Privately guided Namibia holiday

Planet

Admission fees to the Big Cat rehabilitation project ensures that the valuable work undertaken by the charitable foundation is supported. The foundation has rehabilitated over 80% of cats back into the wild since its work began.

Our visits to the rock art sites in Damaraland are lead by local guides, and fees paid for our tours are reinvested directly back into the local community.

We stay at eco-friendly, locally owned and managed lodges which have been built using local materials and which blend into their environments. We recommend eco-friendly activities for optional activities, use local guides in rural areas and aim to minimise our impact on all the destinations we visit.

Our guide on this trip is local, his wildlife spotting skills and knowledge of the flora and fauna will make for an informative and exciting experience. His knowledge of local cultures will provide a valuable insight when passing through different tribal areas, and guests will be fully briefed about local customs and traditions before visiting local villages.

We use accommodation that is small and locally owned, ensuring that the costs are retained in the local economy. We travel in small groups to avoid overwhelming local communities and to give our guests an overall better experience. Small group travel means we can get off the beaten track and use small lodges and guesthouses that tend to be more homely and personable.

Our local ground handler is particularly supportive of local conservation projects, and the company has its own trust, funded by a percentage of its revenue. The aim of the trust is to give tangible assistance to African people and their environment in their efforts to achieve economic viability without doing harm to natural habitats and wildlife, thus utilizing both on a sustainable basis for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

We have forged a link with the Child Hope Initiatives Project in Windhoek, which provides basic numeracy and literacy teaching programme to 50 orphans. Guests are invited to bring items to donate to the project such as stationery, basic English books, toys and deflated footballs or other sports equipment. A visit to the project is possible as part of the city tour on day 1. We are a wholly online company, and do not produce paper brochures.

People

Torra Conservancy, Damaraland. Wilderness Safaris and the Torra community in Damaraland, with the community acting as landlord, formed a partnership that resulted in the 352 000-hectare (869 000-acre) conservancy being proclaimed. Desert-adapted wildlife flourishes here and poaching, once rife, has stopped.
Community leaders are now the major decision makers in how the reserve is resourced and community members make up a good proportion of the ranger service that fights against poachers. Having this accountability ensures that the community understand the value of diversity and reap the rewards from the number of visitors who stay on the reserve.

At Ongava, the lodges work with and employ members of the local community, not just for employment in the lodges, but in the reserve to allow local communities members to understand their environment. Closed ecosystems like Ongava have boundaries that impose artificial limits on the available resources.

To this end, a dedicated environmental team - made up of members of the local community - manage the day-to-day running of the reserve, ensuring its long-term biological diversity and sustainability.

Cultural Sensitivity
They have in partnership with the local community developed a Responsible Code of Visitor Behaviour that is shared with guests before they go into the community for village visits so as to protect traditional cultures and minimize the impacts of tourism on living culture. They also provide guests with an Insider's Guide to Responsible Safaris which includes important cultural aspects.