Raised by Zimbabwe

Josh did not grow up near the bush. He grew up inside it. At four weeks old he was carried into a tent at Makalolo, in Hwange, with nothing but canvas between him and whatever moved in the dark. His mother fed him while cobras lay curled under the camp bed. To the Elliotts, that was simply a night in camp.

His first language was Ndebele. He learned it from Mandlovu, the woman who raised him at Sikumi Tree Lodge, his father’s camp in Hwange, carrying him on her back while she worked. When Josh wrote about her in June 2026, more than 150,000 people read it. That story is here.

He learned to track from people who had lived beside wildlife for generations, and he could read an animal's intentions long before he could read a sentence. He was born in 1984, four years after the flag went up, into a country that has tested everyone who stayed. He stayed.

In 2012 he took on the family lodge in the Matobo Hills and spent more than a decade making it one of the most respected properties in the region. But travellers kept asking for the same thing: not one destination, but Zimbabwe done properly. Victoria Falls to Mana Pools, Hwange to the Eastern Highlands, joined into a single journey by someone who knows every road between them. ZimTravellers is the answer. A family’s lifetime of knowledge, put at your disposal.