Wild Heart, 
Open Flame

The Okavango is one of the world’s last truly wild places — a landscape shaped by water and wildlife. Here, mornings unfold on quiet channels, days move with the rhythm of the Delta, and evenings are spent gathered around the flames.

This is not a culinary journey in the conventional sense. It is a rare invitation to experience fire in Africa, where flame first drew people together. To dine, listen, gather and remember what it feels like to be fully present.

Conceived and designed by Deborah Calmeyer and ROAR AFRICA, and brought to life with Francis Mallmann’s elemental mastery of flame, Wild Heart, Open Flame brings two powerful philosophies into conversation.

For Mallmann, fire is not simply a method of cooking. It is a discipline of patience, appetite, restraint and attention.

For Calmeyer, Africa’s wild places have always held the power to restore and recalibrate the human spirit. Through ROAR AFRICA, she creates journeys that allow guests not simply to see Africa, but to feel it through beauty, stillness, instinct, access and impeccable design.

Together, they have created something far more rare than a meal in the wild: an experience that returns fire to its original context. Africa, wilderness, gathering and the human need for connection.

Over five nights at Xigera Safari Lodge in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, Wild Heart, Open Flame unfolds through open-fire cooking, time on the water, wildlife encounters, long outdoor meals and evenings gathered around the coals.

Every detail is shaped with precision, discretion and care, allowing something this rare to feel effortless.

Five Nights at Xigera
Stay at Xigera Safari Lodge, set within Botswana’s Moremi Game Reserve, where water, wilderness, design and deep seclusion create the setting for the journey.

Fire in Africa
Gather around open flame in the place where humankind first learned to cook, share food and come together. This is the heart of the experience: Francis Mallmann cooking in Africa, within a journey designed by Deborah Calmeyer and ROAR AFRICA.

At the Fire with Francis
Join Francis Mallmann for an intimate cooking experience rooted in patience, instinct, conversation and craft. The journey culminates in a celebratory feast prepared over a sculptural iron fire installation forged by internationally acclaimed blacksmith Conrad Hicks — a powerful expression of food, fire and the ancient ritual of gathering.

The Wild Table
Dine in the wilderness as the sun sets over the Delta, where flame, landscape, silence and appetite shape an evening that could only happen here.

Water, Wildlife and Stillness
Move through the Okavango by land and water, with game drives, boating, mokoro excursions and guided walks revealing the Delta through its wildlife, birdlife, waterlilies and extraordinary quiet.