Selous Bushskills

Why are we different? We believe in good “old fashion” values such as honesty, and honour, where your handshake is as good as a signed contract and where we choose obedience to the Creators commandments as a non-negotiable. We believe in family, true friendship, hard work and in teaching our children the value of self-reliance – to be able to survive and thrive in the bush without being dependent on technology and shopping malls. Where it is more important to take your boy hunting or fishing and guide him into a love of the wild outdoors and all its wild creatures than to buy him the latest video or computer game. We try to share and impart some of these values in the bush training materials we make available and trust that you will derive the same delight and sense of belonging from your bush experiences that we have been privileged to enjoy.

Cleve and Bernice Cheney have lived in the African bush for close on fourty years. Twenty of these in the Kruger National Park where Cleve worked as a trails ranger and wildlife researcher and Bernice in environmental education. They still live and work in the Park where Cleve is employed as a lecturer and trainer for the Southern African Wildlife College training field rangers, trail guides and hunters from all over Africa. Cleve has an honour’s and a master’s degree in Animal Physiology, a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology and Animal Physiology and a diploma in Wildlife Management. He is a Level 3 SKS (DA) wilderness guide, qualified firearm, bowhunting and first aid instructor and also has a gunsmithing qualification. Cleve and Bernice have four children (a boy and 3 girls) who are all married, two grandsons and a granddaughter on the way.

When offered a hunt (even for free) Cleve nowadays politely declines: “I have shed enough innocent blood in my time. Although I am 100% in support of sustainable and ethical hunting I do not want to be part of the bloodletting any longer. I do derive much satisfaction however from teaching bush skills and hunting in a way which shows respect for ones quarry and the determination by the hunter to dispatch an animal as quickly and humanely as possible with a minimum of suffering.”