Our Vision & Values

Our passion is to explore the wildest and most remote parts of Africa, away from the crowds or influence of today’s civilisation. Our quest is to share these unspoilt locations with the rest of the world, whilst having access to the other iconic destinations of the regions. However, with these remote places comes another of our values and passion’s: local and sustainable community development, ensuring that Africa’s communities benefit from tourism enterprises.

Authentic safaris, light foot print

We have seen the experience of a “Safari” and the use of the word itself change over many years. As the modern world continues to change and individual’s expectations shift, our vision and ideas of an authentic Safari have remained the same: maintaining the concept of the ‘Old Africa’.

With the knowledge and lessons we have gained, our pursuit has been to create the perfect model of operating safaris by subscribing to the ‘light environmental footprint’ concept. We have demonstrated this by creating the right balance between luxury travel and authentic experiences, whilst ensuring that local communities around us benefit from being custodians of Africa’s wilderness areas.

Our efforts to be environmentally-friendly encompasses the following:

• Electrical generation is nill or limited to the very minimum.
• We have converted to gas for our refrigeration and kitchen / cooking needs, thus reducing the use of fuels.
• Lighting in the tents is either provided by solar lighting, rechargeable units or crafted silver kerosene lanterns.
• Where possible, we have adopted and are using recycled glasswares for our dining usage – glasses, plates etc.
• All plastics and other non biodegradable materials are transported out and taken to the official disposal dump.
• Showers are the stylish, old fashioned and traditional safari showers, with large tin jugs and wash basins provided to the guest bathrooms. We are looking at a conversion to solar for the hot water in all camps.
• We are placing a lot of emphasis on walking and low impact, low disturbance activities on foot. We are very careful in the planning of new roads with regard to drainage areas and drainage patterns, erosion etc.

Our small and remote tented camps in Botswana and Zimbabwe have a low environmental impact and offer a true African safari, where the beautiful accommodation is secondary to the art of service and wildlife experiences that we share with fellow travellers from all walks of life.

Supporting the communities

Whilst we support the endless efforts of people saving wildlife through research and direct donations, we firmly and passionately believe in using tourism to help and develop communities surrounding safari camps. By offering these communities an opportunity in life, we enable people to join our passion for wilderness areas and wildlife conservation.

Sophia Ndlovu, who alongside her husband Beks, has built African Bush Camps, and has now retired from the safari operations to focus exclusively on these community projects. Passion is a mild description of her feelings of being plugged-in and involved. The projects are still under development under the umbrella of an intiative labelled, African Bush Camps Foundation.

African Bush Camps Foundation, giving back

This is an African Bush Camps initiative that has resulted in the formation of a non-profit organisation. UthanThe African Bush Camps Foundation aims to ensure that tourism revenues positively impact the surrounding local communities through sustainable self-help income generating projects. Part of the responsibility of the African Bush Camps Foundation is to address environmental issues and to monitor our camps to make ensure that we are employing environmentally responsible techniques to operate our safaris.

Our corporate statement

We aim to be an effective, professional and profitable tourism company that works in a sustainable and environmentally friendly manner, whilst seeking to empower local communities and to hopefully inspire others to do the same.

Thus our corporate values:

• Respect & integrity for all: internally and externally.
• Exceeding expectations: going the extra mile to deliver a world class level of service to our partners, suppliers and guests.
• To embody professional and ethical attributes in our products, attitudes and behavior
• Environmental responsibility and community focus: creating a people-centered and wildlife orientated environment.
• Team focused: to attract, retain and develop a strong team spirit within the African Bush Camps Team and partner with like minded tourism industry players.
• Inspiring each other and those around us: communicating our passion, visions and values within the team, to our partners and valued guests.

• To continue to identify, develop and establish reliable, attractive and unique product offerings.

Inviting you to witness the ‘African Bush Camps’ Africa

Join us as we embark on a journey of sharing our passion for Africa with the rest of the world in a responsible and sustainable manner, ensuring that cultures and wildlife areas are conserved for future generations.

The African Bush Camps Team