At home in the wild – guiding travellers through Kenya and Tanzania since 2005
About Caroline
From Amsterdam to Africa
She had a good life in Amsterdam. A career in advertising, a future mapped out, a city that never sleeps. But Africa was calling — and she had only one dream: counting elephants.
In 2005 Caroline left everything behind and never looked back. First Kenya, then the Serengeti, and since 2012 she has been living in Stone Town, Zanzibar. What started as a dream became a life — raw, wild, and completely her own.
The only official Dutch female safari guide in East Africa
With over two decades of experience guiding in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Madagascar, Caroline holds official safari guide certificates — earned in the field, not behind a desk.
But don’t expect a safari focused only on the big five. Caroline takes you deeper. She shows you the connection between the soil, the trees, the insects, the birds and the mammals. She will make you fall in love with a dung beetle. She will stop the car for a sound — because in the bush, what you hear is just as important as what you see.
She reads footprints and animal droppings like others read a book. A single track in the sand tells her not just which animal passed — but when, how fast, and whether it was afraid.
A safari with Caroline is not a checklist. It is a story — told by the bush itself, if you know how to listen.
Tales from Zanzibar
One island. Three hundred and sixty five stories. Caroline writes about the Zanzibar that tourists rarely see — the intricately carved wooden doors of Stone Town, the kitchens where centuries of Arab, Indian and African influences meet in one pot, the old men sitting on the baraza watching life go by. Women rolling chapatis in the early morning light. Men shouting on the market, selling fruits so fresh they still smell of the earth. Architecture that tells the story of a thousand years of trade, culture and religion.
Zanzibar in 365 Stories is not a travel guide. These are the stories of daily life on an island unlike any other.
She also writes articles for magazines and a monthly column for the Dutch magazine Oog voor Afrika.
Your safari, the way it should be
A safari is not just a holiday. It is an experience that changes the way you see the world. Busara Tours — founded together with Salma, born and raised on Zanzibar — takes you off the beaten track and into the real Africa. Not the Africa of postcards, but the Africa of dusty roads, unexpected encounters, and moments you will never forget.
Busara means ‘knowledge’ in Kiswahili. And that is exactly what we bring.
Life through my lens
Years of living alongside Africa’s most extraordinary wildlife have given Caroline an eye that few photographers have. She does not visit these places. She lives them.
