Trip Leaders & Guides

Like all of our Driver Guides, Richard started his career as a mechanic in the African Environments workshop, under Abdullah, who taught him all he needed to know about the safari cars. He is as competent under the bonnet of his vehicle as he is at spotting leopards in trees. Richard, who is Maasai, has been with us for many years and is extremely comfortable in the bush – he will gladly share stories of his life, culture and country.

Since COVID, Richard has become our main film-crew driver guide and has learnt all the ropes of driving the filming cars and ensuring the shot list that the film-crews want, are got!

Shedrack is an amazing driver guide and walking guidein which he has over 12 years experience. He loves to promote the preservation of wildlife, wild places, and to encourage humans to consider their relationship with nature.

Before devoting his work full-time with African Environments, Shedrack served as Wildlife Conservator with the Tanzania Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, where his responsibility was ecological monitoring, anti-poaching patrol and promoting sustainable tourism.

At University he got a Bachelors in Environmental Planning and Management at the Institute of Rural Development Planning, as well as a Diploma in Wildlife Management at the College of African Wildlife Management.

Francis is one of our newest members of the African Environments team, and boy are we glad he’s with us! Francis was born in a small town on the edge of the Serengeti, so who better than to be guided by someone who knows the area so well!

When Francis was at school, his dream was to be a priest before he realised his love for wildlife and soon thereafter, met his beautiful wife, with whom he is blessed to now have five children with. Francis has over 29 years of experience between wild dog and lion research, and guiding with various companies here in Arusha until he decided to join us. When asked what his aspiration in life is, he answered ‘to be a guide to guides, teaching the young guides how to be the best guides and respect the wilderness’.

A little fun fact; He represented Tanzania in Basketball in the All African Games in 1987 which was held in Nairobi, Kenya. His real name is also Jowi (Buffalo in Luo language) as a Buffalo killed one of his tribesmen on the day he was born.

Tumaini joined the African Environments team as a safari guide back in 2015 and has been one of our top safari guides since day one. He has now worked his way up to being a film crew driver guide too.

He grew up in Arusha but travelled a bit for his studies, where he moved from Arusha to Kenya for Primary school and then to Uganda for Secondary school. After school, he then returned to Arusha and untook his guiding course at Mweka Wildlife Lodge.

Tumaini loves being close to Nature when out on safari and feeling ‘in the midst of it all’. His favorite animals are the Leopard and Elephant.

Grace joined the African Environments family during COVID. She was part of an all female camp in the Serengeti beforehand, so she knows the bush like the back of her hand. Having been on a few trips for us so far and receiving amazing feedback. She is also a dab hand with a 4×4 car (don’t be fooled) as well as one of our main filming support crews for our film groups that come out.

Like most of our trip leaders, Grace has many qualifications in the field, including a hotel management course, eco-tourism guiding management course, and a retail travel operations course.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Grace so far and look forward to many more trips to come!

Starting his career with African Environments as a cook on trips up Kilimanjaro, James quickly rose to the position of Trip Leader. After spending years climbing the mountain as a cook, he had a natural knack for guiding groups seamlessly as he knows Kilimanjaro like the back of his hand. After guiding on the mountain for a few years, he soon became one of our main guides for Walking safaris in the Serengeti, where he was trained up to walk in the wilderness, read the animals and use a rifle.

His natural, easy charm and killer smile are always a winner with our clients!

Noel or “Mchili” as he is known, is a gentle soul who has an encouraging and caring nature. Noel has been guiding with African Environments on Kilimanjaro for over 10 years.

He is one of our main guides on Kilimanjaro, but recently Noel has spread his wings and has been enjoying the many cultures of Tanzania where he has been leading Walking Safaris with the Hadzabe in Eyasi and Maasai in Ngoronogoro.

Ben is a natural leader and loves to get involved with planning and leading trips on the mountain. He is also well equiped to guide on safari and has also experience in leading filming groups while in Tanzania.

When Ben was in school he originally wanted to a priest, however, he then realised his passion for wilderness and knew he wanted to guide people through their trip in Tanzania. He then went on to study French and can now lead our groups in French, English and Swahili. He is one of our best Trip Leaders and we feel very lucky to have him on board!

Emmanuel originally joined African Environments as a porter on the mountain, where he would help carry equipment up and down the mountain on trips. He then started to learn on the job and spent a lot of time with the guides on any trip he went with.

After showing a lot of intuition, he started to learn solar wiring skills and soon got promoted to mountain crew. He spent a few years as mountain crew, where he soon landed the opportunity to be Assistant Guide – he absolutely shone. He now is a Junior Guide on the mountain as well as on Safaris, where he is continuously learning on the job.