Black Pot Safaris :: About Us

Our Experience

Black Pot Safaris is privately owned and operated by husband and wife team, Patrick and Amanda Bond Gunning. They are both passionate about African wildlife, the art of safari and nature conservation. In fact, they have dedicated the past nine years of their lives to promoting the natural world.

Patrick is a fine artist, cameraman and chef. He was born in Cheshire in 1971 and educated in England. In 1999 he met his now wife, Amanda, and started travelling southern Africa with sketchbook and camera in hand. Since then he has qualified as a field guide, perfected the art of bush cooking in an array of different sized black pots and is involved in a number of film and art projects.

Amanda is a writer and wildlife photographer. She was born in London in 1967 and her early years were spent following her parents around the globe. By thirteen she had lived in England, Australia, America and Africa. When her studies were complete, Amanda set off to explore Africa on her own. From 1987 onwards she travelled - whether by combi, overland truck or private Land Rover - throughout Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa - where her family have a home. In 1999 moved to Africa permanently to pursue a serious creative career.

Together, Patrick and Amanda, have driven over 65,000 kilometers through desert and dunes, across plains, down rivers, over pans and into the delta in their Land Rovers in search of the very best wildlife and wild places that southern Africa has to offer. In the past nine years, they have slept in complete comfort under canvas for 365 nights, made/broken camp at least 160 times, cooked 300 gourmet meals on the fire in their black pots, explored over 30 game reserves and national parks, recorded 40 hours of film, shot 10,000 photographs, identified over 90 species of mammal and spotted over 400 different types of bird.