Tailor-made safaris and travel to Southern Africa

Lex Hes is a legend around Southern Africa with a track record of superlative safaris to his credit.

As much time as possible will be spent looking specifically for Leopards and then spending time with these beautiful animals. However, we can never guarantee that Leopards will be seen and we will then spend time with the other wildlife that occurs in these areas. Lex will also be giving a slide presentation and lecture on the story of the Leopards of Londolozi and the interesting new discoveries that were made during his study.

Lex Hes was born and raised in Johannesburg. He left to join the fledgling Londolozi Game Reserve as a general "dog's body", but soon began to guide visitors around the reserve. He played an important role in developing the culture of educating and guiding, which has become the standard to which guides aspire today.

During his time at Londolozi, Lex assisted the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria with the radio monitoring of a group of young Elephants that were introduced from the Kruger National Park in 1977. In 1979 he joined the MRI for a nine-month stint on the sub-Antarctic Island of Marion where he assisted with a study of the ecology of the house mouse. His first photographic credits resulted from this trip with the publication of his photographs in Creative Photography and Minolta Mirror magazines.

Another year of guiding at Londolozi was followed by a second stint in the sub-Antarctic, this time on Amsterdam Island where Lex assisted in a study on the population dynamics of the sub-Antarctic fur seal.

On returning to Londolozi in 1982 Lex worked as a guide and wildlife manager responsible for habitat reclamation, vegetation monitoring, and animal population dynamics and management. In 1984 Lex got involved in filming, working first as a consultant and scriptwriter before becoming a full-time cameraman. In 1990 Lex returned to guiding work and his career blossomed with the publication of his first book in 1991, the highly acclaimed "Leopards of Londolozi", a study of Leopards that Lex observed and photographed for a twelve year period. This was followed shortly thereafter by the publication of a children's book Bushschool.

Lex's photographs have since been published worldwide in advertising campaigns, various magazines and books and on postcards, calendars and brochures. In 1988 he won the prestigious Agfa Awards wildlife photographic competition. Publication credits include "National Geographic World", "Geo", "Minolta Mirror", "Ranger Rick", "International Wildlife", "Natural History Magazine" and the Sierra Club and Audubon wildlife calendars.

In 1992 Lex left Londolozi to pursue an independent career in wildlife photography, writing, nature guiding work and training. He has been involved in the publication of a further 3 books: Attracting Birds to Your Garden in Southern Africa, The Complete Book of Mammals of Southern Africa and Wild South Africa.

In 1998 Lex purchased a training company called EcoTraining which specialises in the training of natural history guides. Lex has guided in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kenya and South Africa and has a record as one of the best and most popular natural history guide because of his easygoing nature and wealth of knowledge.

When he is not away travelling, Lex lives at home in Nelspruit, South Africa with his wife Lynn and twin children, Tammy and Dale.

Call on 27-11-463-7889 or email us at info@Liyatshwa.com