My First Safari is the culmination of 25 years of African safari experience
by Marianne Birrell and her network of tourism associates. The company was
created in 2001 with the aim of providing useful advice, interesting
recommendations and efficient reservations
to travellers wishing to visit
one or more of Africa's wild areas and game reserves. Our speciality is the Kruger National Park
and the private safari lodges within the greater Kruger Park.
Marianne's background lies in corporate communications and journalism,
which she practised in South Africa and Switzerland. She and husband Bruce
returned home to South Africa in 1992 when the end of apartheid was
announced, changing direction away from corporate
life and settling in the
Cape winelands.
Here they built and managed their
Cape country hotel,
Willowbrook Lodge, on the Lourens River
in Somerset West.
They answered the call of the wild in 2000 and moved
to a private nature
reserve in the Kruger Park region called Eden, the perfect base from
which
to research the many private safari lodges in South Africa. This was a
return to eden for Marianne, who worked at Sabi Sabi in the early 80s
when the South African safari industry was in its pioneer days.
Photo: Leopard photo by Bruce Birrell at Idube Game Lodge, Sabi Sand Reserve.
