Keith,
In my observation, the natural career cycle of private driver-guides in Africa seems to be as follows:
1 - Young guy gets hired and trained by big safari outfitter.
2 - Young guy works for 10-15 years as private guide. During this period he makes many contacts with his clients and gains business acumen.
3 - Young guy is now middle-aged and he breaks away from big company and starts his own private guiding business. Now he can book the safari and capture the margin on the booking and the fees from the guiding services. Good for him.
This seems to be the natural progression. I have seen a lot of good guides come-up this way and then break off. Gregg Hughes and Matt Copham used to be the top private guides for Wilderness Safaris. They now work for a private guiding firm in South Africa:
http://www.bukela-africa.com/bukela_team.html
Jon Niva used to be a top guide for A&K in Kenya.
http://nivasafaris.com/clients.html
Godwin Mbogo used to be a guide for Serengeti Select in Tanzania:
http://www.mbogoexpeditions.com/
I have booked clients with all these guys in the past.
The private guiding industry is much more prevalent in East Africa as many of what I consider the best lodges in Southern Africa only allow their camp employed guides to drive on their property so there is no place for private guides unless they sit in the back of the land rover with their clients. Most East Africa camps have game drive packages with camp staff or guests with private guides just pay room and board.
Craig Beal – owner – Travel Beyond