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SELECTION
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et’s get back to the basics, let’s create camps with character.
And that is exactly what Natural Selection is doing. They offer a unique portfolio of owner-operated camps in southern Africa, from the west coast of Namibia to the south coast of South Africa and the east coast of Mozambique. All of the founders of the new company have their roots in Africa and started as guides in the bush decades ago. Dave van Smeerdijk and Colin Bell are old friends devoted to the simple premise that safari tourism, when done right, can be an incredibly powerful tool for conservation and protecting Africa’s last great wild places. During several years spent in Namibia, Dave worked with local communities, government and conservation organisations to help protect areas and critical wildlife habitats through eco-tourism projects such as the ones that Natural Selection Namibia is involved in now. With Ally Karaerua as Managing Director and Louis Nortjé as Director of Operations, the company has acquired concessions in the Nkasa Rupara National Park in Namibia’s Zambezi Region (previously Caprivi) from the Namibian Government, to build a tented safari camp from across Botswana’s Linyanti Reserve.
This camp will be accessed from Botswana and will form part of a circuit with three other camps, Sable Alley, Hyena and Skybeds in Botswana’s Okavango area and at the Natural Selection camps in the Makgadikgadi Pans. In Kaokoveld, Natural Selection has entered into an agreement with the Sesfontein Conservancy to build the 6-tent Hoanib Valley Camp at the confluence of the Hoanib and Obias rivers, which will open its door on the 1st May 2018. They are also involved in the development of the Shipwreck Camp in the Skeleton Coast Park, a 10 room lodge, which will open in 2018. Shipwreck Camp is an ecolodge currently under construction on a dune, three kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean. Etosha Heights Private Reserve boasts Safarihoek Lodge and Etosha Mountain Lodge, which will reopen on 1 March 2018. These two lodges, also part of the Natural Selection portofolio, are in a 65 000 ha private reserve, which shares a 70 km border with Etosha National Park on the western side of the park. This is indeed a complete destination on its own with rich wildlife, varied biomes and good hospitality. In South Africa the company is developing a camp in the Mkambati Nature Reserve on the Wild Coast and at De Hoop Nature Reserve in the Western Cape.
Tel: +264 61 252 197 Email: enquiry@naturalselection.travel Web: www.naturalselection.travel
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