Adventure capitalist A passion for seeking out what the world has to offer, plus a daredevil streak, motivates Geoffrey Kent, founder of Abercrombie & Kent
Words: Joanne Glasbey
Call of the wild Clockwise, from left: Geoffrey Kent’s intrepid spirit spurred him on to set up safaris, such as a trek in Zambia that takes travellers close to wildlife
Geoffrey Kent has to be one of the most widely travelled people in the world. Raised in Kenya, he’s always been a nonconformist, a pioneer, even in his teens. At school, aged 16, he was the proud owner of a two-stroke motorbike. But as students weren’t allowed to have them he was asked to leave. After a ferce argument with his father, he got on his bike and headed for Nairobi. There, he bought a tarpaulin and a sleeping bag from the Salvation Army and built a frame for the bike to hold petrol on one side and water on the other. He bought biltong and a map and rode all the way to Cape Town, 3,000 miles away. It transpired he was the frst person to make the trip by motorbike. Enterprisingly, he sold his story to a South African newspaper and the payment was enough to sail back, frst-class, to Mombasa. Some years later, he was back with his family, organising safaris. The entrepreneur in him started asking questions, such as: how do you make a guest feel at home in the middle of nowhere? He soon hit on the answer: with a hot dinner and a cold drink. What they needed was a refrigerated truck so the ice wouldn’t melt and the meat wouldn’t spoil. ‘That,’ he says, ‘is how we became known for offering unexpected luxury in exotic places. It’s all about logistics, impeccable standards and a refusal to settle for second-best.’ Kent says they soon learnt the way to guarantee quality is to control as much of the end-to-end experience as possible. ‘Every single part of it is managed – nothing is left to chance.’ Kent is completely focused on providing the very best adventure-experience holidays. Since establishing Abercrombie & Kent in the early