As another year draws to a close, I find myself, as ever, looking north and south across this continent I call home and feeling both sobered and deeply hopeful. The world feels so loud and all-consuming right now, yet every time I step into Africa’s wild spaces and into the company of our guests and partners, I am reminded why we do this work: to rewild souls, to protect what is irreplaceable and to widen the circle of care.


The journey you experienced before to Africa was only one chapter. Each time you return, the continent reveals something new: the Serengeti during the migration, Cape Town in autumn, the power of Victoria Falls. Places you thought you knew shift with season and perspective. Your first journey was an introduction; the next is a reacquaintance with a continent that doesn’t reveal itself all at once.

Wild Heart, Open Flame brings two forms of mastery together in the wild heart of Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Francis Mallmann has devoted his life to understanding fire: flame, smoke, iron, wood, salt, char, patience and time. Deborah Calmeyer has spent hers understanding Africa: its silences, its rhythms, its wild places and the precise decisions that turn access into meaning. Conceived and designed by ROAR AFRICA, this rare five-night journey at Xigera Safari Lodge invites guests to experience Francis cooking with fire in Africa, where the ancient instinct to gather first began. Surrounded by water, wildlife and the vast intelligence of the Delta, days unfold with game drives, mokoro excursions, long lunches and evenings around the flame, where smoke, salt, heat and time transform every meal.

Join us on The Greatest Safari on Earth, 2027. This exquisite journey explores four of Africa’s iconic wildlife destinations - Zimbabwe, Botswana, Kenya and Rwanda - across 12 days in unbridled luxury aboard the A319 Emirates Executive Private Jet. Led by our hand-picked guides, there is no trip in the world like this one!