French luxury brand Assouline introduces its first-ever book about safari experience, African Adventures: The Greatest Safari on Earth. It showcases an extraordinary 12-day journey to four of Africa’s most iconic destinations, envisioned by ROAR AFRICA CEO and Founder Deborah Calmeyer and photographed by Aline Coquelle. Better yet, the book is Robert Redford-approved, featuring a moving testimonial from the actor who already traveled with ROAR AFRICA before.
The Greatest Safari on Earth, the trip upon which the book is based, is ROAR AFRICA’s annual Emirates Executive Private Jet safari, designed and hosted by Zimbabwe-born Calmeyer.
ROAR AFRICA: An Exclusive Travel Experience
This spectacular trip brings just 10 guests to the holy grail of Africa: Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls (one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World), the Okavango Delta in Botswana (the largest inland delta in the world), Kenya’s Great Migration, and our planet’s last wild mountain gorillas nestled deep in the misty rainforests of Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park.
Every aspect of the journey ensures that guests immerse in the vanishing wild spaces where humans remain outsiders. Instead, guests fully engage with Africa’s wilderness, wildlife and thriving culture, with ample opportunities for adrenalizing adventures while staying in the most exquisite lodges. Alongside Coquelle’s breathtaking imagery come the stories of groundbreaking African artists, musicians, sommeliers, designers and conservationists blazing a trail in the lands of their births. Calmeyer rightly says, “the fabric of any place is the people.”
And indeed, relationships were key to this making of this magnificent homage to Africa which Calmeyer describes as “a genuine and heartfelt collaboration to go deeper, dream bigger and stretch further than ever before.”
The Origins of Assouline’s African Adventures Book
Calmeyer met Parisian photographer and long-time Assouline collaborator Aline Coquelle in South Africa when she shot ROAR AFRICA’s first Women’s Empowerment Retreat in 2019. From that serendipitous meeting, Calmeyer says “a communion of visions evolved between our Women’s Empowerment journey and the Greatest Safari on Earth. Aline and I shared the dream of creating a book on Africa that truly gripped the soul, unlike anything anyone had ever seen.” After enjoying the visual dreamscape of this book, you feel that soulful connection and profound admiration for the beauty, resilience and optimism of the people and places Calmeyer loves to share with her guests.
As you delve deeper into the pages, it’s clear that wildlife conservation, culture and conscious travel are prevalent themes throughout the book and that both Calmeyer and Coquelle are passionate advocates of all three. While this particular journey, The Greatest Safari on Earth, is a portal through which Calmeyer and the ROAR AFRICA team showcase the vibrant beauty, creative heart and precious wildlife of their home continent, it’s also a desperate call to wake up to what is at stake – losing the wilderness and with it, Calmeyer says “something of ourselves.”
Next Safaris
ROAR AFRICA hosts two annual Greatest Safari on Earth trips. 2024 dates are from August 10 – 22; and August 25 – September 6. Both journeys are limited to 10 guests each and priced at $148,000 per person. To learn more, please contact welcome@roarafrica.com. ROAR AFRICA aims to minimize the environmental impact of travel, purchasing carbon credits equivalent to emissions, contributing to wildlife preservation, and investing in the communities that host their guests.
African Adventures: The Greatest Safari on Earth, comprising 300 pages with 350 illustrations and original photographs, is available on ASSOULINE at an RRP of $105.00.
