Our Story

 My name is James Kydd. For nearly a decade I have had the great privilege of working at some of Southern Africa's top safari lodges as a safari guide.  I say it is a privilege because I am one of a vast number of trained wildlife guides who spend their time observing and recording the extra-ordinary events that take place in the wild places of the world, and with the animals that we encounter in these settings. 

Rangerdiaries.com will, when it goes live, be an online platform for guides around the globe to exchange their stories and knowledge and to share their photographs and wildife videos with the world.

Essentially we're building a social networking website for the global safari community.

This is your opportunity to help make this happen. We are seeking your help to develop a website that will not only provide up-to-date information on what's happening to our wildlife, but also provide an opportunity for fellow guides and interested viewers to share their experiences and encounters with wildlife.

The offshoots of such a site are endless:

For the world at large: access to a great variety of wildlife photography, real video footage and literature, all in one place. For free.

For the safari guides: it's platform to publicly exchange research, findings, questions and answers with fellow guides around the globe. It's also an opportunity for them to showcase the lodges and wilderness areas they work in.

For potential safari-goers: it's an unbiased, independent sightings diary giving an indication of the guides and operators that are likely to provide a quality wildlife experience. The site will also have a direct booking facility for the featured lodges.

For the safari lodges: indirect marketing through their guides' diaries, updates and videos.

We've been building the foundation to this site from scratch. We've already spent 4 months on the project and with your help we could get it up and running by early this year.

But in order to for this website to be all it can be we need some funding...

Where the funding will go:

Employment of a full time programmer

Constant development of a high end, complex  and powerful website, self coded

Website design

Search engine optimization

Other marketing and administration costs

Hosting: we intend to host the high quality video footage ourselves

Travel to the safari lodges to personally communicate the project with the guides and operators

Your perks!

Prize incentives for the guides

The Perks:

Choose as many as you like, of course. Know that any pledge you make comes with the knowledge that you helped make this happen. When Ranger Diaries goes live it will be free to the public, so hopefully your greatest reward will be the stories and sightings we'll be sharing with you in the near future.

NOTE: IF YOU PLEDGE PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL AND POSTAL ADDRESSES. WE'LL CONTACT YOU FOR T-SHIRT SIZES AND PRINT SELECTIONS. PERKS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AT THE END OF THE CAMPAIGN.

As an additional perk: any contributor who is thinking of doing a safari in Southern Africa is welcome to mail me directly for advice on which operators, lodges,  areas and  time of year a safari guide would recommend for your travels.

Other Ways You Can Help

Obviously if any of the perks interest you your funding will be greatly appreciated, but simply spreading the word about this campaign to as many people as you can is going to be the most likely chance of us making this website be all it can be. 

With sincerest gratitude

James and the Ranger Diaries team