[imagesource: Roar Africa]

A breakfast spread is the very least I expect if I’m paying more than two bar for a 12-day safari.

That’s right – you’re looking at around R200 000 a day if you want to join what high-end travel company Roar Africa has dubbed ‘The Greatest Safari On Earth’.

It’s also reported by The Telegraph as being the world’s most expensive but no bother at all because its first 2023 departure is already sold out.

Guests will leave from Dubai on a customised Emirates A319 with beds, personal minibars, and other luxurious modifications:

Next year’s itinerary is a tick list of all the safari world’s must-dos in one extravagant go. First up is two nights on the Zimbabwe side of Victoria Falls, then a stint in Botswana’s Okavango Delta followed by three nights in Kenya’s Maasai Mara and a final stay spotting gorillas and golden monkeys in the forests of Rwanda.

The first ‘Greatest Safari On Earth’ trip took place this year and one Danish woman was so wowed she booked for each of the next three years.

You’ll notice there’s quite a bit of travel involved – five airports in total – and it’s here that Roar Africa’s founder Deborah Calmeyer says the company really earns its chops:

“They’re looking for somebody who can provide efficiency, float them through airports and deal with luggage. When there’s a headache, they don’t want to know about it.”

…Incidents she’s dealt with secretly include a lack of a truck to take luggage off the plane in Nairobi and an absence of ice in Zimbabwe with which to chill the vintage Dom Perignon. What does she do in such situations? “Serve red wine with a smile,” she says.

Oh, the inhumanity of it all, watching the Dommy P sit idly by as you are forced to imbibe red wine.

Roar Africa’s website features a testimonial from none other than Robert Redford, who said he “cannot put into words how fantastic our first time in South Africa and Botswana was”.

He went on to add, “We almost feel it was a dream.”

Judging by the Instagram videos, it does look heavenly, for those who like their holidays ultra-luxurious:

 

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A post shared by ROAR AFRICA | Luxury African Safaris (@roarafrica)

 

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A post shared by ROAR AFRICA | Luxury African Safaris (@roarafrica)

Transfers within countries are carried out via chopper and add-ons such as a doctor greeting an under-the-weather guest when they arrive at a lodge are part and parcel of the deal.

All in all, Calmeyer says it’s a high-pressure environment:

“The day I get to Dubai and I have ten faces looking at me going ‘OK lady, let’s see what you’ve got’. It’s terrible! I’ve had the captain on the Emirates plane begging me to do a round-the-world one and I think, ‘Are you kidding me? Do you know how hard it is to run something at this level?’”

I must have missed the part where she was forced to set up an exclusive safari costing just a tick under R200 000 per day.

Cost aside, because that’s a little out of the price range, I’ll stick with planning my own trips and roughing it with the plebs.

[source:telegraph]