Tara Beckett

Ask Tara to name every bird or tree in the bush and you may be testing the wrong skill. Her safari party trick? Knowing which lodge is going to be your lodge. After 23 years in travel, she has a pretty formidable mental map of Africa, but the real skill is in the matchmaking: understanding your pace, interests and travel style, then finding the places that feel right for you. She’s a born-and-bred Capetonian, firmly bush over beach, happiest around family and friends, and partial to a bit of rugby when she isn’t plotting her next African escape. Her own safari story started in Zimbabwe, which perhaps explains why Gonarezhou National Park is still calling her back in that direction. And yes, her safari theme song is Africa by Toto. Sometimes the obvious answer is the right one. One piece of advice you’ll hear from Tara? Leave a little room for Africa to surprise you. Some of the stories you’ll be telling when you get home may be the ones nobody put on the itinerary.