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Mareli Van Der Berg

I, Mareli van der Berg, come from Cullinan a small mine ‘dorpie’ (town) just outside Pretoria. After working in a few different industries, I embarked on a career in Guiding. Once completing my FGASA Level 1 through Limpopo Field-Guiding Academy, I had a two months’ internship at Kalahari Trails Meerkat Sanctuary, where I fell in love with the place and the meerkats. When the offer came to work at Kalahari Trails full time, I  grabbed this opportunity and became the Guide of Kalahari Trails.

I have been working here since July 2020 and was last person that Prof Anne Rasa taught on a one-to-one basis before she passed away.  With this invaluable knowledge, and the Prof’s ideology, I have been showing our guests, the beauty and magic of the Kalahari Desert from history, plants and tracks, from venomous scorpions to meerkats…especially the meerkats.

I like to provide people with a new perspective on the Kalahari, when I explain and show them the wonders of the dunes, I realise that there is still so much to learn. I have never stopped studying and even though I have just done my FGASA Level 3, I feel there is still so much more for me to discover.