A smiling man with short hair and a beard, wearing a dark t-shirt, standing outdoors.

Philip Eichkorn

Managing Director

Although my heart is primarily attached to the Orient, Africa has not left me cold during my travels there. I am Philip Eichkorn, managing director of Take Memories – and the continent of Africa has shaped me in many different ways: the silent gorilla trekking in Rwanda, the endless expanses of the Serengeti in Tanzania, the diversity of South Africa between Cape Town and Kruger National Park, and the unique water landscapes of the Okavango Delta in Botswana. When it comes to these destinations, I gladly share my own experiences from the wilderness.

philip@takememories.com
A man wearing sunglasses, a cap, and a headset takes a selfie inside a helicopter with a lush green landscape visible below.
A safari for me is the ultimate way to slow down – clearing my head while following the simple rhythm of the wilderness.
A smiling man wearing sunglasses and a cap stands with arms crossed near a river with elephants in the background.
Two men sitting and relaxing on a boat with a mountainous landscape in the background, one wearing traditional Middle Eastern clothing and the other in casual attire with sunglasses.
A man leans against a reflective glass wall in a desert setting, with a group of people dressed in traditional desert clothing in the background near rocky formations.
A man sitting inside a circular, honeycomb-like wooden structure set in a desert landscape with rocky cliffs in the background.

How Africa surprised me

Even though the Orient is my core competence and I lost my heart there many years ago, Africa also has a fixed place in my heart. What surprised me the most about Africa is the exciting contrast: here the ancient, untouched wilderness of the Serengeti or the Okavango Delta, there young, emerging cities like Kigali, which show a completely different Africa with their energy and spirit of departure than one knows from travel clichés. These contrasts – originality and progress, silence and dynamism – continue to fascinate me and have repeatedly changed my perspective on the continent. It is exactly these experiences, the complexity of Africa beyond mere safari clichés, that I gladly bring into the work of Safari Memories.


Places that particularly fascinate me in Africa

Tanzania & Pemba

In Tanzania, I experienced exciting safaris, but my personal insider tip is the island of Pemba: more original, greener, and quieter than Zanzibar, barefoot-luxurious and only reachable through a ride through jungle-like nature. The night in the underwater bungalow of the Manta Island Resort was one of the most exciting of my life – every hour of sleep would have been wasted.

Rwanda

My most inspiring encounter was the gorilla trekking in Rwanda – when you look a gorilla in the eyes, it feels like seeing your own reflection, it goes deep. Rwanda has surprised me on many levels as well: the moving history of the country, which one feels everywhere, the warm and responsible people, and Kigali as a young, green tech hub full of bars, cafés, galleries, and young people.

Botswana

Botswana is a true gem in Africa. When you glide through the Okavango Delta while elephants drink on the shore and a lion's roar reverberates through the silence in the distance, you understand why this country is among the most impressive travel destinations on the continent for me. It is this combination of expansiveness, tranquility, and unfiltered wilderness that makes Botswana so special to me.

See where I've traveled

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