The main draw at Damaraland Camp, a Wilderness Safaris classic camp, is the focus on the community and the ability to spend quality time with desert-adapted elephants. The Camp is owned and staffed by the local community, and its operations and management are from Wilderness Safaris. When the community has a stake in the business, they develop a new respect for their area’s wildlife, and poaching decreases significantly. The lodge provides employment opportunities for the community, and the investment uplifts the quality of life for the community as a whole, resulting in better education, healthcare, etc. Guests at the lodge have a unique opportunity to get to know the local culture and customs and see modern life in action, where these rural areas must learn to coexist with the wildlife in a harsh and often unforgiving environment. This makes for a fascinating relationship that is being studied and reproduced for other safari lodges around Africa.
In addition to the incredibly warm and friendly staff at Damaraland Camp, the other highlight during my stay was a gorgeous bush breakfast served on a hilltop with sunrise views and a hot meal cooked over an open fire. I loved the waitstaff at every meal – they had personality and spunk, and they could back that up with attentive service – well done!
Game-viewing is not the main priority here, but I did have some interesting sightings during my time at Damaraland, including a bat-eared fox chasing a spotted hyena, a klipspringer jumping along a cliffside, a very shy mountain zebra, less-shy desert-adapted elephants with babies amongst the herd and an arbutus scorpion!
And, of course, as is the case everywhere in Namibia, the landscapes are breathtaking. They seem to change from one mile to the next as you’re out exploring and throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky.
The next stop on my itinerary was Ongava Tented Camp next to Etosha National Park…
