You’ll Never Be a Reference Number at Anywhere In Africa Safaris

Somewhere between my bank telling me “your query is important to us” for the thirtieth time and my tax app insisting I chat to a bot named Felix, I realized something: The world has quietly turned into one large, humming helpdesk AI ticket, and as this banner image shows - AI makes mistakes too (checkout that spelling of zebra)!

Except here at Anywhere in Africa Safaris.

If you’re planning a safari with me, you’ll never be reduced to a reference number. You won’t be nudged into a portal or handed off to a chatbot. I’m delightfully old school. I scribble notes with actual ink. I pick up the phone. I remember your kids’ names, your anniversaries, your dream sightings, and your deep belief that coffee should arrive before sunrise (I’m that kinda person). I listen until I understand what Africa means to you.

And after that first conversation, I don’t vanish and send in a junior to “take it from here.” I stay with your journey until it’s real, during your travels and even afterwards where I check in to see some of the pics (if you’d like to share them). There’s only one email address and one number on this website for a reason. Everything lands with me. I choose to keep my client base small because safari planning is a relationship, not a transaction.

So if you’re just here to compare prices or plug an AI itinerary into a template, I’m probably not your person. I wish you well on your journey. But for me, a safari isn’t something you “book.” It’s something you feel long before you arrive. It becomes a story stitched to a landscape, and stories need humans. They need nuance. They need someone who hears the lift in your voice when you mention elephants, or notices the reverence when you speak about returning to a place stitched into your family history.

Bots are excellent for cancelling gym memberships at 2am. But when it comes to something as untamed and soul-altering as an African safari, you deserve a person who has walked the bush paths. Someone who has bargained affectionately with camp chefs for their recipes, shared fireside stories with guides, and knows exactly which lodge has your name on it.

And yes, although I’m the voice you hear and the person replying to your emails, I’m backed by an exceptional team. They support me in bringing every itinerary to life with the care it deserves. You may speak to me, but you feel the strength of all of us.

Because at the end of the day, we’re selling something tangible. Something human. Something untouched by automation. Travel is one of the last things that still makes you richer in ways that can’t be graphed.

And don’t just take it from me.

My Marketing Manager, Adrienne Visser, likes to say that the world loves a trend. Remember when everyone suddenly needed an app - no judgment if you were one of the business owners trying to make an app fit with your business? Or when every brand scrambled onto TikTok because it felt compulsory? Tools are great, she says, but only when they serve the experience. When it comes to travel, no algorithm and no chatbot can replace the universal need for a real human guiding you through a journey that lives in your senses, not in the cloud.

Thirty years in, I still get butterflies when I plan a trip. Real ones. No code involved. Just instinct, experience and the shared joy of helping someone meet a piece of Africa they’ll carry forever.

So while the rest of the world automates itself into a quiet blur, I’m staying exactly where I’ve always been: on the other end of the line, pen in hand, heart wide open.

Just me, Kirsty - and the incredible Anywhere in Africa team - crafting your journey the way it deserves to be crafted.