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Ellie leads as Director of Brand Experience, with over 12 years of travel experience in the safari industry.
Ellie’s passion for Africa started early. She has South African family and she spent multiple vacations there during her childhood. During her 20’s she travelled independently across Southern and East Africa, before joining a safari specialist in 2006. Since then she has been to Africa 25 times and she has accumulated over 12 years’ experience in the safari industry.
Ellie has enjoyed a two-week trip around Zambia’s lesser-visited Kafue National Park, followed by a family trip to Ruaha National Park in Tanzania to do what she loves best – a walking safari.
Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and the Republic of the Congo.
All expert destinations, as well as Uganda, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Seychelles.
As a child, Ellie would go to South Africa to visit family every summer. She fondly remembers spending time in her grandparents’ garden chasing lizards and chongololos, swimming in the sea near their house, and going on camping safaris to Pilanesberg National Park. But it was a family vacation to the Okavango Delta when she was a teenager that started Ellie’s passion for safari.
A few years later, during her year before university, Ellie boarded a plane bound for Dar es Salaam. A three-month conservation research placement on Pemba Island followed by a six-month backpacking adventure down to Cape Town took Ellie through most of Southern and East Africa. As if that were not enough, she returned to the continent after university for a short stint of volunteer work at an orphanage in Kisumu – a small town on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya – and then again took to the road to travel through the areas she had missed out the first time.
On her return to the UK in 2006, Ellie started working for an esteemed UK safari specialist, moving up the ranks from Safari Specialist to General Manager by the time she left. During her career there she helped to set up the Northern Tanzania and Kenya programme, was a contributing author to the Rough Guide to Kenya and the Zambia Bradt Travel Guide, and helped the company grow to three times the size it had been when she started. She joined Yellow Zebra at the end of 2018.
I have always loved walking safaris, and so it is no wonder that my most memorable safari experience was whilst I was on foot. I was staying at Kichaka Camp in Ruaha National Park and being guided by the renowned Moli, known for getting people up close to elephants. We had seen two young bulls from a distance and with the wind in our favour approached them on foot. With no more than 10 metres between us and them, they suddenly caught our scent and turned with heads raised. Moli’s upstretched hand said it all: ‘Do not move!!’ What felt like minutes later, after a trumpet and a forward lurch in our direction, the two bulls moved away, leaving us with our hearts in our mouths.
"Yellow Zebra Safaris created a fabulous three location trip for our honeymoon in Tanzania. Their expertise from on-the-ground experience shone throughout the booking process, and during the trip itself. They took time to understand what type of trip we wanted and provided a great selection of places for us to choose from. The ambiance of the lodges we stayed in was perfectly pitched, authentic yet luxurious, and with a great focus on enjoying the natural surroundings. Every detail of our trip was well executed, and when we encountered one local hiccup, YZ were superb in advising us and sorting it out. We loved the little book they provided us with (!), and all the additional information - truly cannot recommend YZ enough. Fabulous company, and thank you especially to Ellie : ) Look forward to travelling with you again!"
Run by Andrew ‘Moli’ Molinaro and his partner Noelle, Kichaka offers some of the most exclusive experiences available in all Safari Africa! Children aged 12 years and older are welcome, although the minimum age requirement for walks is 16 years.
Musekese Camp is situated on the edge of a floodplain close to the Kafue River within Kafue National Park.
Quilalea has had a troubled past, as previous owners have struggled to fill the lodge in a location as remote as this. However, today the island enjoys great success! Azura owns a luxurious property in Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago also.
If you are looking for a traditional and intimate safari, Kicheche Bush Camp is the quintessential experience!
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