Brian Rode

Brian grew up in Johannesburg and had an interest in nature from an early age. This love of the environment was inherited from his parents, who took him to various game reserves including the Kruger National Park during his school holidays. Whilst at school he got involved with the Percy Fitzpatrick Institute (University of Cape Town) doing bird studies and censuses in various nature reserves throughout the country.

After school Brian joined the South African Defence Force in a Specialized Survival Unit, where he trained amongst others Recces, Pathfinders, Parabats, Pilots and Marines in survival techniques. He then went to university where he studied Commercial Law and then then studied Nature Conservation. After working in Johannesburg for a short while as an accounts analyst he decided rather to follow his love for the bush and in 1996 he started working as an Assistant Camp Manager and guide in the Timbavati Game Reserve, bordering the Kruger National Park.

He was then employed by South African National Parks, in the Kruger National Park, as a trails guide before heading up to Botswana, in 2002, where he worked as a Camp Manager and guide for a few years for a large safari company. After a few years of guiding in the Okavango Delta, the Linyanti region and the Kalahari he decided to join the company’s Ecological Department as an environmentalist before transferring to their guide-training department in 2008. As a guide-trainer he trained and developed local guides from the communities surrounding the Okavango Delta and assisted the Botswana Government in the setting up new guiding standards for the country.
Brian then ran a guide-training school for two years in Southern Botswana (in the Tuli Block), specialising in training guides how to walk safely in areas with potentially dangerous animals and weapons training.

In 2015 Brian decided to return to South Africa and joined Singita as a senior guide. He is passionate about all forms of nature and is presently studying for a specialist qualification in Wild Flowers.