‘James May didn’t make it’: Jeremy Clarkson shares Botswana update after being ‘stranded’ with Grand Tour co-stars

Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond were in Africa filming their forthcoming ‘Grand Tour’ special

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond are apparently on their way out of Botswana after being “marooned” there.

Clarkson, 63, announced yesterday that the three of them were “stranded” at a luxury safari camp after British Airways cancelled their flight.

The former Top Gear trio had been in Africa filming their new Grand Tour special for Amazon Prime Video.

Since being “abandoned”, Clarkson and May, 60, have shared a number of tongue-in-cheek updates about their “desperate” situation.

“Day two and the horror continues. Two red eyed bulbul birds helping themselves to the sugar for my morning coffee,” Clarkson shared on Instagram on Wednesday (4 October) alongside a photo of his coffee tray on a wooden deck.

“James May didn’t make it I’m afraid,” Clarkson then joked alongside a photo of a wild jackal feasting on a small carcass. In a follow-up post, he added: “Correction. It was actually Richard Hammond who was turned into food.”

“James May has built a rudimentary shelter and we will cower here until BA get their act together. Pray for us,” he said in another post showing May drinking a beer in the lodge’s open-air lounge area.

Meanwhile, May tweeted: “UPDATE. Stranded Grand Tour presenters channel ancient foraging instincts to stay alive until lunch,” alongside a photo of some BBQ Beef Hula Hoops.

Finally, Clarkson shared a photo of him and May boarding a private aeroplane. “Tragic news. James made a plane out of old beer cans. And then died in it,” he wrote alongside a photo of his colleague sleeping.

A release date and details about the next instalments of The Grand Tour have been kept under wraps; however, in a previous tweet, Clarkson thanked Zimbabwe for their trip there.

“My profound thanks to the people and government of Zimbabwe for helping to make a very special Grand Tour special, very special. We absolutely adored everything about your country. Apart from the pot holes maybe,” he wrote.

In a recent interview, Clarkson said that he and his co-stars would be on “slightly scary ground” in the next specials.

“We’re doing things that we used to do when we were in our 30s and 40s,” he explained. “But now we’re in our 50s and 60s, so I’m slightly nervous about the next two.

“Let’s just say we’re going back to Africa, and this one’s a hard one. It’s hard if you’re young and fit, but I’m really not fit. I’m very fat. And I’m 63 now.”

The Prime Video show is now in its fifth series since debuting in 2016. The new project was born after Clarkson was dismissed from Top Gear in 2015 for attacking a producer.

May, Hammond, 53, and producer Andy Wilman decided to exit the show with him. The Grand Tour follows a similar format to the Top Gear specials, focused on the presenters travelling to foreign places in a specific type of vehicle to complete various challenges.