I have hunted from south to north of Tanzania for over twelve years. I came to Africa to fulfill a dream of hunting and exploring and to live an exciting life in the wilds, not to drive around in a Land cruiser from morning till night with clients, only to stop and collect trophies like stamps. Somehow I think that I am not the only person on the planet with that sentiment.
The pressure to get so and so many animals of such and such a size, in so and so many days, is killing the fire in the belly of the one who dreams of Africa being a place where a trophy brought home comes with an exciting story. A story of distance covered, sudden challenges and surprising encounters with elephants, hippos, lions and leopards just to mention a few.
Keith Bates met Natasha last August in 2007 in Tanzania where he was accompanying his doctor friend John Looper on a Robin Hurt safari guided by Alick Roberts. Alick introduced Keith to Natasha with whom he visited for quite a while and made tentative plans to join her on a walking safari some time in the near future.
What makes Natasha stand out from the crowd is her vocation. Raised in Sweden she has been a fully licensed professional hunter in Tanzania since 1999. In between safaris she has written several popular books most of which have been published in many languages. Keith, having earned his own Professional Hunters license in South Africa many years ago, appreciated the difficulty Natasha experiences in following this career. For more info visit
www.natashaillumberg.com
BIO
1971
- Born to Danish mother Marianne Illum Berg and Danish / Swedish father Iens Illum Berg.
- One sister, Karina (now married) Stiernblad (1965)
- Brought up on family hunting estate / wildlife reserve “Eriksberg” in Blekinge, Sweden.
1989
- Finishes school from a boarding school in mid Sweden (Lundsbergs Skola).
1989-1990
- Goes to South Africa to work as a helping hand on game farms.
1991
- Tries to publish a collection of poems written in Swedish and fails.
1993
- Starts a forestry education in Denmark.
1994
- Moves to Tanzania and starts working as an apprentice professional hunter.
1999-2000
- Starts working as a fully licensed professional hunter in Tanzania.
- Writes and publishes “Floder af rød jord” (literally translated the English title
would be “Rivers of red earth” but it has not yet been sold in English).
- The book is about the journey of becoming East Africa’s only female licensed
professional hunter. It is also about what drives a hunter to pull the trigger and
what it is like to live in a tent in the middle of nowhere and fall asleep to the
sound of roaring lions. The book was written in Danish, but is published in several
languages.