and care.

Michael has been married for 18 years to his wonderful lady, Natalie, and together they have 2 amazing children, a courageous son aged 15 years and a delightful daughter aged 11 years. They currently reside in Somerset West, Western Cape, South Africa.

Richard Mckibbin

Tour Leader

Richard is an extremely passionate naturalist, photographer and public speaker and has been involved in wildlife and conservation his whole life. He is a qualified nature and trails guide with over 15 years of experience throughout Southern Africa, and has conducted research on leopards, crowned eagles and lynx. Richard also loves surfing the ocean waves in his spare time.

Richard has not yet listed the number of bird, mammal, butterfly, frog and reptile species he has seen, but it is a very impressive number.

He and his wife, Candice, worked on a two year leopard identification project in the Eastern Shores of iSimangaliso and together now run their business in conservation, biodiversity and tourism called ‘The LionHeart Experience‘. Alongside fighting for conservation, their passion is to be a link between people and the beautiful world we live in, giving them an incredible and unforgettable experience as they encounter the beauty of nature. Richard uses his photography and writing to create beautiful artworks to inspire and ignite wonder and passion as well as to promote conservation and awareness of environmental issues.

Richard has worked and in South Africa and Botswana, and has also visited Namibia, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Lesotho, Italy and Ireland on holiday.

Richard is married to his good wife, Candice, for 10 years and together they currently reside in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.