
Having spent the past 20 years guiding and travelling extensively in both Africa and South America, Richard is passionate about taking these extraordinary places to his many return guests and first time visitors. He relishes time spent designing unique itineraries and experiences and is steadfast in maintaining the precedent that no Anderson Expeditions itinerary has been travelled more than once!
When not in the AE office Richard can be found exploring new and exciting destinations to add to the Anderson Expeditions portfolio, or bringing a remote part of Africa or South America alive to his guests – canoeing in the Okavango Delta, tekking through the Andes to Machu Picchu, watching the great migration in the Serengeti or sharing a moment with a mountain gorilla in Rwanda.
A life in travel began for Gareth after university. Following wanderings around Europe, he took himself off to the Sabi Sands near the Kruger National Park in South Africa and began work as a guide at Londolozi Private Game Reserve.
It was whilst guiding at Londolozi that he excelled at the “gentle game drive” and where he realised the value of a fully immersive safari experience. Gareth left Londolozi after a number of years of guiding to follow his other passion and work in the wine cellars of the world. Following harvest jobs in South Africa, France and California, he qualified as a winemaker with a degree in oenology and spent time working in the world of wine. An ever-present interest in conservation saw him transition to work for the World Wide Fund for Nature on a wine industry based conservation initiative.
Travel remained a passion for Gareth, with explorations of Africa, Europe and the Americas continuing throughout, until a return to the business of safari and travel happened after the birth of his daughter. Gareth works with Richard and Sandra to manage the travel needs of Anderson Expedition guests and tells all the stories of travel across a variety of media platforms. When not travelling and doing all of the above, he is to be found walking his dogs on the mountains around Cape Town.
Sandra was born and raised in Switzerland where she developed a love for mountains, snow, chocolate and cheese. After completing her studies 20 years ago, she set out to explore Africa. Travelling in Cameroon, working on eclipse festivals in Zambia, diving in Malawi, kayaking in Mozambique and boat building in Cape Town marked the start of a new life for Sandra. Madagascar came next, here Sandra spent a decade developing a rainforest lodge on the Masoala peninsula where her love for sea kayaking and ocean life flourished. Paddling, snorkelling and exploring the fantastic forests kept her busy until a new forest called. The Congo. Here she developed and opened camps in Odzala National park. Opening operations and camps in challenging remote environments became a speciality and since then she has done similar projects in Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania.
Always the adventurer, one of her life defining experiences was taking a year off to explore the coasts and Archipelagos of Panama. This epic adventure covered more than 3000km of unsupported kayaking in stunningly remote waters. Time in the neotropics gave her time to indulge her love of forests. Birding and wildlife watching in the Ecuadorian Amazon and Andean cloud forests are cherished memories.
Sandra is passionate about nature and people. She has unrivalled energy and a sunny attitude to life that shines through in everything she does. Her extensive operations and travel and ecotourism experience are put to great use at Anderson Expeditions where she manages and creates unique wildlife and wilderness experiences. Sandra now lives in a nature reserve close to Kruger National Park with her two crazy dogs and husband and best friend Fraser. When not working on expedition business she spends her time enjoying living in nature, camping, hiking, gardening and training her dogs to be a little less crazy.