With an exclusive six rooms for a total of 12 guests, Onduli Ridge is a lodge like no other, setting a new benchmark for luxury safari travel. Since opening for guests in July 2021 Ultimate Safaris has: paid almost N$ 1.2 million in cash in bed-night levies to the conservancy which leased the land; put more than N$ 5 million into the Namibian supply chain to operate the lodge; invested more than N$ 2 million to date in conservation, including the reintroduction of giraffe, building Rhino Ranger accommodation with water and power supply, supporting conservation-based salaries and investing in crucial local water infrastructure, including that of neighbouring conservancies; brought about rural investment above of N$ 25 million, which is to be enhanced further with an additional N$ 15 million for the new 2023 development.
Before building at Onduli Ridge could start Ultimate Safaris first acquired a new lease on land in an exclusive-use area with unparalleled access to track desert-adapted wildlife such as elephants and rhinos, but also close to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Twyfelfontein. Construction of Onduli Ridge, overlooking ancient plains with glorious views of the rugged Damaraland area, began in February 2020 to develop and operate an exclusive six-room lodge. Just two months later the global shutdown meant virtually all Ultimate Safaris’ operations closed overnight. Plans for building a luxury lodge to provide an excellent base for exploring in-game drive vehicles and on foot, as well as excursions to view fascinating geological phenomena, petroglyphs (prehistoric rock engravings) and, San rock art at Twyfelfontein, Namibia’s first World Heritage Site, were put on hold.
Ultimate Safaris confronted the global challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic with commitment and confidence, working closely with local communities to develop its preservation and protection initiatives. The obligation to conservation travel, local people, and wildlife helped Ultimate Safaris overcome enormous challenges to ensure the company could continue to develop responsible and sustainable tourism for the future.
Putting livelihoods over profits, Ultimate Safaris decided to preserve Namibian livelihoods over the generation of company profits, which ultimately carried an entire team of 100+ staff members through the ensuing challenges. More than N$ 11 million was raised and invested to ensure that crucial communities and conservation projects weathered the crisis, and even more was required to ensure the entire team at Ultimate Safaris could continue to be employed.
Ultimate Safaris is fuelled by its dedication to investment in community and conservation projects in some of the most fragile wildernesses on earth and is committed to building a more resilient future for people and wildlife resources alike. Only then can a sustainable and thriving tourism industry be built in some of the world’s most fragile environments.
Tristan Cowley, co-founder and Managing Director of Ultimate Safaris, commented: “The Covid-19 pandemic certainly presented us with the greatest challenge in our existence, and it is extremely pleasing to see how we navigated this critical time successfully, and how we have emerged from that time even stronger than before. It is time that there is a better understanding by all stakeholders of the high value, low volume and low environmental impact model of tourism economics. Exclusive, high-end tourism can produce major benefits for Namibian livelihoods and the Namibian economy at large, and our objective is to make a meaningful contribution to both. We believe our model demonstrates a new way of approaching this.”
So successful has 2022 been for Onduli Ridge that an exciting development is planned for next year with a one-of-a-kind project that will bring an exhilarating new dimension to the entire safari experience.
Tags: Ultimate Safaris
