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Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter
In a hotel, one expects to find a bed, a television set, an iron, towels, a kettle and cups for tea or coffee, sheets, blankets, a shaving machine, and bathing soaps but at Ganda Lodge, all but one of the listed items are missing in their rooms.
Ganda Lodge rooms do not have television sets.
“We know you have a television in your home but here your television will be the flora and fauna,” a receptionist at the lodge told Saturday Chronicle.
Ganda Lodge, a Forestry Commission-owned facility under its Ngamo Safaris brand, is located within the beautiful teak woodlands of the Sikumi Forest, bordering the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe’s premier wildlife area. It overlooks the Ganda Pan, a natural waterhole that attracts a wide variety of bird and animal species including elephants, buffalo, lion and a large variety of waterfowl.
There are eight double-storey chalets. Each unit has four three-quarter beds, a fireplace, a bathroom with a shower and overhead ceiling fans to cool the rooms. The interiors are decorated in a distinctly African style and include teak furnishings.
For those who want to conference in the wild, Ganda Lodge offers conferencing facilities for up to 40 people. Bar facilities are also offered with a variety of drinks available for guests.
“Our motto as Ngamo Safaris is ‘a truly unforgettable experience,’ that is what we intend to give to our clients who visit our facilities because we know that wherever a client is coming from, he or she could be having everything and for us, what we have which we know you don’t have is nature and when you come to us, we try to bring you closer as much as possible to nature, interacting with nature at its best. We wish there was not even network there so that one is really in the wilderness.
“At Ganda Lodge, all our chalets are facing the water pond and all the entrances to the chalets are glass doors covered with curtains where you can actually sit in your room and see what is happening outside and as if that is not enough you can also go to our balcony just to sit there and watch nature,” said Enock Mandura, the Forestry Commission marketing manager.
A large portion of Ganda Lodge clients are Zimbabwean.
“It’s because we want the Zimbabwe story to be told by Zimbabweans,” he said.
“Most of our clients are local. Yes, we do have international clients who come through but the majority of clients are our local people. It must have something to do with our pricing model, as Forestry Commission, we have got a two-tier pricing system where we charge slightly lower for the locals as compared to international clients. We are saying to the locals, this is your product, we want Zimbabweans to know what is around them.
“It’s very unfortunate that we have an international client in Zimbabwe telling us about Victoria Falls while our own people have no idea what the same place looks like and this is what we are trying to correct. Locals must have that experience and then sell brand Zimbabwe to the outside world.”
Due to Ganda Lodge’s location, there are high chances of encountering wild animals.
“Normally when we book a client, we give them contacts for the lodge manager who is resident at the lodge and when you encounter a situation like an animal in the middle of the road and you don’t know how to proceed, you then call the manager who will either assist you over the phone or come to your position.
However, what we need you to know is that if you encounter an animal in the middle of the road, just be patient with it, don’t hoot, don’t do anything, it will eventually move off the road and you will proceed.
Animals such as elephants are easily offended by noises like car hooting,” said Mandura.
For those who love hunting and non-consumptive tourism, the Forestry Commission has Ngamo Safaris.
“We have got three other camps that we operate in the region and they are mainly used as hunting camps, but during off-season for hunting, we can use them for non-consumptive tourism, which is photographic safari,” said Mandura.
Amandundumela, found in the Gwayi-Mbembesi Forests, offers an opportunity to hunt some of the best game available in the country. It has four chalets and one hunter’s house. The forest is considered a leopard home. Also found is a large herd of sable, eland, kudu, zebra, wildebeest as well as smaller game.
Intundla Camp is situated in the Ngamo/Sikumi Forests that border the Hwange National Park. It is the biggest hunting camp and commands the largest hunting quota of elephants, sable, buffalo and leopards.
Kazuma Camp overlooks the Kazuma Pan which stretches into North-Eastern Botswana and is known for good elephants, buffaloes, sables and cats. – @skhumoyo2000
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