UnCharted Africa - Ralph Bousfield Safari

An Exclusive Safari Guided

by Ralph Bousfield in The Okavango Delta and The Makgadikgadi Pans August 21 – 30, 2018 South Africa and Botswana

Frontiers International Travel

GUIDE BIO Ralph Bousfield comes from a long line of African pioneers and adventurers; he went on his first safari at the age of three. His family has guided safaris for five generations, the first guide in the family being his maternal great grandfather, Major Richard Granville Nicholson, who escorted Princess Eugenie to see her son’s grave and the site where he was killed in the Zulu war on June 1, 1879.

Ralph studied Nature Conservation and did his thesis on the Wattled Crane as an indicator species of Wetland Destruction. He furthered his studies at the International Crane Institute in Wisconsin under the famous George Archibald, who captive-bred the whooping crane back from extinction. Ralph then worked with his mother to establish Botswana’s first Wildlife Orphanage and Education Center. In 1998, Ralph co-produced and presented a sixteen part series for the Discovery Channel entitled “Uncharted Africa”, which was filmed in Botswana, Namibia, Kenya and Tanzania.

His passion for the Kalahari and the Bushmen began at a very young age as he was very lucky to have one of the greatest teachers and mentors, his father, Jack Bousfield. Growing up on safari, and hunting as a professional his whole life, his father worked with some of the greatest traditional hunters and trackers in Africa. Jack's respect for the Bushmen rubbed off on Ralph, and from a very young age, he had the good fortune to spend all his free time on safari with his father.

Uncharted Africa was founded in 1993 in honor of Ralph's legendary father, who was a pioneer and African adventurer. Uncharted Africa realizes Jack's vision of bringing travelers to the otherworldly Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in Botswana. It is one of the last truly traditional safari operations in all of Africa, and home to the famous Makgadikgadi meerkats.

Uncharted Africa's camps and safaris have a completely unique feeling, style and quality which has helped them achieve substantial recognition within the safari industry.

Awards Include: Best Mobile Safari Operator in Africa - The Safari Awards 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017 Top 10 Safari Lodges and Camps – Andrew Harper Readers Choice 2016 The Gold List – Conde Nast Traveler 2016 Top 10 Extreme Desert Vacations – Conde Nast Traveler 2015 Top 10 Most Extraordinary Places to Stay in 2014 – Lonely Planet

ITINERARY

Tuesday, August 21, 2018 Upon arrival at Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport, you will be met by our local representative who will assist you through South Africa Customs & Immigration Services and with luggage collection. You will then be assisted into the Arrivals Hall to meet your driver for the road transfer to the Saxon Boutique Hotel, Villas and Spa. Check-in at the Saxon and enjoy the rest of your day at leisure.

Accommodation based on 1 night.

Accommodation: Saxon Boutique Hotel, Villas and Spa Room : Luxury Suite Dates : Check in: August 21, 2018 Check out: August 22, 2018 Included : Accommodation on a Bed & Breakfast basis including in suite check-in, Wi-Fi internet, complimentary full mini bar with snacks, use of SPA hydro facilities, 24 hour butler service and complimentary sparkling wine on arrival.

Situated on ten acres of beautiful landscaped gardens, the Saxon Boutique Hotel, Villas and Spa is a haven of tranquility and a welcome escape from busy city life. The interior of the hotel is an elegant fusion of contemporary design with traditional African flare. Aside from relaxing by the pool, working out in the gym or enjoying one of the many spa treatments; guests can explore the best of Johannesburg. The Saxon has a heated lap pool, a massive swimming pool, a gym, steam rooms and the Saxon Spa and Studio. The restaurant offers an extensive health menu. The Terrace is the central meeting point of the Saxon. From dawn to dusk it is the perfect setting for relaxation and taking in the abundant birdlife while enjoying a refreshing cup of tea, coffee or a cocktail.

Luxury Suites are airy and spacious. The open plan layout includes a lounge and dining area, a business desk, complimentary Wi-Fi, international multi-plugs and iPod docking station. There is a king size bed dressed with the world's finest linens, a pillow menu, luxurious robe and slippers, and ample fresh white towels. The generous separate bathroom has an oversized bath and a walk-in shower. Latticed shutters open to views over the gardens and city skyline or the pool terrace.

The Saxon’s culinary philosophy is to use only the freshest seasonal ingredients. They believe in using the crispest, most authentic and flavorful produce around. The extensive rooftop garden is a hidden treasure that serves as a constant source of inspiration for the Saxon chefs in creating innovative dishes. At sunrise, the chefs visit the vegetable garden to handpick the day’s ingredients which will inspire the seasonal menus. It is an established part of their daily routine to spend some time tending to the garden and doing forward planning. They take great care in selecting the freshest fruit, herbs and vegetables. Combining passion, expertise and the latest global gourmet food trends, guests are taken on an experiential journey to explore the emotive culinary relationships between food and wine. Deep within the heart of the Saxon lay the wine cellars. The sommeliers spend a great deal of their time in the cellars, testing and tasting the wide range of world-class South African wines as well as classic international vintages to ensure that the perfect wine is paired with every meal.

The spa is an oasis nestled in its own unique surroundings. Cascading water features, a signature fireplace and influences of copper and Himalayan salts set the backdrop for a restful journey. This metropolitan spa offers holistic disciplines of a spa journey, giving guests time to rediscover a healthy and discerning lifestyle. Water plays a key role in creating a tranquil atmosphere, from the hydro facilities to the sound of the flowing water on the upper level as you step into this garden of calm.

Website: http://www.saxon.co.za/

Wednesday, August 22, 2018 After breakfast this morning, the group will be privately transferred by road to Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport and provided with VIP airport assistance to check-in for the commercial flight to Maun (commercial flight costs not included).

Upon arrival at Maun International Airport, and after clearing Botswana Customs and Immigration Services, an Uncharted Africa representative will assist you to check-in for the scheduled light aircraft transfer to Xakanaxa airstrip.

Upon arrival at Xakanaxa airstrip, a camp representative will greet you at the airstrip and transfer you a short distance to camp. Ralph Bousfield will meet you in camp.

Accommodation based on 3 nights.

Accommodation: Moremi Luxury Mobile Expedition Camp Room : Tented Room Dates : Check in : August 22, 2018 Check out: August 25, 2018 Included : Accommodation on a Full Board basis including all meals, local drinks (premium imported beverages excluded), park fees, limited laundry service, expert guiding and activities.

The unsurpassed wildlife diversity that Botswana has to offer is best experienced on the move and a Mobile Expedition provides a more adventurous and authentic alternative to the usual permanent camps. With the flexibility to move camp into the most remote areas, personal tastes and preferences offering a wider variety of experiences than a permanent camp can be accommodated.

Mobile safari expeditions hold true to the ideals of Jack Bousfield’s original operations in East Africa. Traditional and spacious tents appointed with 1920’s luxury and style blend bygone comfort with rugged panache. Polished copper water jugs, paraffin lamps, pure white cotton sheets and feather bedding ensure an authentic safari experience – real adventure in unreal style!

Each meal is a special experience. Imagine lunch under the sheltering, shady bough of an acacia tree or dinner beneath the astral blaze of the Milky Way. An essential part of any successful expedition, meals are beautifully prepared and presented by a skilled kitchen team. Tables decked with crisp white damask and silver are set against the rugged austerity of the African bush.

Uncharted Africa Safari Co. is renowned for fresh tastes and original interpretations of classic dishes. Three course meals under the stars include such offerings as ostrich piccata, rare roast Botswana beef, delectable fresh herb salads and light, and rich chocolate tarts. Afternoon Tea is an

indulgent affair with treats like banana caramel layer cakes and crisp pecan shortbread. All bread is baked daily on the coals in trunk ovens and full cooked English breakfasts are served every day.

A private expedition allows you to immerse yourself completely in the incredible spectacles the delta has to offer. If you choose to watch lions hunting or spend the day at a busy waterhole; the decision is yours. Observe elephants from the safety of our boats as they wash and feed on the roots of aquatic plants. Picnic and siesta in the arms of a giant baobab tree and spend the afternoon seeking out hyena dens. Uncharted deploys only the most experienced and well-qualified guides. They are qualified as a Biologist-Guide and must have a minimum of two years guiding experience in the Kalahari allowing us to give our guests a holistic understanding of this magical and pristine wilderness environment.

Website: www.unchartedafrica.com

Thursday – Friday, August 23 – 24, 2018 Enjoy two full days of private guiding and activities in the Moremi Game Reserve. The Moremi Game Reserve is remote, wild and starkly beautiful. Travel along the maze of channels, stopping to admire the fantastic bird life. Learn about the ecology of the waters and look at the important components of the ecosystems. Walking, game drives and boat trips fade seamlessly into one enthralling blur.

Saturday, August 25, 2018 At the appropriate time today, you will be transferred to Xakanaxa airstrip for the scheduled charter flight to Tsigaro airstrip. Upon arrival at Tsigaro airstrip, an Uncharted Africa representative will greet you at the airstrip and transfer you a short distance to camp.

Accommodation based on 1 night.

Accommodation: San Camp Room : Tented Room Dates : Check in : August 25, 2018 Check out: August 26, 2018 Included : Accommodation on a Full Board basis including all meals, local drinks (premium imported beverages excluded), park fees, laundry, expert guiding and activities.

San Camp is situated on the edge of the vast and mysterious Makgadikgadi Salt Pans, the remnant of an extinct super lake that once covered most of Botswana. Turn around 360° and nothing crosses the eye but the bowl of the sky. This is God's own minimalism. Classic white tents stand majestically on the shore of an enormous sparkling salt pan, each sheltered by a cluster of stately desert palms. Pared down safari elegance with minimal ecological impact is combined with spectacular vistas.

San Camp runs almost entirely on solar energy, thus dramatically reducing the use of fossil fuels.

Expert guiding, incredibly friendly habituated meerkats, unique desert species, old-world safari styling and superb cuisine all come together to create an experience that is completely different to any other. Facilities include a magnificent mess tent with a small natural history museum and library, a tea tent decorated with cushions to provide a sheltering sanctuary, and a tented yoga pavilion. San Camp has a reputation for delicious, fresh and original menus. Plated meals are elegantly presented and indulgent, decadent teas are served daily.

Venturing far into the center of the Makgadikgadi on 4wd quad bikes, you are able to explore remote archaeological sites, periodically discovering never before documented fossil beds of extinct giant zebra and hippo. The fact that you can travel across the pans at great speed and still arrive nowhere only underlines the pan’s immensity. The Kalahari Desert is its own universe. It is the only place where guests are virtually guaranteed to see the rare and elusive brown hyena and be able to walk through the Kalahari with a gang of habituated, but wild meerkats!

A small group of Zu/’hoasi Bushmen will join you on morning walks and game drives. Offering a window into the past, the Bushmen teach us how they have survived in this harshest of environments, using ancient knowledge of plants, animal behavior and survival skills. The cunning tricks and survival struggles of the feisty inhabitants of the Makgadikgadi are not certainly without drama, and here the emphasis is on observing the intricacies of a truly unique ecosystem.

Sunday, August 26, 2018 Today you will transfer from San Camp to the Lost Island of the Baobabs via quad bike (2 guests per bike). The ride is approximately 75 miles.

Accommodation based on 2 nights.

Accommodation: Lost Island of the Baobabs Room : Bedroll under the stars Dates : Check in : August 26, 2018 Check out: August 28, 2018 Included : Accommodation on a Full Board basis including all meals, local drinks (premium imported beverages excluded), park fees, limited laundry service, expert guiding and activities.

Enjoy a unique opportunity to combine San Camp with an epic quad bike journey across the pans.

Sleep out under the stars for two nights among the boulders and baobabs. One of the most graphically beautiful spots in Botswana; it is full of intriguing detail, such as stone walls and Bushman beads. It is also close to what is probably the biggest, greater and lesser flamingo breeding site in the world.

The best way to get across the saltpan is to fly like the kites and the crows, otherwise it is a quad bike. This is low-impact trespass. Quads carry bedrolls, food and water, and drive in convoy fashion. Here you lose contact with time, space and direction. You hum along, travelling without perceptively moving, while all the power and conceit of commerce and position evaporate, the delicate network of friends and plans and diaries, all the human hierarchy of achievement and aspiration ebb away. As the sun begins to drop, a 2.7 billion year old granite mound rises unexpectedly out of the vast and empty salt pan flatness of Sowa Pan.

The camp staff will get there first; boiling a cauldron of water bubbles for your shower suspended from a tree. The dining table is set and the drinks tray, with Beefeater, and Georgian fobs on bottle labels, stands waiting. A mobile drinks chest is set up by the trusty team and guests are able to lean back in their safari chairs while toasting their toes around the roaring camp fire. Dinners are three course culinary extravaganzas, laid out on white damask table linen, decked with fine glassware and bone-handled silver. An embarrassment of riches in this extraordinary and desolate domain!

The next two days are spent exploring the fascinating and surreal surrounding area.

Monday – Tuesday, August 27 – 28, 2018 Enjoy two full days of activities in the Makgadikgadi Pans. The Makgadikgadi was once a great inland sea. The remaining salt pans are the size of Switzerland, a fact that is difficult for many to comprehend. Around the edges are incongruous dunes of seashells, thousands of miles from any coast. There is the clock-stopping frisson of picking up something that was last touched 10,000 years ago by a man who looked over the horizon and could not imagine that chipping flint would lead to jumbo jets and skyscrapers. There are tiny beads, glass and stone and ostrich shell that the Bushmen used as decoration for thousands of years. Some are Phoenician and Roman and even Chinese; beads were currency for salt and the salt cakes that glisten like icing sugar on the pan and have been traded by the Bushmen for millennia. 30,000 flamingos fledge in the vicinity when water is good and although the mud mound nests are deserted at the times of the year when we are able to visit Kubu, they are still an extraordinary sight.

After two days of luxurious desolation, guests mount their quad bikes to journey back to San Camp for an evening of surreally contrasting sumptuous relaxation! The most important aspect of these trips is that it gives you a chance to truly understand the Makgadikgadi Pans. There is the sense of true adventure and active involvement. The Kalahari is a place of extremes and metaphor and allegory. It shuffles your deck, rearranges the cerebral furniture, messes up your priorities...it is the perfect unrest cure!

Wednesday, August 29, 2018 Today you will transfer via quad bike from the Lost Island of the Baobabs back to San Camp.

Accommodation based on 1 night.

Accommodation: San Camp Room : Tented Room Dates : Check in: August 29, 2018 Check out: August 30, 2018 Included : Accommodation on a Full Board basis including all meals, local drinks (premium imported beverages excluded), park fees, laundry, expert guiding and activities.

Thursday, August 30, 2018 At the appropriate time today, you will be transferred to Tsigaro airstrip for the scheduled light aircraft transfer back to Maun. Arrive at Maun International Airport and proceed to check-in for the commercial flight to Johannesburg, South Africa (commercial flight costs not included).

Upon arrival at Johannesburg O.R. Tambo International Airport, please proceed to check-in for your onward commercial flight back to the United States (commercial flight costs not included).

Safari Cost: $18,500.00 per person *Based on double occupancy with a group size of 4 – 8 guests.

General Inclusions: 1 night at the Saxon Hotel in a Luxury Villa Suite on a Bed & Breakfast basis, Johannesburg airport-hotel transfers, VIP airport assistance as noted, 3 nights Moremi Mobile expedition on a fully inclusive basis with all meals and local drinks, 5 nights San Camp/Lost Island Expedition on a fully inclusive basis with all meals and local drinks, activities as outlined, guide fees for Ralph Bousfield, scheduled light aircraft transfers, limited laundry services within the Luxury Tented Mobile Camp and at the Lost Island Expedition.

General Exclusions: Lunch and dinner costs at the Saxon Hotel (if required), commercial flight costs (USA-Johannesburg, Johannesburg-Maun, Maun-Johannesburg, Johannesburg-USA), all items of personal nature, gratuities, any additional services not mentioned above, (such as premium brand drinks, additional private vehicles if required, and travel insurance).

Please note all photos are courtesy of Uncharted Africa Safari Co and the Saxon Boutique Hotel.

For more information on this safari please contact your Frontiers Destination Specialists.

Kathy Schulz Africa Destination Specialist kschulz@frontierstravel.com Toll-Free: 1-800-245-1950

Eileen Datt Africa Destination Specialist edatt@frontierstravel.com Toll-Free: 1-800-245-1950