About Andrew Fentiman

Andrew C. Fentiman - Founder, President & Professional Safari Guide at Safari Consultants of London (USA)

Andrew was a Professional Safari Guide in East Africa in the late 1970s with his own safari operating company, and he has been escorting and organizing custom-planned authentic safaris throughout Africa since 1979. Thousands of clients have now experienced the magic of his personalized authentic African safaris. A loyal clientele over the past four-plus decades includes a coterie of American celebrities, European aristocracy, Arab sheikhs as well as countless discerning travelers worldwide who sought a truly special and ‘personalized’ African safari experience.

* Born in Sutton, Surrey, England in 1955, during an era of post-war hardship and food rationing. 

* Grew up on Wentworth private estate in Surrey in Southeast England, near Windsor and Ascot. 

* Attended Bigshotte Rayles private preparatory boarding school in 1962 at age 7, graduating in 1968. 

* Hitched-hiked through Europe in 1968 at age 14 with sister Carol (15), visiting 8 countries in 6 weeks; the summer that French students rioted in Paris and Soviet tanks rolled onto the streets of Prague in Czechoslovakia.

* Attended Cranleigh School in 1968, one of England's elite private boarding schools, graduating in 1973. 

* Lived in Australia for a year in 1973-4, working a wide variety of fascinating jobs; digging roads in Queensland; mining for copper at Mount Isa; working as a jackaroo on a sheep station (baling wool, herding sheep on horseback and by motorbike, harvesting lucerne grass and felling trees); a cattle-drover on a cattle ranch; a waiter at Surfer’s Paradise; a shark-spotter on a Gold Coast beach; First Mate on a shark-fishing boat out of Cairns; First Mate on a pearl lugger out of Broome; journeyed with an Aborigine for a week, learning to live off the land; survived a bush fire beyond the black stump in New South Wales; thrown several times by horses; involved in multiple up-country drinking sessions and bar fights (where 'English' Andrew never threw the first punch). 

* Attended Edinburgh University in Scotland for 4 years (1974-1978), graduating with an MA in Sociology (Honors). 

* Co-wrote with John Collee (Hotel Mumbai, Master & Commander, Happy Feet) a comedic play, Dunby & Squat, that was bought by the BBC as a pilot, then passed on by them, but later performed at Bristol Repertory Theatre in Southwest England.

* Broker/Manager of the real estate branch office in East Horsley, Surrey (U.K.) for Mann & Co., Europe’s largest (at the time) real estate company, where Andrew was one of the Top Ten salespeople in the entire company. 

* Survived a car crash on the Grande Corniche in France’s Cote d’Azur (Andrew was not the driver) with 3 college friends, breaching the stone parapet and plummeting 500 feet down the steep rocky hillside; a crash almost identical to the one that killed Princess Grace of Monaco, the former actress Grace Kelly.

* Traveled through rural China in 1981 before it opened up to the West, being often mistaken for a Mongolian money-changer. Seldom encountered by rural Chinese, they were known to be 'tall and strange-looking'.

* Co-founded and operated Sea Sports & Safaris in Kenya and also Adventure Associates, guiding clients on numerous safaris through the parks, reserves, private conservancies and remote bush country of East Africa in the late 1970s.

* Learned Swahili, trained to become a Professional Safari Guide, recruited and trained safari staff, bought safari vehicles and built safari camps.

 * Survived an Indian Ocean shipwreck of the 27-foot catamaran Tafutu Tu in 1979. Swam 10 miles to shore in shark-infested waters, suffering from third-degree gasoline burns on arms and torso. 

* Made the first ever recorded sighting in Kenya of Wilson's Storm Petrel in 1979, while shipwrecked out on the Indian Ocean. 

* Visited and befriended the hostile Watta tribe in Kenya's remote Tana River Delta. Rightly feared as expert bow-hunters with poison-tipped arrows, the Watta had not seen a white person for 16 years – nor had they ever seen a Coca Cola! 

* Befriended George Adamson of Born Free fame, visiting George and his free-roaming lions at his rugged Lion Camp in Kenya’s remote Kora Reserve.

* Met Beryl Markham, the legendary record-setting pilot, a paramour of Denys Finch-Hatton and author of West With The Night and Straight On Till Morning). She passionately loved horses, flying, Africa... and men.

* Befriended gypsy White Hunter and shameless lothario, Bunny Allen, a former hunting partner of Denys Finch-Hatton, a White Hunter on three Royal Safaris, Clark Gable’s double in the Mogambo movie action scenes and also a paramour of Ava Gardner and other Hollywood starlets who ill-advisedly ventured out on safari with Bunny.

* Tracked a wounded lion through high grass in Central African Republic; mock-charged and treed by elephant, black rhino and Cape buffalo; mock-charged by silverback gorilla, by hippos (on land and in the water) and lions (twice); stalked by hyena; chased by African wild dogs; swam in crocodile-infested rivers and lakes; drove through a bush fire in a Land Rover with a leaking gas tank; shot at by poachers with AK47s; had malaria (twice), dysentery (twice) and tropical ulcers.

* Hosted Saudi sheikhs Saleh & Mohammed bin Mahfouz of SEDCO and their retinue on a 3-week safari in remote Central African Republic (1982), meeting them at the capitol Bangui upon their arrival in C.A.R. in one of their 7 private jets.

* Founded Safari Consultants in London, England (1980) to custom-plan safaris throughout Africa for a discerning and international clientele. Sold Safari Consultants (1987) and relocated to America. Founded Safari Consultants of London (USA) in 1987 in Metairie, Louisiana, relocating in 2003 to Bonita/Estero in Southwest Florida. 

* Instrument-Rated Private Pilot (1992), flying 21 Angel Flight Missions. Rescue Scuba Diver (1994). Bathed with semi-wild Zimbabwe elephants (1994). Andrew unintentionally flew his Cessna Skylane through a Level 3 thunderstorm at Dothan, Alabama (1995). Swam in the Antarctic Ocean (1995). Almost drowned kayaking down a New Zealand waterfall (1996). Rode Route 66 from Albuquerque NM to Santa Monica, California, on a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle (2000). Well-traveled since age 14, having journeyed on all seven continents.

* 2003 to Present: Every day is magical - Andrew lives happily in picturesque and peaceful Southwest Florida along the Sunset Coast with his beautiful, clever, ever-amazing (and long-suffering) darling wife, Jacqueline: the very best experience of all… and bring Andrew more joy than any one man should ever be allowed!