Lonely Planet's "Best in Travel 2021": A lodge in Namibia named winner in the "Sustainable Accommodation" category! [update]

update (08 December 2020): Lonely Planet has released a video about the Grootberg Lodge in Namibia's Damaraland, which the guide book publisher describes as "a one-of-a-kind tourist resort in Namibia driven by sustainability and empowering the local community." Enjoy! 

Travel guide book publisher Lonely Planet has released its long-awaited Best in Travel list for 2021. Due to the corona pandemic and its massiv impact on travel and tourism, this year's list has been radically reimagined. While Lonely Planet normally issues lists including the best countries, cities and regions, the Best in Travel 2021 is split into three new categories, namely "Sustainability", "Community" and "Diversity".

• The Grootberg Lodge in Namibia's Damaraland has been named winner in the "Sustainable Accommodation" category. The lodge is 100% owned by the the #Khoadi/Hoas conservancy in which the lodge is located. Built from natural materials and powered by the sun, the luxurious accommodation blends effortlessly into the surrounding Klip River Valley. 
• Rwanda's mountain gorilla conservation program, which uses sustainable tourism as a vehicle to implement long-term conservational change, has been named winner in the "Sustainable Wildlife Program" category.
  

Namibia: Damara Mopane Lodge opens two new hiking trails

The Damara Mopane Lodge (from R650/pax sharing), located close to Khorixas in Namibia and ideally suited for excursions to Twyfelfontein, the Petrified Forest and the Vingerklip rock pillar, recently opened two new hiking trails.

• The Mountain Top Route (4 km) requires some climbing, over a total altitude of 118 metres, to reach a hilltop in the vicinity of the lodge. For the scramble over sharp rocks you can borrow protective gloves from reception. This is a challenging tour and the reward for your mountaineering effort is the gorgeous view of the surrounding Damaraland scenery. The trail is lined by some interesting trees, including the large-leaved Sterculia, the Moringa and Maerula.
• The Valley Walking Trail is a leisurely 4-km-walk through diverse vegetation such as Mopane forest, grassy plains and thickets of Trumpet Thorn. There are many different birds to observe: Monteiro’s Hornbill, cardinal wood peckers, babblers, robins, Guinea fowl and weavers, to name but a few. Lively little sunbirds are particularly active in spring and summer. Ecologically speaking they are Africa’s counterpart to the Kolibri (hummingbird) in the Americas. Sunbirds are not quite as agile, however, and they cannot hover in midair for quite as long. 

National Geographic: Frans Lanting on tracking and photographing of the rare black rhino

Famous wildlife photographer and National Geographic photographer-in-residence Frans Lanting explpains in the following video how he and Simson Uri-Khob from Namibia's "Save the Rhino Trust" managed to track a black rhino in the Damaraland and how they photographed the rare creature — without getting trampled.

Amazing video about Namibia's desert elephants

Namibia is home to a unique population of so-called desert elephants that have adapted to the arid, and sometimes inhospitable, climate of the Namib desert. They are mostly found in the Damaraland region in the northwest part of the country. Those elephants can go for days without drinking water, but thanks to their amazing memory they acutally know where to find the rare, but essential, water in the desert.


Thx to Johan from planyoursafari.com for telling me about the vid!

Volunteer project: Desert Elephant conservation in Namibia >>
This project takes you to Namibia, Africa and the north-western regions of the Namib Desert, traditionally known as ‘Damaraland’. Here in this harsh tribal wilderness that runs parallel to the Skeleton Coast National Park, a small population of desert-adapted elephants have come into conflict with the local human population, and it is the aim of this volunteer project to manage the conflict and assist in its resolution
This project is not about being an observer of conservation from the comfort of a game drive vehicle. Volunteers will spend days out in the desert on patrol, camping wild and living close to the earth, elephants and people.
This project’s emphasis is on the building of protective structures around communal water points, creation of additional water points for elephants, assisting with, and teaching the farmers how they can financially benefit from tourism in the area, researching elephant movements, distribution and compiling identikits on herds and individuals. All work takes place in the vicinity of the rustic base camp in the Ugab River, at the foot of the majestic Brandberg.

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