IT’S SWELTERING ON THE PAFURI LANDING STRIP. In the distance, an African fish eagle calls while a kudu munches on a dry tuft of bush grass. Almost in biting distance, a bask of crocodiles lie in the late morning sun, menacingly half submerged. All is as it should be in the Kruger National Park until the buzz of a Cessna Grand Caravan closes in on the rough and rutted gravel strip. The plane touches down in a cloud of orange dust and rattles its way over to a line of shiny new Ineos Grenadiers. The engine cuts, the door flips down and a familiar looking, streaky 6’4” figure emerges. Familiar, that is, if you have even a passing interest in business, football, Formula One, sailing, cycling or cars. “Ah, you’ve brought the new Quartermaster with you, I see – I’ll have to drive it,” says Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
What brings Britain’s richest man – worth approx £29bn as of May 2023 – to the South African bush? Well, alongside presiding over the sprawling Ineos business empire he founded 25 years ago, Ratcliffe has an insatiable appetite for adventure. Together, we’ll be travelling from Pafuri in the Kruger National Park through Botswana to the Okavango delta.
