Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elizabeth Bruce. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Elizabeth , appreciate you joining us today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

I used to work in Africa for 7 years (5 years in South Africa and 2 years in the Congo)
I was a professional field guide (safari guide) and I would take mainly walking safaris through wilderness areas of big 5 national parks. My job was to keep guests safe from potentially dangerous animals but also to be the link between what was going on in the ecosystem around us and explaining and educating that back through to the guests.
I learnt very early on the importance of the natural world and the impact it had on the guests. Almost as if a long lost connection to the environment was awoken.

I learnt that nature had a chaotic, complex and sometimes violent beauty about it, yet it some how made not only me, but my guests feel tranquil and at peace.

Although my job was at that time a dream come true and that I felt like I was doing exactly what I was born to do it obviously came with its challenges. Being thousands of kilometres from home and the people I loved was extremely difficult at times despite being around new friends that quickly became part of my family and people I will always hold close to my heart.

Working and living around wild animals, particularly Elephants, buffalo, loins, leopards and rhinos while being a life changing and thrilling experience can at times be potentially extremely dangerous.

Even though we are extensively trained to deal with encounters with these animals and treat them with the utmost respect, I was leading a walk one day and was attacked by a Cape buffalo. I owe my life to the back up guide that day (Hutch) who also so happened to be a dear friend of mine as it could’ve gone terribly wrong and I was extremely close to being killed.
I was airlifted to Johannesburg hospital and treated for a collapsed lung and 7 broken ribs. I was insanely lucky to have survived and feel that way ever since. It’s a job were the risk of things like that happening is low but the consequences are really high if you do have a dangerous encounter.
This taught me that the only thing in life that matters are the people you love and everything else is a bonus.

After my wild African adventure, I wanted my life to still be immersed in nature. I spent 3 months working in the flinders rangers as a guide with a mentor of mine from South Africa then moved to Barringella (west of Nowra NSW) to manage my dad’s land. We are making it a haven for native wildlife, encouraging them by planting bird / insect attracting plants and not culling or treating kangaroos and wombats as pests. I’m wanting to be self sufficient with meat so I have a small herd of sheep of 19 that I will slowly grow. I’m very co tips not to over graze the land as I’m also very interested in regenerative farming. So looking towards things like strip grazing, increasing biodiversity,
Composting and manure application.
Also trying to be environmentally friendly in ways such as recycling as much as we can, being very conscious of our use of rain water, solar and planting trees to help with erosion.
Making the farm more biodiverse and having some of our land in and old growth forest is also extremely beneficial to the guests we have coming through here to stay at our air bb places. As it’s like an eco retreat for them.

Elizabeth , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My names Elizabeth, but I’m known by many as Biff.
I’ve always been extremely passionate about wildlife since I was a very small child and that has only blossomed into a deep love of wilderness areas and the working of ecosystems.

While I was still in school, my mother found an overseas course that ended up changing my life forever. It was in South Africa and part of it in Botswana through a training provider called Eco Training.
It was a year long course that trained you to become a professional field guide (safari guide).
We learned skills like navigation, dealing with guests, approaching dangerous game, operating high powered rifles, mammals, reptiles, birds, insects, trees, clouds, grass and much more.
I loved it so much and thrived being around other students that felt the same as me about animals and had a passion for nature. Some of them are still my friends today.
After the course I went on to do more training and became qualified as walking guide in big 5 reserves. I was very proud of myself as it is not an easy course to pass and I was only 19 and was leading guests on walks through the wilderness in kruger national park. I was then chosen by one of my instructors to work in a rustic trails camp in northern Kruger national park which will probably forever be my golden years.
7 years of guiding really shaped me to be resilient, responsible (as we were entrusted with people’s lives keeping them safe in areas with dangerous animals) being able to be away from home for years at a time, living in arguably the most remote part of the world -in this case the Congo jungle in western central Africa, reading people physical abilities to decide were and what they were capable of, being positive when you’re tired or dealing with difficult clients and working/ concentrating and making quick decisions when you are under extreme pressure- for eg being charged by an Elephant while keeping calm and your guests safe.
One of my guests was a journalist and wrote an article about me that got into the South African Sunday times which I was very pleased with.
I am really thankful and proud of that
Wonderful experience I got to have, also extremely thankful to the people along the way that helped me achieve these goals.

I’m also passionate about art and love to draw, mainly pen and ink but also watercolour and paints. My artworks are very influenced by the natural world and my experience with it. I’m very keen to start selling my work but at the moment building a portfolio. My artwork has however been published on the front cover of a book, I have designed 3 tattoos and also had a few private commissions.

Now with managing my father’s land and turning it into a small scale farm through the sheep I’m building my skills up and learning skills on butchering.
Also running the air BB I’m passionate about growing my businesses.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I was a guide in northern Kruger I had an unlucky encounter with an African Cape Buffalo that charged into me and almost killed me. I was caught ontop of his head and he was thrashing me around trying to rip me open with his massive horns.
We legally carried rifles whilst on guided walks in Kruger purely for a last line of defence incase we as the guide or our guests were in danger or being attacked
I was unlucky as the buffalo was so close to me to begin with that I had no time to shoot and then when he hit me my rifle was torn from my hands almost ripping my finger off.
My back up guide Hutch saved my life by unfortunately having to put down the animal whilst I was still ontop of its head.
My injuries were bad but not catastrophic, however I needed urgent medical attention and was airlifted to Johannesburg hospital with a collapsed lung and 7 broken ribs also a badly lorn open finger. I spent 9 days in ICU and was back out in the African bush 2 weeks later.
There was no blame or resentment towards the buffalo bull and I was upset he had to be shot. In that instant it was either me or him.
It has given me some prospective and I know the people you love are the only important thing.

I feel resilient as I didn’t let this stop me from doing what I loved. I understood that sometimes animals feel threatened by us and unfortunately the buffalo didn’t hear us coming and we didn’t see him which lead to surprise the animal which is when situations can take a turn for the worst.
We are trained to learn that animals are scared of us as we have hunted them for thousands of years and are predators to them. That buffalo felt threatened and was protecting itself. It made me resilient to other challenges In my life just also by putting things into prospective.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

A place to call home with Sam Fryer has been very helpful and inspiring

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