We always say that a trip to Namibia is not only an adventure, but it is also offers some superb game viewing opportunites … for these guests travelling with Springbok Atlas, this was certainly true !
I wonder if the giraffe was just lost and asking for directions to the nearest waterhole though ?
Guests who choose to stay at Little Kulala, Kulala Desert Lodge and Kulala Wilderness Camp can now enjoy something completely different as an added activity - a camel ride !
3 rides are currently offered - a 10 minute ‘hop on / hop off’ ride literally for those people who want to say ‘been there / done it’ kind of thing; a short Photo Dune Ride and a longer Sundowner Ride.
On the Sundowner Ride, guests ride out to a designated spot, where a table with drinks and snacks have been set up, and after sunset the riders decide whether to go back to the camp on the camels or by vehicle. My only piece of advice … don’t have too many sundowner drinks if you choose the camel option !
Similar to the balloon rides, the camel activity is offered by an independent operator, Camels Namibia, based on the reserve.
To help support tourism in Namibia, the Namibia Tourist Board has got together a collection of lodges and Air Namibia, who for the months of June and July ONLY will be offering up to 50% off their published rates.
The collaboration is know as “Namibia: It’s Open Season” and its sole purpose is to help generate more visitors to this stunning counrty.
The Air Namibia participation in “Namibia: It’s Open Season” will apply to all major tourism routes of Frankfurt, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Please contact us now for more information !
A new single entry visa is being piloted, in preparation for visitors coming over to South Africa for the World Cup.
This will mean that people wanting to travel to not just South Africa, but the neighbouring countries too (Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland) will only need one visa to cover all countries.
Mozambique is the first country who intend introducing the single visa, known as Univisa. The visa is primarily aimed at tourists from Europe and the United States.
This week has been witness to a remarkable milestone in the 16 year history of the AfriCat Foundation, with 1,000 big cats now rescued!
The sheer determination and unshakeable belief that has allowed the foundation staff to achieve this goal is staggering. Every single one of the rescues has meant a lengthy drive or light aircraft flight, careful liaison with the owner of the land or the community (at best curious and at worst plain hostile towards the predator) and then the laborious and dangerous task of extricating the cat to sanctuary.
In many cases, that is simply the beginning of a period of rehabilitation with the aim of releasing the cat back into the wild.
So who was lucky number 1,000? He was a 3 month old leopard cub rescued along with his mother (cat no. 999) from a farm in the Grootfontein area. Fortunately both mother and cub were in excellent health and were released together into the wild just 24 hours after their rescue.
The 1,000 cat statistic represents 650 cheetahs and 350 leopards. It does not include the scores of smaller predators that find themselves in need of AfriCat’s help. Every single one of these predators would have been destroyed were the AfriCat Foundation removed as an alternative option.
If you consider the fact that 86% of these cats are released back into the wild to continue the species, the impact AfriCat has on preserving Namibia’s predator population is quite amazing. The influence that AfriCat has on the awareness and tolerance for predators is impossible to quantify but just as significant long term in the survival of these species.
The AfriCat Foundation is able to operate because of private funding and the support of their single biggest donor, Okonjima, where guests can stay one (or ideally 2) nights at either Okonjima Main Camp or Bush Camp, and participate in the many activities on offer including the tracking on foot of the rehabilitated cheetahs on the Cheetah Tracking Trail, or radio-tracking leopards from an open game viewing vehicle in the 4,000 hectare rehabilitation area; bushman trails and walking trails; and a visit the Cheetah Project, an invaluable insight into the welfare work of the Foundation.
Namibian-based Sense of Africa have announced the launch of an open-top double decker bus tour of Windhoek.
Sense of Africa have also gone into partnership with a community-based operator in the Aabadi Bushman Village. Tours will be conducted to the village, fufilling a strong demand for cultural interaction by visitors.
Anyone in the UK who was interested in the Okonjima update we posted back in December will almost certainly want to see the Cheetah Man progam tonight at 8pm on Five.
The program tells the remarkable story of Olivier Houalet who has worked for the last four years with 4 orphaned cheetahs at Namibia’s Amani Lodge, and has prepared them to be rereleased into the wild by acting as their surrogae mother. I was at Amani myself a few years ago and saw Olivier’s amazing talents for myself, and I am sure that this will make fascinating TV.
The AfriCat Foundation is a leader in the rescue and relocation of big cats (mainly cheetah and leopards) in Namibia, and probably the best way to gauge their impact is to look at their statistics for the last 13 years:
Total cats rescued 946
Total cats released 796
In reality those figures equate to thousands of hours of animal welfare, complicated rescue missions, expensive veterinary procedures and an unwavering belief that one organisation can make a difference.
Harder to quantify is the impact made on the thousands of individuals who have visited Okonjima and gained a better understanding of the real issues faced by large predators in Namibia. These include tourists who become donors or ambassadors for conservation in their home countries and Namibian school groups who return to their villages with an interest in their national wildlife treasures.
The last two school groups to be hosted at Okonjima in 2008 came from Windhoek and the Kavango Region. They stayed at the Environmental Education Centre and the primary goal of the programme is to bring about change in the national attitude to predator conservation. Most of the children had never been on a school trip before and none had seen a cheetah or leopard in the flesh. The experience of both combined was dramatic and will remain with the students for years.
Okonjima and the AfriCat foundation are leaders in the field of animal rescue and rehabilitation, and we strongly recommend that anyone visiting Namibia consider staying at Okonjima Main Camp or the luxurious Okonjima Bush Camp and to see for themselves the excellent work that is done at this inspirational place.
We are delighted to introduce the first two sections of our site which are dedicated to individual safari lodge operators.
The pages for Wilderness Safaris and &Beyond (formerly CCAfrica) list all their lodges in South Africa and Namibia, and also show where each place is. As with other listings elsewhere on our site, the properties can be listed by popularity, price, or star rating, and we will be adding their Botswana properties to these pages in early 2009.
These pages will hopefully help all the many returning guests who enjoyed their stay at one of the lodges operated by these two outstanding companies and are looking for something “the same…but different” for their next trip to the region.
Today is the fifth anniversary of Travel Butlers’ first client booking
We have come a long way since that warm and sunny spring day in Cape Town - our first client booked a few nights at Tsitsikamma Lodge on the Garden Route, and since then we have helped many thousands of people plan their safaris, honeymoons, and family holidays to Southern Africa.
We have also literally come a long way, moving the company from South Africa back to the UK in 2004. So whilst we celebrated our first booking in a beach-front bar in Camps Bay, we will be toasting our fifth anniversary in a cosy pub in Weybridge (just outside London). At least it is not raining at the moment…although it probably won’t be long before the next downpour!
Many thanks to all the people who have made this such a successful and enjoyable period for us, especially the many wonderful guests we have helped plan honeymoons, African safari holidays and other special trips for; our friends in the trade in South Africa, Namibia, and the surrounding countries; and of course the excellent people who have worked so hard with us over the years: Susan, Anneli, Bryony, and Alys.
Here’s to the next 25 years!
Tracey & Paul Campbell.
