Meet Shaun Taylor, Your Safari Guide & Moriti’s Owner
“Your guide on a private safari, and the owner behind every Moriti trip”
I’m Shaun Taylor, and I’ve guided in Africa since 2003. I own Moriti; I write your itinerary, and on a privately guided trip, I’m the guide next to you in the vehicle. On a lodge-based trip, I’m still the one who shapes it and stays reachable the whole way through. Either way, you’re dealing with me, not a department.
Guiding since 2003, and how those years show up in the bush
Twenty-odd years in the field change how you guide. The qualification matters. So does what you do with the quiet hours between sightings, and that part only comes with time.
Qualified as an FGASA Trails Guide, NQF4 level
I’m a qualified FGASA Trails Guide at NQF4. That’s the walking qualification, the one that lets a guide take people on foot in Big Five country, where reading the bush isn’t optional. It takes years to earn, and it changes how I read every sighting, whether we’re on foot or sitting in the vehicle.
Tracking, and the harder skill of being present
I’ll teach you to track. Reading a leopard’s pug marks in the sand, working out which way she went and how long ago, is one of the real pleasures of the bush, and I love passing it on. But tracking isn’t really the point. The harder thing, and the one people thank me for afterwards, is getting you to live in the moment again. Most of us haven’t, not properly, not in a long while. The bush is good at lifting the weight off your shoulders, as long as your guide knows when to stop talking. I’m married with two children, and families are some of my favourite guests to take out. Small kids notice the things the rest of us have trained ourselves to walk straight past.
The guide you may already have watched on WildEarth
When I’m freelancing with WildEarth, I present the live drives, broadcasting unscripted from the bush to viewers all over the world. Nothing’s scripted when I’m on, so what you’re watching is simply how I guide: how I read a sighting, how I talk about the animals. A day in the vehicle with me feels much the same.
There’s a full episode below, the week’s catch-up, which I present. It pulls together the highlights from the week’s drives, mine alongside the other guides’, so you can see how I read a sighting and talk about the animals before you ever book. If it’s a full drive that you’re after, those are the live broadcasts, and I flag when I’m on just below.
When I’m presenting, I say so on Instagram at tayls_trails, so you can watch a drive before you ever book one. You can follow WildEarth too, which broadcasts the bush live every day, whether I’m in the seat or not. Other lodges and operators bring me in to guide for their guests as well.
You travel with Shaun, and you also travel with Moriti
On a privately guided safari, I’m your guide. That’s usually the Greater Kruger, though I also guide guests through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and further afield. On a lodge-based safari, the resident guides take you out, and I’ll tell you plainly when that’s the better choice. Sometimes it’s budget. Sometimes a guide who specialises in that area reads it better than I could as a visitor, and I’d rather you had the right guide for the reserve than the one whose name happens to be on the letterhead.
The small lodges I choose, and why I know them
I book small, intimate lodges I know well. Not the ones paying the best commission, the ones that put the guest first even when I’m not there to check. Those relationships took years to build, and they’re why a lodge-based Moriti trip still feels looked after rather than handed off. When something needs sorting, I know who to call, and they know me.
The stock safari I will always talk you out of booking
Every so often someone comes to me with a safari they’ve half-booked through one of the big comparison sites, and asks me to match it. I’ll usually talk them out of it. A stock itinerary, priced to win a search result, is built to look like every other one next to it, and that’s the opposite of what a custom safari is for. I’d rather design the trip you actually want, around your pace and the things you care about, than copy a template and put my name on it.
Shaun is a great guide, team-leader, social director and educator all rolled up into one. He can even summon up a terrific gin and tonic when the sun sets over the grassland.
– Jonathan Mann, former CNN journalist
The questions guests ask before they travel with me
A few things worth clearing up before you get in touch.
No, and it’s worth understanding before you book. I guide the privately guided safaris myself, most often in the Greater Kruger, while resident guides lead the lodge-based trips. I’ll point you to the lodge-based route when it suits your budget, or when a local guide knows the reserve better than I would, and I plan every safari either way.
Yes. Just ask when you enquire, and I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right guide for your dates and route. Privately guided safaris are usually in the Greater Kruger, though I guide further afield too, and where I’m not the right fit, I’ll say so.
Most often in the Greater Kruger, where I’ve guided since 2003 and know the reserves and their rhythms well. I also guide guests through Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia and other parts of the continent, depending on the trip. For lodge-based trips elsewhere, the resident guides take over, and I’m still the one who planned the journey.
Plan your whole safari with one person, start to finish
From your first enquiry to the drive back to the airport, you deal with me. I plan it, I book it, and I stay your one point of contact throughout. If you want to see how that works in practice, read what a privately guided safari actually involves, look at where we travel across Africa, or read what past guests have written. When you are ready, tell me what you have in mind below, I look forward to chatting with you.
Occasional notes from the field. Thoughts on planning, places I’m spending time in, and changes that actually matter when you’re thinking about a safari. I send it when there’s something worth saying.