The main draw at Damaraland Camp, a Wilderness Safaris classic camp, is the focus on community along with the ability to spend quality time with desert adapted elephants. The Camp itself is owned and staffed by the local community with operations and management from Wilderness Safaris. When the community has a stake in the business, they developed a new respect of 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 entire community resulting in better education, healthcare, etc. Guests at the lodge have a unique opportunity to get to know the local culture and customs as well as 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 and one that is being studied and reproduced for other safari lodges around Africa.
See all of the photos from my visit to Damaraland Camp on my Flickr page.
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 were able to 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, klipspringer jumping along a cliffside, very shy mountain zebra, less-shy desert adapted elephants with babies amongst the herd, and a parabuthus 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…
