Voices of Botswana: the female guide

By Roxanne Reid
Gobe Motshidisi is part of Chobe Game Lodge’s team of 16 women who are professional guides. Some people also refer to them as the Chobe Angels. How did her journey begin and what’s it like to be female in a male-dominated profession?

Gobe was born in Francistown and raised in Letlhakane, a small town in central Botswana. As a little girl she always wanted to work with animals, but thought the only way to do this was to be part of the Department of Wildlife. And that seemed out of reach. ‘I never dreamed I could be a guide working among wild animals,’ she says.

‘Then a friend did a guiding course and explained it to me. Since I love animals and being around them I decided to do the course too,’ she says. It would be better than sitting at home not sure what to do with her life.

​Gobe did her professional guide training in Maun, the swashbuckling little town that’s the centre of the safari industry for the Okavango Delta. She had to tackle subjects like environmental management, laws pertaining to the guiding industry, computer awareness and first aid as well as the specifics of geology, ecology, botany and animals of all types from mammals to birds, insects and reptiles.

Part of the requirement for the course is practical training and she struck it lucky when she got a placement at Chobe Game Lodge. When her compulsory practical was over and her training complete, the lodge was impressed enough to hire her in 2012.

Today she enjoys taking guests out on the Chobe River in one of the lodge’s solar-powered electric boats to find elephant, hippo, crocodile and a host of colourful water birds. She’s equally at home behind the wheel of a diesel-powered safari vehicle or one of the lodge’s four silent electric vehicles.

‘Most of my guests are happy to have a woman as their guide,’ she says. But there are some misconceptions too. ‘Once I had a flat tyre and my guests were waiting for me to call for help from the lodge only to find that I am taking out my tools to change it. We were soon on our way again.’

What about other guides? ‘Let’s say you meet a male guide on one of the sandy roads in Chobe, sometimes he will choose the easy way and give you the toughest way just to challenge you,’ she admits. But it’s a challenge she welcomes, a chance to prove her mettle.

The best thing about her job as a guide is that every day is different. ‘You can never know what nature has in store for you and I wake up ready the surprise.’ The worst thing is living so far away from her two-year-old twins. They stay with her parents in Letlhakane – eight hours or more away by road. ‘It’s not easy because we stay here for about two months before we get time off, but you get to be used to it.’

That’s the main reason why she foresees a career change in her future. ‘I want to do something that will keep me home with my family.’ After all, being a good guide and parent is the highest calling there is.

* This is part of a series called Voices of Botswana, which shares the stories of some of the people we met on our Botswana adventure. You can find them all in the people category of this blog.

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