Our Team

Amanda Marks

Managing Director

Self confessed Africa-lover, but keen on all new travel experiences, Amanda is passionate about getting to know different cultures. She highlights a dugout canoe trip in Zaire (now DRC) as one of her most memorable trips, camping with villagers on the riverbank. She believes that trying new things is the key to exciting travel. She says that allowing yourself to go outside of your normal comfort zone is invaluable, “That is when travel becomes an eye-opening and thrilling experience.” Still on her wish-list of travel experiences is Ethiopia and the baies of Gabon, but never without her homoeopathic first aid kit which she sees as an invaluable travel accessory.  
In 2003 Amanda (along with husband Guy) founded and became a trustee of The Tribes Foundation, a registered UK charity.
In 2006 Amanda was judged by The Times to be one of the "Top 50 People to Know in Travel".  In 2010 she was delighted to be named as a Goodwill Tourism Ambassador for Uganda.

2010 was a busy year, but Amanda managed to make time to visit Uganda (March) and Marrakech (November).

Guy Marks

Director

Guy first caught the travel bug (amongst other things) when he drove from the UK to Cape Town in the early 80’s. His early career saw him involved in agriculture and culminated with a stint in the city as a commodity broker before he threw in the towel and made travel his life.
What followed was a an extraordinary few years as a tour leader in India, the Middle East and South America before settling down to become a travel writer and photographer. This new career further expanded his knowledge and view of the world as he researched for books and travel articles in magazines and the broadsheet newspapers. He wrote for the likes of Geographical Magazine and was a regular in the Financial Times travel pages.
Since founding Tribes with Amanda he has continued to travel and made good use of his business knowledge and travel experience.
Guy has always had a keen interest in the developing world, from its food production to its economy, its natural wonders and rich cultural heritage, its people and their plight. Guy is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and is still an associate member of The British Guild of Travel Writers.

Recent travels include: The Masai Mara in Kenya, India's wildlife destinations, Peru and Ecuador.

Hannah Savege

Africa Travel Co-ordinator

Hannah has been part of the Africa team since August 2008 where she continues to build on her already extensive knowledge of a continent that she is truly passionate about. Hannah's love of Africa started in her early teens after a family holiday to Kenya. Throughout the rest of high school she continued to dream of the 'land of smiling faces' and participated in many fundraising events aimed at giving the people of Africa a better deal.
At university she chose to study Third World Development which took her to the West of the continent for the first time and taught her a lesson in the realities of Africa which no amount of reading books can teach. That was a huge turning point, and after graduation (and many temp jobs and umming and arring!) Hannah packed up and flew out to Nairobi where she helped to build a school in Kenya's stunning Rift Valley. In between the construction work she did some teaching, and lots of laughing!
That was it, Africa had now captured Hannah's mind and heart and after the school was finished she jumped on an overland truck and drove down east and southern Africa to Cape Town, arriving 3 months later and having visited more than 10 countries en route. One of the many highlights of the trip had to be trekking through the Rwandan jungle to has a face to face encounter with the awe-inspiring mountain gorillas. 

Since she has been with Tribes, Hannah has visited Southern Tanzania, Zanzibar, & Botswana.

Paul Cook

Travel Co-ordinator

Being a former architect, Paul takes an avid interest in the buildings of the Middle East, South America and Asia, particularly the minarets. Consequently his overland journey along the ‘silk road’ through Asia proved to be particularly memorable, especially when he was literally thrown out of China by two burly border guards. He believes in the motto of never being afraid to try new things, even yak butter.

Specialist in: Ecuador, Peru, India, Nepal, Jordan, Morocco
Recent travels include: Peru, Galapagos Islands, India’s Golden Triangle, Sri Lanka & Greek islands.

Polly Nightingale

Office Administrator

As Tribes admin Guru, Polly is the 'flight control deck' in the office - with her desk of executive toys and colourful spreadsheets, she keeps us all organised and helps everyone ... basically Polly runs the world!  A keen traveller herself, she has been to some far flung parts of the globe and has many years experience in the travel business, mainly in sales support. In her spare time she enjoys walking and being entertained by her two mad cats, walnut and blue tack!

Recent travels include: Walking in the Canary Isles

Russell Morling

Online Marketing Manager

Russell joined the Tribes team in November 2011, bringing with him more than 8 years' experience in digital marketing and website development, including 2-and-a-half years working for an adventure travel company.

Russell has a keen eye for analytics and is constantly testing new ideas in order to provide Tribes website visitors with the best possible experience. He has travelled widely and is always keen to expand his horizons further.

Tracy Edwards

Africa Travel Co-ordinator

Tracy joined the team in October 2009. Having been born and spent her youth in South Africa, the draw of the animals, the people and wilds of Africa have always run through her veins. After studying Leisure & Tourism at university, she began her travel career as a travel agent, which she loved.  She visited many places including Canada, China, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Mexico, Guatemala, and Botswana, with a few European visits for good measure!  In the summer of 2006, destiny had her returning to South Africa to live with her (now) husband, and the opportunity to specialise her travel career in Africa.  Working for an Africa specialist in South Africa awakened her passion for this wonderful continent, and she has never looked back! Over the past two years she has also been writing campaign letters for the Born Free Foundation, a charity close to her heart, and one day she plans to climb Kilimanjaro in aid of this. 

Recent travels include: Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Tunisia and Kenya.