Indigenous San Tracking Experience in South Africa

In 2020, guests at a private Game Reserve near Port Elizabeth will be able to enjoy insights into the ancient skills and wisdom of San hunter-gatherers during a guided San Tracking Experience. 

Pairs of renowned Ju/’hoansi trackers from Nyae Nyae in remote north-eastern Namibia will be teaming up with Shamwari guides to offer something really special. The Ju/’hoanis are the last of the San people in South- ern Africa who still command the full suite of hunter-gatherer skills.

They track and hunt with bow and poisoned arrow, and the fittest amongst them engage in persistence hunting – pursuing an animal until it drops from exhaustion. They have the extraordinary ability – passed from genera- tion to generation for tens of thousands of years – to track wildlife across almost any terrain, interpreting the animal behaviour intimately as they go. 

Only a handful of trackers across the Kalahari Basin have been accredited as Indigenous Masters, the highest possible level of accomplishment. In January, two of the very best, Master Trackers /ui-Kxunta and /ui-G/aqo, will join with Shamwari’s own skilled rangers on the first trail, limited to a maximum of six guests on each ex- cursion. 

Other ace trackers such as Dam Debe – who played a cameo part as a child in The Gods must be Crazy – will make their appearance on later trails. While tracking is their extraordinary forte, the trackers will also offer demonstrations of their fire-lighting skills with fire-sticks and bow-and-arrow performances (sans poisoned tips). Guests will be invited to try their hand at tracking, archery and rock art interpretations, and be able to listen to fireside stories of the old ways in distant times. 

Indigenous San Tracking Experience in South Africa

3 Days / 2 Nights

Dates:

28 – 30 January 2020
31 January – 02 February 2020

14 – 16 April 2020
17 – 19 April 2020