We had experiences with people from both Linyanti bushcamp and with Linyanti Ebony, as had an experience in Linyanti bushcamp, in which the other guests were violently expressing racial stereotypes and tropes and I voiced opposition to this kind of talk. The problem was, James (007), a guide who has a lot of attention on the Internet started this banter. He was using our dinner to complain about an entire ethic group and I found this offensive.

This felt to us to be a traumatic experience and we planned to leave the next day. We would have left if it were not for Maps, one of the camp managers. She was kind and understanding. In fact, we had a number of staff people approach us and tell us they appreciated that we spoke out against the racism that we had experienced at dinner the night before. We also really found Cassie to be really great. And we got to go out on a drive with Joe, who is fantastic and probably the best guide.

Be careful of this place, as James (007) manages the Trip Advisor comments. He is, in my experience, a very aggressive person who hold grudges. He wants to be the best guide and pulls for that, but will do whatever it takes for good reviews. We felt endangered at this camp, as we are Jewish, and the others on Safari with us seemed frighteningly racist and xenophobic. The women running this place are fantastic, but I would not return here, as I would not feel safe.

We were very excited to be going to Linyanti bush camp, after our very positive experience at our first place where we did for our African safari. When we arrived, we were picked up by our guide James “007”, who drove us from the airstrip to the base camp. James oriented us to the camp, and it seemed like he was trying to promote himself; he told us that he received the “007” mantra from guests, as he was the best guide they had ever encountered in Africa. After checking in, we joined two other couples with our guide Chris in our range rover. We had requested that we be seated in the front of the range rover, as we were having some back discomfort from flying in a bush plane, as well as sitting in a range rover from our previous bush camp. The other couples in our range rover refused to move; they told us that they had worked out a system where seating in the range rover would depend on the time of the day-nevertheless, we wound up seated in the back. From the beginning, there was tension with the other couples in the range rover, which we did not understand at first, but as described below, we suspect was from underlying anti-semitism, as we are Jewish.

After spending the afternoon in the range rover with the other couples and Chris (who was not great), returned us to the bush camp, and in a couple of hours, we joined everyone else for dinner. For those who have not done Safari before, dinner is a meal where everyone is seated around a communal table. You typically meet people from around the world who have also been on safari, and it is very pleasant to discuss one’s experience on Safari, as well as to meet people from other countries. During our dinner, James told us a story in which a certain ethnic group of people who were in his range rover tried to get a selfie when they came upon a group of lions. The discussion in the table quickly degenerated into a racist and xenophobic diatribe on how this group of people can be “difficult”. A couple from Australia said that they would need their Koala bears to “sharpen their claws” to deal with this group of people. After hearing this statement, my wife said “ I don’t feel comfortable with this discussion, painting a wide swath against a group of people”. We were immediately attacked by the people at our table (who were all Caucasian), and were told that are views were wrong. My wife then turned to the helicopter pilot and asked him “You’re a millennial; what do you think about all of this?”. He paused for a second and responded “I think this group of people can be difficult”. After trying to tell everyone that talking about other races of people (in their absence) was awkward at best, we were told that “You are the only ones who have a problem with this; you should leave”. After hearing this, we left dinner and returned to our tent.

All of this was a very different experience from our previous camp that we stayed at in Botswana. We felt like dinner in our previous camp was very enjoyable, where we could meet people from around the world, and discuss our opinions, even if there were differences. Coming from San Francisco, we are used to meeting people from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

We considered the next day leaving Linyanti bush camp altogether. After taking with Maps the manager (who was fantastic), as well as Cassie, we decided to stay. Given the friction with everyone who was staying in the bush camp, Maps had us do a safari excursion with a different guide and family who was traveling. We had a wonderful safari excursion with Joe (would highly recommend him to everyone) the following afternoon. We decided to stay in our tent that night for dinner, as we were worried about antagonizing the guests we had met the previous night.

For those who are not familiar with doing safari in Botswana, departures are carefully coordinated with the bush camps, and everyone at your location knows who is leaving that day, as well as the pickup times from the camps to go the airstrips. Since our pickup time to go to the airstrip was at 9 AM, it was understood that we would not be getting up early to do the morning safari excursion (which would normally be at 5:30 AM). That being said, we were very surprised to hear a knock on our door at 5:30 AM by Chris to awaken us for a morning Safari drive. There was no way that this was a mistake; he was only taking one group on a drive that morning, and he would have to go out of his way to awaken us at our tent, as we were in a different location within the bush camp.

After having breakfast, we were taken to the airstrip by our driver Ask, who was very kind and knowledgable. We happened to be in the same range rover as one of the couples who chastised us the first night, which was awkward at best, but uneventful during the drive. While we were waiting for our plane to arrive at the airstrip, both Chris and James “007” arrived in their range rovers, along with their passengers (which were other couples from the first night who had asked us to leave). James said “Hi” to me, and did not even acknowledge my wife. That both Chris and James showed up at the airstrip was very unusual; they would have to have gone out of their way to do this.

Even though the women working at Linyanti bush camp were great, our overall experience of this site was quite negative. Both James and Chris’s actions were quite abhorrent, and if they were working in the US, both of them would be fired based on their behavior. I cannot recommend this bush camp if you are traveling to Botswana.