WORDS by KATE BLACK (nee GOSS) | IMAGES SUPPLIED by FEATURED LODGES
We’ve joined forces with Timbuktu to bring you a safari with a twist: an epic exploration into Botswana and Zambia, visiting outstanding wilderness operations that are striving to make a difference to our planet. Each one of these safari destinations has been lauded for its admirable commitment towards a lighter environmental footprint, while managing to provide a level of luxury and service that is virtually uncompromised. Visiting these discerning destinations is one of many ways that we can contribute to preserving Africa’s precious environmental capital.
Click here to explore the full itinerary.
Sindabezi Island, part of Tongabezi Lodge. Victoria Falls. Livingstone. Zambia
From the wilds of Botswana’s vast Okavango Delta, to Zambia’s magnificent Victoria Falls, each of the lodges you’ll visit on The Eco-Conscious Escape is making a deep commitment to sustainability. Here’s how:
&Beyond Sandibe Lodge, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Set under a shady canopy of wild palms and fig trees, overlooking a shimmering channel of the Okavango Delta, the serene Sandibe Lodge treats its exquisite natural surrounds with the utmost respect.
The lodge boasts a structure designed to meet the highest standards of sustainability accreditation. Built entirely out of biodegradable materials (only wood, no cement), the elegant, pangolin-inspired form of this eco-conscious lodge has been engineered to exist in harmony with nature.
But the proof is not only in the pangolin. Sandibe also has its day-to-day operations down to a fine, low-impact art. The lodge’s electricity is generated by a photovoltaic array, supplemented by generators that run 3-4 hours a day, and its waste is treated via a biological waste water treatment plant before it is released into the environment.
It’s worth seeing for yourself that Sandibe offers not only a luxurious safari experience with exceptional wildlife viewing and warm local hospitality – but so much more.
Read more about Sandibe here.
Images courtesy of &Beyond Sandibe Okavango Safari Lodge
Wilderness Safaris Mombo Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana
Known as ‘the place of plenty,’ Mombo Camp is arguably one of the best places for big game viewing in Africa. And its custodians are making sure it stays that way.
Mombo is set in the midst of lush, expansive floodplains on the northern tip of Chief’s Island in the Okavango Delta. Its commitments to the Long Run Alliance and 4 C’s of sustainability – Community, Conservation, Commerce and Culture – are most visible in its invaluable conservation projects such as the Botswana Rhino Reintroduction Project, Elephant Ecology Study, Botswana Lion Genetics study and the Okavango large herbivore ecology project – to name a few.
The lodge itself is 100% solar powered, with electricity and hot water powered by solar panels and inverters, and its waste water is treated in an Above Ground plant before it is permitted to enter the natural environment.
Mombo’s isolated location makes for a truly immersive experience in an untouched ecosystem. While the lodge delivers pure luxury and remarkable service, it has chosen not to lose sight of the all-important end goal: to preserve and protect, with emphasis on an honest definition of ‘untouched.’
Discover more about Mombo here.
Images courtesy of Wilderness Safaris Mombo Camp
Great Plains Conservation Zarafa Camp, Selinda, Botswana
Zarafa has been described as ‘built with grace and love in honour of an incredible wilderness’ – a fitting description, we think, for a camp that has worked at reducing its environmental footprint so earnestly since the day it was built.
Zarafa is nestled elegantly on the very edge of the Zibadianja Lagoon in Botswana’s Selinda Reserve. It was constructed in 2008, its furniture made using mahogany washed up in the 2005 tsunami (commissioned as a means of giving Indonesians affected by the disaster much-needed work) and its floors created with repurposed teak railway sleepers.
This camp is one of few that has made the leap from diesel generators to clean, renewable energy generation, and all of its electricity needs are fully provided for by a set of 150 solar panels. They have a functioning biogas plant, which uses vegetable peels to produce methane and burn a camp stove for an hour a day, and the use of plastic water bottles so often characteristic of luxury establishments has been eliminated in favour of a UV filtration plant which provides reliable, clean drinking water.
All of these efforts, in tandem with the conservation efforts of its owners Dereck and Beverly Joubert, are what make Zarafa one of our favourite places in Africa.
Read more of Zarafa’s story here.
Images courtesy of Great Plains Conservation Zarafa Camp
Sindabezi Island, Victoria Falls, Zambia
The ‘most environmentally friendly property on the Zambezi’ says Fodors. Tucked away in the trees, upstream from the thundering Victoria Falls in Zambia, the remote Sindabezi Island is an eco-island retreat.
This exclusive camp, which has only five open-sided chalets overlooking the mighty Zambezi, recycles its grey water, purifying it so that it can be used to water the lodge’s organic vegetable garden. All electricity needs are met with solar power, along with paraffin lamps for back-up. Cooking is done with gas, and all kitchen and bathroom cleaning materials are biodegradable.
Sindabezi gets the bulk of its wood supplies from sustainable forests near Ndola and, to solve the bottled water conundrum, has brought in a still and sparkling water bottling plant that is saving 20 000 plastic water bottles a year!
Explore Sindabezi here.
Images courtesy of Sindabezi Island.
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