“Howzit.”

If you have ever travelled with us, or exchanged emails with us over the years, you will probably recognise this greeting straight away.

It is a very South African word — warm, informal, and entirely without fuss. Somewhere between “hello”, “how are you?”, and “you’re welcome here.”

Over the years, we have come to realise that it also captures something about the spirit of this part of the world.

South Africa is consistently recognised among the world’s most polite and welcoming nations. We smile whenever we read these things — not because South Africans are particularly formal or proper (anyone who has spent five minutes around a South African braai (BBQ) will know that’s certainly not the case) — but because what travellers experience here is something gentler than politeness.

It’s warmth.

It’s the porter at the airport who asks where you’ve come from and genuinely waits to hear the answer.

It’s the lodge waiter who remembers how you take your coffee by the second morning.

It’s the guide who notices you’re quietly taking in the sunrise and lets the silence settle rather than filling every moment with conversation.

These things are small individually, but together they create the feeling so many travellers speak about after returning home.

The Fluitman-Haisma family meets the Compass Odyssey family in the Kruger bush

Life everywhere seems a little louder lately. Conversations feel sharper. Patience is thinner and people are sometimes quicker to react than to listen.

Which is why one of the loveliest parts of travelling through Africa is often not just the wildlife or landscapes — extraordinary as they are — but the feeling of human warmth that still exists here so naturally.

Almost every traveller who writes to us afterwards mentions the people.

Usually the lions and elephants get the first paragraph — understandably — but somewhere further down there is almost always a line that makes us stop and smile.

After many years of planning journeys, we have realised those comments are never really about service alone.

They are about how people made them feel.

Over the years, we have come to realise that our guides are often the reason a Compass Odyssey journey becomes something far more memorable than just a trip.

A beautiful lodge is wonderful. A leopard sighting unforgettable. But it is often the guide beside you while these moments unfold who quietly shapes how deeply they stay with you afterwards.

We are incredibly fortunate to work with remarkable people across Africa, and while we could fill an entire article talking about them, a few in particular come to mind.

Bill & Sandy and Bill & Ellen in the Cape Winelands with Garth

In Cape Town, Garth has been welcoming our travellers for many years now. Travellers often describe a day with him as “like spending time with a really cool professor” — deeply knowledgeable, but never in a way that feels rehearsed or overwhelming.

And, like all our guides, he reads the room beautifully.

If the wind is howling at Cape Point, plans shift. If the penguins at Boulders Beach suddenly become more interesting than a museum visit, the day simply follows that energy instead. His fellow Cape Town guides — including Craig, Jennifer and Tim — also bring that same easy generosity.

The Bailey family in Namibia with Elvis

In Namibia, Elvis greets travellers like long-awaited friends. A few days on the road with him and you quickly understand why so many of our travellers still mention him years later.

What people remember isn’t only his knowledge of Namibia’s landscapes, but the quiet attentiveness — checking everyone has enough water, adjusting the pace without making a fuss, instinctively knowing when to stop for a photograph and when to simply let the desert speak for itself.

At Victoria Falls, Mortimer and Ruth offer something even more personal.

When they guide travellers through the townships of Chinotimba and Mkhosana, you are not observing a community from the outside. You are being welcomed into their world — meeting neighbours, hearing stories, seeing daily life unfold naturally around you.

Those few hours often become one of the most unexpectedly moving parts of a journey.

Across in Botswana, Tefo somehow always seems to position the vehicle in exactly the right place at exactly the right moment — usually with a giraffe standing elegantly against the sunset.

But what people tend to remember most about Tefo isn’t actually the wildlife.

It is the laughter over lunch, the unhurried conversations, and the way he speaks about the bush as though introducing you to an old friend.

Dave and Yury in Uganda with Justus

And further north in Uganda, travellers are instantly put at ease by the genuine warmth and friendliness of Justus. Small in stature, he has “a heart as big as the country itself” and his obvious pride in being able to show his homeland to visitors is both contagious and inspiring.

Tyler, Emily and John with their gorilla trek guides in Uganda

The same spirit runs quietly through every country we send travellers to.

The Maasai guides in Kenya sharing stories passed through generations.

The Samburu warriors walking alongside guests through the northern conservancies.

The Ugandan trackers leading travellers through misty rainforest in search of mountain gorillas.

The lodge teams in Tanzania treating Christmas dinner beneath the stars as though they are hosting family in their own home.

It isn’t scripted hospitality. In many ways, it is simply how people still live out here.

We often tell first-time travellers to come for the wildlife — but to leave room to be surprised by the people.

Over many years, we have seen that happen again and again. The lions and the landscapes are unforgettable, certainly. But it is so often the human warmth — the guide, the waiter, the porter, the lodge host — that turns a wonderful trip into something travellers carry with them for the rest of their lives.

That, perhaps more than anything else, is what an African safari really gives you.