Uncharted Outposts: Phil 'Bwana' Osborne

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PHIL QUOTES:

"The shortest distance between two people is a Smile"

Every person Phil ever met knows the smile and the warm hand shake (two handed) while he looked you straight in the eyes and told you what a pleasure it was to meet you - and he meant it every time!

"It's about helping people, about getting the Africans more involved"

When Phil started taking people on safari in Africa in the sixties he strongly felt the African need to be more involved, to be the guides, to own there own safari camps and for them to be one of the main educational attributions of an African safari. He spend his time and money achieving this goal.

In Memoriam
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Phil 'Bwana' Osborne (1929-2007)

Founder of Bush Homes of East Africa & Uncharted Outposts

Philip Osborne - the founder of our company was one of the greatest visionaries of our time. His belief was one of “truth in travel.” He always preferred to support smaller more intimate and conservation-minded people and properties. He looked remarkably like Ernest Hemingway and his vision was one so great that just about every other company out there today has imitated our unique and original brand – The Bush Homes of East Africa. Phil was a great philanthropist and it is with great pride we continue that work today – many of the projects he helped start through his generous funding are thriving today and come under our TUSK USA umbrella which Chip and Sandy established almost 8 years ago. Phil’s story is one of great friendships that will continue to span many decades not only with our partners in Africa, Australia and the Americas but with the strength of his relationships with his clients, all of whom became lifelong friends.

How It All Began

In 1960 he began Osborne Travel, and both the company and Phil became renowned for creating hand-crafted student tours to Europe. Throughout his life Phil remained friends with many of his young tour leaders and the students who went on those early adventures. In 1990 he created Bush Homes of Africa, a specialty travel company that offered clients the rare opportunity of staying on private ranches throughout the continent. Phil made the golden era of safari accessible. He later expanded his itineraries to include Australia and parts of South America, but Africa always remained his "first" love. Phil made more than 100 trips there, the last being the summer of 2006.

His extraordinary personality and energy are legendary, and his friends around the world came to call him "Bwana Phil," an endearing swahili title of respect and love. His horizons, however, went beyond adventure and travel. Phil was exquisitely involved in philanthropy, both in his home community of Atlanta and his beloved Africa. His generosity and advocacy ran the gamut, everything from The Nature Conservancy, Georgia Shakespeare Festival and The Council for Battered Women, to the African Wildlife Foundation, CARE, African Fund for Endangered Wildlife and the Cheetah Conservancy.

We have lost someone very special, all of us at Uncharted Outposts miss "Bwana Phil" deeply.