Dianne Tipping-Woods

“The animals don’t care if I am a man or a woman; to them I am just a human being.”

This statement Khomotso Mokoena was lingering in the back of my mind as the lioness looked at us, before disappearing into a thicket. She’d been stalking a wildebeest when we surprised her on our morning walk from Lower Sabie. She’d run as we stood frozen behind our guides, savouring the unique and very human thrill of encountering a big cat on foot...

The elephants move quietly through the gathering darkness, but Tumisi “Shorty” Tlale can hear them. “Listen,” he says, his head cocked to one side as he tries to get a fix on their position. “They’re coming.” A farmer in the eastern panhandle of Botswana’s Okavango Delta, Tlale’s ears are attuned to the elephants’ low rumbles as they move through the bush. If his sensitive ears have given him an initial advantage though, it doesn’t last long. When the elephants come, he’s just as vulnerable a...

Being in nature involves a good deal more than a travel experience. How about deepening your connection to the natural world at these evocative spots?
A spiritual awakening
Mapungubwe National Park
I find that it is only in the presence of genuine natural beauty that one can truly be at peace. • • • • #mapungubwe #nature #beauty #wilderness
A post shared by Ryan Hopkins (@ryhopkins1) on Jan 4, 2018 at 1:38am PST
To say there’s something mystical and magical about Mapungubwe is an understateme...

The Sabi Sands Game Reserve has a reputation for delivering great leopard sightings. A new study by big-cat conservation and research NGO Panthera looks at the factors that make this reserve one of the world’s last true havens for these spotted cats. Pg 110.

"He was a hint of dappled movement in the thick riverine undergrowth. I felt the adrenaline pulse through my veins as I willed my eyes to penetrate the thick vegetation the large male leopard was navigating. We’d finally found him - the challenge was not to lose him to the shadows on the far bank..."

"It's as though the wild enters into our voices. These songs are a balm and a weapon and a language that connects us all."

Writing about Kruger's fabulous choir for Wild Magazine, with Joep Stevens' fantastic photos.

The Southern African Wildlife College’s Sboniso Phakathi talks community, conservation and connections.

“When I started working with communities through my role at the Southern African Wildlife College, I assumed the people I’d be interacting with would see my work in the service of conservation as a good and right.”

The Black Mambas, the first majority female anti-poaching unit, patrol the Kruger National Park’s western boundary. Their job is officially to look for signs of poachers entering the park, but their role encompasses far more. By Dianne Tipping-Woods
They don’t have the numbers – there are only 33 Black Mambas. They don’t have guns – the Black Mambas patrol unarmed. They don’t have military backgrounds or training – the Black Mambas are mainly women from villages close to the Kruger National P...

Thanks to Skukuza Airport you can now breeze into the Kruger National Park for a weekend getaway. Here’s what to pack for luggage that is light enough so you don’t even have to check it in. By Dianne Tipping-Woods
There was a time when a trip to the Kruger National Park meant packing the car in the pre-dawn light with cooler boxes of groceries, packs of padkos and a pile of kids. Now though, with the convenience of affordable flights straight into Skukuza and the option of a transfer, car hir...

Are you planning to get married or renew your vows? Choose a spot in the wild for your special day. These incredible destinations promise a love celebration never to be forgotten. By Arnold Ras and Magriet Kruger
A poetic union
Where: The confluence’s main deck at Mapungubwe National Park
Let the meeting place of two incredible rivers be the setting for your own special union. The main viewing deck in Mapungubwe National Park offers breathtaking views over the confluence of the Shashe and Lim...

Cover story "Livingstone by Rail" for one of South Africa’s most popular motoring and lifestyle magazines, AA traveller is the official publication of the Automobile Association of South Africa. It inspires readers to ‘Get out there’ by featuring interesting local and international travel destinations, activities that inform and entertain, and the latest motoring news and views. T
Website - http://www.aatraveller.co.za

Our hug was warm and happy as Ems Tsotetsi prepared to board the gleaming plane parked on the Skukuza runway. Had it really just been two days since she’d left the city for a girls’ reunion in the heart of the Kruger National Park? After not having seen each other in years, we had done and seen so much together over the course of a weekend that it felt like we’d been away for much longer.

It’s a familiar ritual to anyone who has camped at Okaukuejo in Etosha National Park in Namibia in June; it takes some effort to hammer your tent pegs securely into the hard, chalky ground, but it’s worth it when the wind blows. Our toddler, Sanne (18 months old), had seen us pitching our tent at the Waterberg Plateau campsite two nights before and she knew the drill, despite the hammer weighing almost as much as her. With each thwack, she kicked up a swirling puff of rose-tinted dust, then l...

An account of an adventurous trip into Zambia’s flooded Bangweulu Wetlands in search of a Shoebill.

A look at the fascinating history of an iconic fabric; "from rural work clothes to street wear to haute couture: isiShweshwe’s story in southern Africa echoes the adaptations of denim in the northern hemisphere. But, unlike denim, the intense indigos, sassy reds and burnt browns of isiShweshwe remain deeply rooted in tradition."

“To track wild dogs, you have to think like them,” says predator researcher Leah Andresen as we explore a remote drainage line to the north of the Shingwedzi River in Kruger National Park. We’re moving along the dry watercourse, sometimes in the stream bed and sometimes weaving through jackal-berries, apple-leaf trees, knobthorns and the occasional sycamore fig. “They love these open, grassy banks alongside rivers and streams,” Leah explains as she directs detection dog Scooby and his handler, Jennifer Hartman from Conservation Canines, towards the most likely looking terrain. She moves as though she’s part wild dog herself.