‍A team roundup of our wildest, weirdest, and most wonderful moments of the year.

If there’s one thing the bush teaches you, it’s that no year is ever the same. Some years are big on sightings, some big on travel… and some, like 2025, are big on stories you absolutely cannot make up.

So we asked the BHS team to share their funniest, most chaotic, most “only-in-this-job” moments of the year  and let’s just say…we’ve had a time.

Welcome to the 2025 BHS Anecdote Wrap.
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A blog that proves:

1. We travel a lot.
2. Unexpected moments make the very best memories, especially in the bush.
3. And we’ll never look at “educational trips” the same way again.

‍GERALDINE: “Uganda is not close to my heart anymore…it’s IN my heart.”

This year G took “educational” and turned it into an Olympic endurance sport.

Uganda alone was:

• 26  lodges
• 15 activities
• 12 days
• 1 body held together by coffee and bruises

The highlights:

• Forgetting her bag, phone and even her camera almost daily....By Day 5, other agents and even lodge staff were doing courtesy checks behind her like she was a toddler they’d collectively agreed to co-parent.
• Injuring herself at every second stop:
      Banging her head in the car ✔
      Falling flat mid-site inspection because a flip-flop mutinied ✔
      Stepping into a jetty gap and dragging an entire calf down it ✔  

 (bruise still visible, apparently a sentimental souvenir)

• Worrying about a 14km walk, meanwhile the golden monkey trek became a 5.5-hour mountain mission in torrential rain. The post-trek massage? Deeply deserved.

But she also:

• Trekked and saw gorillas in three different forests
• Saw chimps in two regions (four times total)
• And deepened her love for Uganda with a vengeance.

Then came Botswana, where she and Kayla executed a “photoshoot educational” involving:

• Magazine-cover sundowners
• Coffee sips at correct angles
• Binocular lifting with perfect logo placement
• In-pool glamour shots
• And “G… could you just drink - ” becoming code for “pose, but don’t actually swallow the liquid.”

She calls it hardcore. We call it:
Welcome to Influencer Bootcamp, BHS edition.

MARISKA: “The year we actually survived… somehow.”

When asked for her standout moment, Mariska gave perhaps the most honest summary of 2025:

“I cannot remember one single thing from the last few months… never mind the year.”

But then she remembered the moment:

Maki & Chloe on maternity leave at the same time + Khensani finishing her internship + the team absorbing three extra roles without two major players.

A season of

• reorganising
• deep breaths and
• that very specific type of juggling when you just have to go go go!

And yet:

“We actually survived that.”

Put it on a mug.
Or a t-shirt.
It’s the slogan of the year.

 JAMES: The Man, The Myth, The Moustache

(Yes, we wrote this. No, he didn’t get veto rights.)

James brought back his Movember moustache this year and still managed to surprise us all with a look that landed somewhere between vintage pilot, undercover ranger, and the beginning of Magnum PI energy.

The real highlight?
He left late for our Pafuri getaway, hit Kruger's Phlaborwa Gate at a sprint, still made it through, and somehow turned the drive to camp into a full game drive = sightings, triumphs, and that moustache leading the charge.

A brave man.
A bold moustache.
A charity commitment… and an absolute treat for the rest of us.

ANGE  - “When All Else Fails, Call Me.”

If 2025 had a patron saint of lost luggage, impossible timelines, and customs officers who mysteriously don’t answer phones, it would be Ange.

Her year’s highlight (or trauma… depending who you ask) was a two-part luggage saga involving:

• courier companies that couldn’t courier
• tracking systems that lied confidently
• customs departments that refused to speak to one another
• a taxi driver who accidentally became the official sender of international freight
• and bags that seemed determined to visit every depot in Johannesburg except the right one

At one point she was:

• begging an off-duty warehouse manager to open a closed hub
• mobilising drivers across Joburg like it was a high-speed relay
• reissuing invoices in Zambia
• convincing a different courier company to magically clear something the first one “could not” (for reasons we still cannot explain)

But the miracle?

Every single bag found its owner. On time.
(And yes - she’s still recovering.)

In summary:
Ange saved the day. And the bags. Twice.
And if 2025 taught us anything:
When something goes missing in Africa, we don’t call the courier company - we call Ange.

MAKI - “The Year of Babies, Balance & Bush Heat”

If 2025 had a theme for Maki, it would be: new beginnings and no sleep.

Three members of the BHS team became parents this year — turning the office into a rotating cycle of maternity leave, caffeine dependence, and heart-bursting moments shared through blurry WhatsApps at 3am.

Then came the return-to-work era… the adjusting, the juggling, the remembering-how-to-speak-in-full-sentences era. Plus onboarding new team members while quietly pretending to have energy.

And, of course, the unforgettable team getaway in what can only be described as “oven mode” - 50 degrees, limited shade, and a group of adults melting in unison.

A year of growth, grit, and proof that the BHS team is capable of absolutely anything… just maybe not eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.

ALIE - “The Pafuri Glow-Up”

For Alie, 2025 was all about the people and the birds.

Pafuri delivered everything, fever trees glowing, the heat rising off the river, and that special kind of bush silence where friendships settle in properly. It was the first time many of us had the chance to travel together, and it turned into one of those rare trips where every conversation felt good and every moment felt easy.

The cherry on top?
Spotting an Arnot’s Chat... the kind of sighting that gives instant bragging rights and quietly converts one more person into a lifelong bush nerd.

A trip that stitched the team a little closer together. And gave Alie her 2025 highlight in one perfect bird call.

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CHLOË- “The Year We Made Khutaza”

If anyone lived a full cinematic arc this year, it was Chloe.

We dreamt of creating a film long before the Foundation had a rhythm and somehow she turned that dream into a fully-fledged production. Khutaza wasn’t just filmed… it was camped, sweated, storyboarded, coordinated, carried, shaped, and birthed (literally, almost - she was pregnant, in a dome tent, in January).

Interviews were lined up under trees and in classrooms, messages were drawn from the air, and the people she found during those early interviews are now the very heartbeat of the BHS Foundation today.

Khutaza didn’t just kick off her year > it changed the direction of ours.
A highlight that set the tone for everything that followed. 

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‍BRETT - Revival, Fragility, and Everything In Between

For Brett, 2025 wasn’t just about big sightings or dramatic moments, it was about two quiet truths that landed hard.

Gorongosa, once a park on its knees, is now one of Africa’s greatest comeback stories. Walking those floodplains, hearing the forests alive again, seeing a system rebuilding itself… it’s impossible not to feel anything but hopeful. Real conservation. Real recovery. Right in front of you.

And then, on the other end of the spectrum, a species still fighting for survival: the white-backed vulture, one of Africa’s most threatened birds.
This year, BHS sponsored the satellite tagging of one of these birds… it’s as mall, deliberate act in a battle most people never see. These birds are under pressure from poisoning, habitat loss, and a disappearing food chain… The early movement data has already flagged multiple snaring sites - small signals with real, on-the-ground impact for the teams working to protect these crucial scavengers.

One place rising again.
One species hanging on.

Both reminders that travel isn’t just about where you go -it’s about paying attention to the wild places that shape you along the way. 

GEORGIE - “Maternity Cover… or Character-Building?”

Georgie learned that doing a maternity cover for Chloe is not so much “stepping into big shoes” as it is stepping into a full trail run wearing flip-flops ;)

From marketing mailers to podcasts to projects-without-names-yet, she tried to learn fast, adapt faster, and somehow kept the BHS engine running without setting anything on fire (publicly).

A year of growth, grit, and discovering  a deeper love for the work BHS does, and for the incredible team that makes it all possible!

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‍JO – 2025, The Year The Zambezi Reminded Me Who's Really in Charge

I realised this year that my love affair with canoeing the Zambezi might finally be… well, wrapping up. It was my eighth trip down that river and it came with the kind of hippo drama that really makes you rethink your hobbies.

We slipped into a narrow channel, the kind that looks calm until you notice the hippos. Everywhere. Proper grumpy ones too - surfacing, snorting, giving us that classic “you’re in our space” attitude.

Within minutes, we were out of the canoes and moving(briskly!) towards the nearest trees, trying to keep as much distance and dignity as possible. We were all hauling boats around pods of hippo more than once, turning it into an impromptu relay we certainly hadn’t planned for… while the hippos made it abundantly clear that this was their section of the Zambezi.

So yes - canoe the Zambezi. But do it with caution, a sense of humour… and a healthy respect for the locals.

THE GREAT 2025 TAKEAWAY

This year delivered wild treks, unexpected dips, scenic chaos, golden light, and those fire-side stories that only BHS can collect… all thanks to a team that gets sharper, stronger, and somehow even funnier every year

Here’s to 2026:
More trails, more trips, more guests, and just enough chaos to keep it interesting ;)

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