Ona Basimane
Ona Basimane joined Wilderness Safaris in October 2010 and spent almost two years at Kalahari Plains before heading to DumaTau Camp. Within this relatively short period of time, he has established himself as one of the finest guides within the company. His passion, enthusiasm, professionalism, great sense of humour and his urbane manners have endeared him to guests and colleagues alike.
Ona was born and raised in Maun where he also did most of his schooling. He has lived with wildlife virtually all his life. Despite growing up with the Moremi Game Reserve, Lake Ngami and Makgadikgadi Pans as his backyard, many a guest who has been on a safari with Ona has been awed at how excited he always gets at sightings. His passion for wildlife and guiding is rooted from a childhood filled with trips to the game reserves he grew up around.
Ona is a keen photographer and an aspiring wildlife photojournalist. His images and articles have regularly appeared in numerous travel magazines including the Air Botswana in-flight magazine; Discover Botswana, the annual publication by Botswana Tourism Board; as well as Travel Ideas magazine in South Africa. His photography makes him a great ambassador for his country and perhaps the pinnacle of his guiding career so far came when he was invited to be a guest speaker at the Wild Shots Wildlife Photography Symposium 2013 in Cape Town. He also shares many of his images with Wilderness Safaris’ Facebook page where he regularly receives accolades for his heart-stopping images.
As he continues guiding around Wilderness camps, he has recently been drafted into the company’s guide training team to help mentor and inspire up and coming guides. At this rate, Ona is likely to be remembered alongside legendary guiding inspirations such as Map Ives and Mike Myers.