Over the past three months, Beverly and I visited almost all of our safari camps that were open. I had a chance to reflect on our offering, consider any apparent gaps, and set expectations for the year. I thought I might share those with you here as we step gingerly, or boldly rather, into 2026.01.26
I had this discussion a few days ago…“Dereck, she’s pretty much gone anyway; we may have to just shoot her.”
The back story is that a herd of elephants had apparently wandered west and run into trouble. Villagers shot them. From the evidence, the first shot struck the lead female in the shoulder, and as she turned, a few more hot bullets followed. Terribly sad.
But what happened next has set the tone for my year.
She came into the camp at Sitatunga Private Island and stood between the boutique and the main deck. She dipped her head and rested her trunk on the deck. She was in pain, exhausted, and barely standing. And yet, this elephant, who was persecuted by humans the day before, came to humans for safety. Did she understand that there are two categories of humans?
She stayed for two days, peacefully swaying and resting in camp. Staff moved around her carefully, and our guests were gently guided away from her.
This was her space now. Her place of recovery until we could get help. We did exactly that. I mobilised a team, and Caron, the vet from Elephant Havens, met us on the ground. Straight to business.
Caron and I walked in towards her just out of camp the next morning, and as I moved to the right, just about ten paces from the female, she turned and watched me, which gave Caron the perfect side angle for her dart. It went in cleanly, and the clearly badly wounded elephant moved off into the thick bush. I had to run in after her to make sure we knew where she went down, and exactly on time, she collapsed.
Our team, made up of managers and a few staff, ran in, turned her, cleaned out the wounds, applied antibiotics and antiseptics, probed and patched, and 42 minutes later she was given the reversal drug as we stepped away.
She stood and walked off, and while the painkillers masked the limp, she settled, and we flew out. Job done.
There was no question of who was paying, or even why we were doing it. The answers are simple: we did it because it was the right thing to do. We did it because our role at Great Plains is to undo or fix what mankind does wrong to animals. Maybe we did it because she asked us to!
Elephant Havens and Helicopter Horizons then called and offered to contribute, without us even asking.
But the incident made me reflect on Great Plains and our year ahead.
We will speak out when we see something wrong, and others remain silent. We will take action as well. Our core values of being kind and caring for everything around us remain and are even reinforced by this single elephant.
You can expect this same care in all your dealings with Great Plains. We will improve ourselves, reach for excellence, and prove our worth to ourselves, not based on what we are seeing in this troubled world or even next door. Ours is our game to run.
You can also expect fun and laughter because we enjoy what we do, and in that, we love to create new things, so expect expansion.
Shompole opens in Kenya mid-year. Some camps will rotate through cosmetic upgrades and changes. This camp closure rotation is something we built into our booking sheets a while ago, so our whole portfolio is always fresh. New vehicles are rolling in, and more helicopter routes and destinations. And news on further development in Uganda.
We will be moving more rhinos, maybe elephants, and our new landmark project in Zimbabwe in 2026 will be to move cheetahs into the Tembo Plains area.
We will expand our school feeding programs and eye clinics. Last month, we handed over three two-bedroom, furnished houses that we built for destitute families in Botswana. These houses are built from the crushed glass we turned into sand from wine and beer bottles. The perfect circular economy! One recipient, an older man, turned his head away and sobbed. He said he never believed he would ever sleep indoors ever again!
Our efforts in Great Plains Conservation are in securing land for wildlife and providing excellent experiences for our guests, who will partner with us in our Great Plains Foundation’s ambitions to preserve the wildlife on that land and to create profound change for the communities we partner with. Another circular economy.
What is clear now is that more and more Great Plains will be called upon to help. We are setting up the Great Plains Rescue Fund so we can step in, without hesitation, when needed. As I was calling for feedback regarding the elephant cow, the team on the ground started referring to her as ‘the Sitatunga Elephant’, then ‘Sitatunga’, and then ‘Sita’. My last update yesterday was that Sita has been spotted (rather miraculously), walking with her herd, and with the calf she had to leave behind with them when she came to us.
There is little doubt that those who want to harm, kill, destroy and hurt will always be around. Perhaps we can’t save all elephants, but that doesn’t make saving one meaningless. Perhaps we can’t solve world poverty, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make one family’s life better.
That is our promise for 2026
