Frühstück mit Elefanten

Gesa Neitzel worked as a television editor in Berlin before deciding to retrain as a safari ranger in South Africa. Her memoir follows the twelve-month course: simple tent camps with no internet, no bathroom, no doors — and constant close encounters with elephants, lions, zebras, aardvarks, and scorpions.

Frühstück mit Elefanten recounts breathtaking wildlife encounters, walking barefoot through the savanna, and nights spent under uninterrupted starry skies, alongside the practical and often uncomfortable realities of ranger training. It is as much a story about leaving behind an established career and comfort zone as it is about the African bush itself.

The book became a bestseller in Germany and established Neitzel as a writer focused on African travel, wildlife conservation, and the diminishing number of truly wild places left on Earth.