Wildwatch - Biography

Name: Daryl Dell

Country: South Africa

Profile:

Daryl lived the majority of his life on a farm in the Great Karoo which he still considers home, his family bred Thoroughbred Racehorses, Sheep and Cattle, it was in this remote part of Southern Africa that his passion as a naturalist was fostered. From a young age he enjoyed exploring all aspects of nature, fauna and flora alike.

Together with his brothers and their Xhosa friends, they used to wake up some mornings help milk the cows and then spend hours walking in the mountains, riverbeds and Karoo scrub, fascinated by what was around them. They enjoyed things like searching for birds nests, eggs and snakes. Daryl tells stories of when he was a child, and he and his family would go and see how full the dams and the rivers were after heavy rains and how they had great fun splashing around in the mud and catching frogs. It is because of this that he absolutely loves the rain and being on game drives during thunderstorms gives him more energy.

At night his father used to take them out with the spotlight to look for the many amazing nocturnal animals that occurred there, and when returning home they used to lie on the lawn and stare at the millions of stars.

After school whilst studying for a bachelor of commerce degree in Management he coached a variety of sports to primary school children and worked in the horse racing industry. He learned of CCAfrica, now &Beyond, towards the end of his studies and did not waste much time getting back to the wild.

Daryl has worked as a guide in Phinda Private Game Reserve since 2002, a place he loves for its unrivalled diversity and beauty. He started in the &Beyond mentorship programme in 2004, mentoring and training rangers and has been fortunate enough to have spent time training rangers in East Africa as well. In the same year he qualified as a grade 2 walker, which allowed him to start tracking animals such as Buffalo, Rhinoceros as well as Elephant with guests. After being Assistant Head Ranger for a year, he was appointed as Head Ranger at Phinda Mountain Lodge and Phinda Rock Lodge in 2006.

He was later promoted as a Specialist Guide and enjoys sharing this beautiful world with his guests and traveling wherever they may wish to explore. Daryl is an avid learner of the natural wonders of the world and has explored a lot of Africa, including Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique as well as Europe. He enjoys finding rare Fauna and Flora as well as photographing them and the unusual behaviour that is often seen.

Daryl says that the diversity in Phinda and &Beyond allows him to continue to discover and learn new things everyday. He guides varied Specialist Safari’s from Birding, Walking, Family, Bush Skills, 7 Wonders, Leopard, Photographic and Tailor Made and during a course of a couple days he often sees animals like Suni and Red Squirrels to the larger Black and White Rhino, Cheetah, Leopard, Lion and Buffalo as well as rare and amazing birds, Humpback Whales, Reef Sharks, Dolphins, Whale Sharks and Loggerhead and Leatherback Turtles laying their eggs! He often quotes “Where else on Earth can one see all of this?”