In continuation of our blog series designed to bring your attention to the best of the eco-friendly game lodges in Africa and the neighbouring Indian Ocean Islands, we bring you Desert Rhino Camp.
Desert Rhino Camp works in collaboration with the Save the Rhinos Trust (SRT) to ensure the conservation of this delicate and vulnerable population of desert-adapted black rhinos. Such incredible work has been carried out thus far, protecting the 90% of the total of only 1200 precious individuals in Africa. The north western Kunene region of Namibia is the keeper of Africa’s largest free roaming population of the black rhino – an enormous honour and a responsibility. STR takes proud and capable ownership of this responsibility, providing anti-poaching patrols and support, while researchers collect vital ecological data from this rare rhino subspecies.
A crucial component of ensuring the survival of the black rhino is teaching and training both locals and tourists, governments and tour operators to conserve this species and proactively encourage the growth of its population. Desert Rhino Camp offers this unique opportunity to its guests in the northern Namib Desert. Tracking the endangered black rhino on foot under the guidance of well trained, informative and passionate guides is a sensational experience not to be missed. Enormous, lumbering desert-adapted elephants are another magnificent feature to look forward to on game drives, as are the incredibly special handful of lions whose survival has been fought hard for by the Desert Lion Conservation project in Damaraland.
Topping off a truly remarkable and memorable Namibian desert experience is the superior quality of one’s accommodation at Desert Rhino Camp, which barely skims the delicate surface of this natural landscape in its light-as-air canvas and wood construction. Eight meru-style tents sleep a total of 16 guests, raised above the sandy floor, typically dolloped with euphorbias and welwitschias. Large window openings let in the Skeleton Coast breeze and mountain backdrops during the warm days, to be drawn shut at night when guests cosy up under crisp linens and hot water bottles. Ensuite bathrooms are simply constructed behind canvas curtains, yet offer luxury and privacy with a shower view of the scenic outdoors.
A central tent offers guests at Desert Rhino Camp an alternative resting area with a long wooden deck, comfortable leather sofas, romantic lanterns in the evenings and a dining room that brings everyone together. A convivial firepit in front of the open-sided lapa presents a truly spectacular display of Namibia’s starry heavens, an eyeful of bright night sky, not to be forgotten. Dinners are enjoyed around a large dining table on the wooden deck that offers an endless vision of the deserted horizon as dusk darkens to night.
Bucket showers, hot water on demand, and a structure that merely tickles the surface of the land; Desert Rhino Camp inspires with its dedication to the environment. An offer to track rare and revered black desert rhinos and take part in the crucial conservation movement is only complemented by the peaceful splendour offered at this Damaraland tented camp.
