Return to the Wild with David Whyte
Welcome to your journey
Remember that you are wild!
We can learn a lot about ourselves from the wild – not least that our bodies and minds so desperately need nature. In the eighteen years since I first started ROAR AFRICA, I’ve had the immense privilege of observing the transformation that occurs in all who travel with us to Africa’s most remote and truly wild places.
At ROAR AFRICA, we call the ancient connectedness that exists between all living things, ecological intelligence. What’s more, I’ve seen how it can awaken the discovery of peace, purpose and a deep sense of self, that has come to be critical to every journey that we create. I am delighted to be co hosting – Into the Wild with David Whyte – world renowned Poet, Philosopher, Zoologist and Speaker.
Designed as a unique, potentially transformative journey at Segera Retreat – one of the most immersive and inspiring places on the planet – we see nature as a portal to not just our aesthetic and intellectual well-being but to our cognitive and spiritual satisfaction too. To bring this vision into focus, David’s words that so beautifully articulate so much of what we feel will be further enhanced by the wealth of experience in practitioners who will focus on breath, sound, touch and energy that will open the body and awaken the mind.
I look forward to delivering an experience where the demands of travel are removed. Where when you stop moving you can be deeply moved. Where I know the outer landscape will shift the inner.
Deborah Calmeyer - CEO and founder
Itinerary Overview
5 Nights in Laikipia County
Laikipia County
Nestled between glorious Mount Kenya to the east and the Great Rift Valley to the west, a stunningly diverse and seemingly magical environment, the 9,500km2 Laikipia region enjoys woodland, grasslands and fertile riverbeds where water flowing from the Aberdare Mountains long ago gave rise to the Mutara River to the north, and the Ewaso Nyiro, Suguroi and Segera Rivers to the south. A cascading waterfall flows from the Segera River and in the Valley of Kiseregai Creek, the natural Delamere Springs attract herds of elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, and important populations of Reticulated giraffe, Lelwel’s hartebeest and endangered species such as Grevy’s zebra.
Segera Retreat
Unbridled luxury, bespoke service, an extraordinary African art collection and warm authenticity define Segera, a stunning eco-property in the heart of 50,000 rewilded acres. Each thatched villa is set within an extraordinary botanical sculpture garden, exuding an airy and thoroughly contemporary safari style that delivers exceptional privacy and comfort. Sliding shade doors, spacious terraces and panoramic views connect Segera's elegant villas to the wild grasslands of the Laikipia Plateau, where large herds of plains game, reticulated giraffe, elephant and buffalo, as well as lions, leopards, cheetahs and endangered species such as Grevy's zebra, roam free.
Arrival Day
David Whyte
As a poet, philosopher and zoologist, David’s writing explores the timeless relationship between human beings and life itself. From his home in the Pacific Northwest, where rain and changeable skies remind him of the other, more distant homes from which he comes: Yorkshire, Wales and Ireland; David chronicles the close relationships that exist between landscapes and histories. He has travelled extensively and has worked as a guide in the Galapagos Islands as well as the Himalayas. His work speaks to the suffering, joy and revelation that accompanies life, and to the necessity of community and belonging to families, people and places.
Deborah Calmeyer CEO & Founder ROAR AFRICA
Zimbabwe-born, New York and Miami-based ROAR AFRICA founder and CEO Deborah Calmeyer has a vision to bring more and more African women into the tourism industry. “I’m trying to use luxury travel as a medium to help African women in tourism and, consequently, upping the conservation that goes hand in hand with improved female representation,” says Calmeyer, whose safari company ROAR AFRICA offers some of the most ultra-luxe and thoughtful trips to Africa, all the while empowering local women and supporting wildlife and environmental conservation. “I live by that African saying ‘if you educate a man, you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate a nation.’” Through her 18-year-old company, Calmeyer supports the South African College for Tourism, a women’s college, Kenya’s only all-female anti-poaching team, the tracking academy, and countless other impact-led women’s empowerment initiatives across her home continent. Deborah also provides an annual scholarship for one woman from Zimbabwe each year to train at the Girls’ College of Tourism, followed by an internship, bringing her credo, ‘if African women rise, wildlife will thrive’ to vivid life.
Day 2
- Laikipia County, Segera Retreat
Game Drives at Segera
There is no better place to witness nature's power and regenerative force at work than Segera. This once-denuded farmland, centrally positioned in the heart of the Laikipia region, is once again home to abundant populations of elephant, buffalo, lion, and leopard that roam the red and green earth, alongside endangered species like the reticulated giraffe, Lelwel's hartebeest and Grevy's zebra.
Day 3
- Laikipia County, Segera Retreat
Waterside Bush Breakfast
After an early morning game drive, witnessing the early morning rhythms and sounds of this vast, wild landscape, we'll reconnect, sharing stories of the ebb and flow of that spectacular sunrise drive over a proper bush breakfast and poetry reading by a water source.
Waterside Dinner
At Segera, the trickle and flow of water are ever-present. Here you rarely dine in the same location twice. Today's meals, with ingredients grown and foraged from the organic gardens, will take place by the sapphire surface of the expansive pool, and later outside, alongside the gentle gurgle of a specially designed water feature beneath the starry night sky.
Day 4
- Laikipia County, Segera Retreat
Canine Unit
Segera's Dog Unit has been a fantastic addition to their security team, and the dogs have maintained a 100% success tracking rate since they completed their training. The dogs are thriving under their handlers' dedicated care and even underwent their certification as a professional Police Dog Unit, making the Canine Unit an official member of the Kenyan Police Force. We will walk and breathe in step with these magnificent, sentient animals.
Visit Tree of Life Forests
Deforestation is an urgent problem that affects the plant and animal life of entire ecosystems and the wellbeing of human communities that rely upon the fertility of the land for their own prosperity. Trees are an essential source of oxygen. We fully support the ZEITZ Foundation's Tree of Life initiative, which seeks to set aside wildlife exclusion zones for growing new forest cover in riverine areas and open plains that border some of its local communities. Join us in doing all we can to spread the word about their strategic objective to plant up to 5 million new Acacia trees over the next 10 years into a rhino-shaped forest, creating the clean air so critical to all of us.
Day 5
- Laikipia County, Segera Retreat
Sunrise Bonfire
To wake early and welcome the first pink and gold streaks of dawn gathered, hot coffee in hand, around a roaring bonfire on the Segera Stardeck, with the silhouette of Mount Kenya rising in the distance is profoundly peaceful.
Game Drives at Segera
Segera is centrally positioned in the heart of Laikipia, one of Africa’s – and the world’s – most exciting safari destinations, boasting the second highest density of wildlife in Kenya. During your safari on Segera, you can expect to see herds of elephant and buffalo, predators such as lion, leopard or cheetah, plains game including multiple species of antelope and zebra, important populations of Reticulated giraffe, Lelwel’s hartebeest and sometimes our protected endangered species of Grevy’s zebra.
Fireside Chef's Table
Segera's personalized, deeply creative dining experience fires your palate with freshness. Menus focus on seasonal, homegrown ingredients thoughtfully tailored to guests' preferences, specific venue styles, and individual wine recommendations. Segera's team of professional chefs can also cater to any unusual or hypoallergenic cuisine requirements, including vegan, gluten-free, raw food, nut-free, or otherwise.
The Practitioners
Christophe Marchesseau
A licensed massage therapist, physiotherapist and osteopath, Christophe Marchesseau is an expert in biomechanics who has been developing his own know-how for 30 years in France and abroad. Reinventing the general osteopathic treatment he has developed a technique of overall health care.
Passionate about the art of massage Christophe Marchesseau uses his intuitive caring approach masterfully and in a holistic manner to help the body realign itself, calm, heal and cure. Through synergy, he enables the body to get back on track and regain its posture, conscience, intuition and expansion. He listens, understands, calms and regenerates: he returns balance to the body, to the mind and to the vital breath of life. His primary tool is his hand, training is in his heart. “The hand is essential to all care. The key to any treatment is the human being.”
Jayaramann Kapparrath
Jayaramann Kapparrath is one of our world’s leading sound specialists, with a deep focus on holistic Ayurvedic practices. His vast breadth of experience as a respected leader in the wellbeing space has taken Jayaramann to the most exclusive spa and healing destinations on the planet, including Six Senses properties across Asia. To experience the restorative properties of sound, guided by a seasoned expert against the backdrop of a pristine wild landscape takes your feelings of transformation and wellbeing to the next level. This unique experience delivers the rare opportunity for a full sensory reset as you root back into your body, falling fully in tune with the ancient rhythms of nature.
Anna Beauregard
As a certified health and wellness coach, breathwork guide, and founder of 'Breathwork Zurich’, Anna Beauregard works in person or virtually from her practice in Zurich. She also works with groups, leading breathwork workshops at retreat centers all over the world. Breathwork is a powerful tool to block out peripheral mental noise, listen to one's inner voice, lower stress hormones in the body and gain the courage to take positive action in one's life. These simple breathing techniques can help one stay focused on one's daily quest for balance, health and wellbeing. Anna will be available during the duration of the retreat to offer breathwork sessions to our guests.
Dr. Yvette de Villiers
Yvette is a Holistic Wellbeing Consultant with a PhD in Metaphysical philosophy. She has been helping people achieve and maintain a high level of holistic health and wellbeing since 2001, when she started her practice - Lightwise Wellbeing in Cape Town, South Africa. She had her first Spiritual Awakening experience in the African Bush when she was 8 years old and was identified as having the gift of healing hands at the age of 15, when she dedicated her life to this calling. She channels the high frequencies of Energy that she experiences through hands-on healing sessions that she practices at her rooms in Gardens, Cape Town. She is a member of COMENSA (Coaching and Mentorship association of South Africa) and combines hands-on healing with Mentorship in practical life-skills that promote the maintaining of an optimal, healthy state of mind and body for ultimate, sustainable wellbeing. For the past 6 years she has reawakened her childhood passion for painting the Energy that she sees and experiences in the natural world, that in turn works as a powerful and evocative channel for spiritual insight and experience.