Our Host: Peter and Team

Peter, Kenya born of Danish parents, grew up on a coffee farm where a love of wide open spaces started and where he learned bush craft from his African companions.

He was educated in Kenya before studying natural sciences in England. He then married and returned to Kenya with his wife Aletta.

With ambitions to be involved in Tourism he was employed briefly managing tented camps. One such camp belonging to Root and Leakey Safaris, contracted to provide Oilfield exploration teams, and it was this quirk of fate that determined many years to come.  Ethiopia became a new theatre of exploration and the chance to visit this country was exciting, and hungry for adventure, Peter and his Kenyan camp and camp crew drove to a remote and mysterious country little known to outsiders and with a King, Haile Selassie, “The Lion of Judah.” When revolution put an end to Peter’s brief sojourn in Ethiopia the die was cast for the next two decades of remote area logistical support and camp services in Sudan, East and West Africa, Yemen and the Arabian Gulf states . The circle was closed by returning to his roots and finally a migration to Tanzania to co-found a safari company, Hoopoe Safaris, which now operates in East Africa.

In the past two decades Hoopoe has been one of the pioneers in Tanzania community-based Tourism and increasingly involved in Conservation particularly advocacy during the industrial scale poaching of elephant. He has a passion for wildlife photography, running and mountain biking and cooking.

Training of the Hoopoe Safari guides and all that is good guiding is an essential and enjoyable part of Peter’s time.  Peter has a broad knowledge and shares his experiences not only as a teacher but as one who has experienced much and faced many challenges on a fast-changing East African stage.

An evening in front of the camp fire is a great time to share his stories and relax or to have animal behaviour on safari explained as part of the rich tapestry of interlinking and interdependent cycles of life on the savannas.

It is fitting that Hoopoe safaris has a bon mot, “A traveler without Knowledge is like a bird without wings”!