Be warned, it is not intended for people who want to waltz into the jungle with a host of porters carrying all their gear, lighting all their fires, cooking all their food. Unlike most companies, we do not take you on jungle trails that have been cut so wide that you could almost drive a car along them, nor do we take you to luxury jungle lodges with high-speed internet connections and luxury spa treatments. Our trips are completely different, deliberately so. They are designed for people who want fun, adventure and are willing to push themselves.

The idea behind Bushmasters is to bring back the true adventurous spirit for those who are game for the challenge.

This includes:

* Unique experiences and a story to dine out on for life.
* Tough, remote and true adventures.
* Return to age-old explorer spirit.
* The client does the work, not some hired hand.
* Conservation of the environment.

We also aim to provide a rewarding future for young Guyanese people in the guiding industry. Many young people go off to the mines or to work in Brazil as there is little to offer them at home. Bushmasters aims to run training courses for these young people every year and also to finance young guides on our trips.

On a trip you may see the two senior guides, but also an additional younger guide who is being mentored by the others and funded by Bushmasters to take part in these trips and learn all the weird, strange things that us foreigners bring to the party. It is very much a fair partnership between the local people and Bushmasters.

Bushmasters is also keen to support conservation and community development within Guyana. Man is destroying many of the world?s amazing places and it is only man that can save them.

Unfortunately in this day and age that means giving everything a financial value. Rarely do people do the right thing, just because it is the right thing, especially big companies. To them the jungle is a commodity; the lumber, medicinal products, animals, clearing the land for soya crops and so on all have a massive value. Each year something like $26 billion is made from the jungle in the private sector.

Conservation projects have only a few hundred million dollars to protect it each year; there is no way they are going to win in the long run with odds like this.

Therefore, the jungle needs a value, which will keep the profit seekers happy without chopping it down. It needs to be sustainable. There are sustainable logging practices, animal extraction, fishing projects and so on around the world. They are not the norm as yet and their effectiveness is open to debate, however Bushmasters is interested in one aspect, the benefits from sound eco-tourism. Without the jungle there will be no tourism of this kind, so we have to keep it intact, and help the local people develop in the manner they want to.

Too many areas have far too many tourists, where local ways of life have been destroyed, and an amazing array of social ills imported and often the wildlife scared into hiding or worse. Bushmasters is working with some of these local communities, and adheres to sound environmental and sustainable tourism practices.