Owner Run Camp

OWNER RUN

Camp

[WRITER: John Coppinger – owner of Remote Africa Safaris ] [ PHOTO: Remote Africa Safaris ]

[ Getting around during the rains in 1996 ] [ 1995 Coppinger family with Mpamvu ]

In 1994 my wife, Carol, and I were faced with a crossroads in our bush career. Following four years of guiding and managing at Nsefu Camp in the South Luangwa National Park, we managed Wilderness Trails Ltd for almost a decade, during which time we were based at Chibembe Lodge during the dry season and Lusaka during the rains. At that time Wilderness Trails was, by some distance, the largest private tour operator in Zambia with a portfolio of two lodges, five bushcamps (in both the North and South Luangwa) and a travel agency in Lusaka, which we set up.

The company shareholders operated a high volume, low cost safari-beach tourist business in Kenya and had taken advantage of an opportunity to expand their operation into Zambia. But after eight years it had become clear to them that the Luangwa Valley would simply never fit into their business model. Despite British Airways flying three times a week directly between Lusaka and London, it was significantly more expensive than flying to Nairobi and operational costs in Zambia were vastly greater. On top of that they now realised that the rainy seasons would not permit extending the short tourist seasons. Their market segment would never withstand the rates that would have to be applied just to break even.

to start our own safari business, move on, or find an alternative means of livelihood. We had thoroughly enjoyed many years in this bush paradise but we had two young girls now and it was time to be responsible – our carefree days were over!

We had forged a strong relationship with the local community and the Chief offered us a beautiful patch of land on a very scenic bend of the Luangwa River to set up our own safari operation. I will not pretend that it was an easy task to get formal permission and all the paperwork in place but in early May 1995 we found ourselves, complete with our worldly possessions, two small children, a cat and an orphan elephant, on the banks of the Luangwa River. It was indeed a beautiful spot with a spectacularly panoramic view across the river, but it was also virgin bush and we had a lot of work to do if we were to be ready to receive our first guests who were booked to arrive in July. Over the years we have observed several wealthy investors setting up lodges over a period of a number of years but we had no such luxury, with unlimited funds and the need to generate income as soon as possible. We were selling bednights before the camp even existed!

We named our camp Tafika, meaning ‘we have arrived’. It has been our home ever since.

In those days many camps and lodges in Zambia were owner run and nowadays even more lay claim to this tribute, but in reality very few are still truly owner run.

There followed five tough but idyllic years at Tafika whilst we struggled to make ends meet. Carol home schooled our two daughters, Christine and Jenny, who in their free time played with their other sister, Mphamvu the elephant, and raised a multitude of other orphans from zebras, grysboks and bushbuck to squirrels, bushbabies and hares. They climbed trees almost as skillfully as the wild monkeys with whom they had played as infants. They completed their education firstly across the valley at Chengelo in Mkushi and finally at Rhodes University in South Africa.

Jenny was born on the banks of the Luangwa River, the only ‘mzungu’ (white person) in the Mwanya Chiefdom to lay such claim. She, together with her husband Nick, now help us manage Tafika and the entire Remote Africa Safaris operation, which includes our Chikoko Walking Trails plus two camps in North Luangwa National Park: Takwela and Mwaleshi. Carol and I remain based at Tafika and still interact with our guests every day. Carol continues to manage the accounts and we are still both involved in general management decisions.

True to our promise back in the mid-nineties, we have ensured that our presence directly benefits our local community. This is such an important aspect of wildlife conservation which all responsible tourism operators should embrace. Historically our people are subsistence farmers, totally reliant on their annual crop of maize or millet and more [ John Coppinger ]

ZAMBIA | OWNER RUN CAMP recently some cash crops such as cotton and sunflowers. Needless to say, the surrounding wildlife poses a serious threat to their gardens – a family group of elephants, for instance, can destroy a farmer’s entire crop of maize overnight. Big game such as elephant, hippo, lion and buffalo roam freely and are a very real threat to villagers moving about. Crocodiles are plentiful in the river, streams and lagoons and are particularly dangerous during the rainy season when rivers are in full spate. Lions and leopards are attracted to villages, tempted by village dogs, which they regularly kill.

So, unless people can realise some direct benefit from wildlife it is understandable that they will have little incentive to protect it.

In our early years there was no clinic at our local village. Carol has a medical background and she had already earned a reputation for tending to sick villagers whilst at Chibembe. So, it was not long before a group of patients would appear at camp most mornings seeking medical attention. Very quickly this became too much work for Carol and so, with the permission and guidance of the Health Department, we built a Clinic. The Tafika Fund was born in 1998 and through this fund over $600,000 has since been channelled for such projects as well as for funding of teachers at the local school, sponsorships of school pupils and college students and a football league. To fund this initiative we deduct $5 per bednight from each guest’s stay, receive donations from guests and regularly top up from our own business. The administration of the Fund has been an herculean task, undertaken for many years by Carol and now Jenny, for no monetary reward. On top of this we employ up to a hundred people each season in a community where there is almost no other opportunity for employment. I believe that in rural Zambia this can be multiplied by a factor of six to get an approximate figure for the number of beneficiaries, which amounts to six hundred people.

Not only are we proud of our good relationship with our community but believe that it is a crucial element contributing to the conservation of the surrounding area and it’s wildlife.

For fifteen years we lived full time at Tafika, isolated every rainy season for four to five months when road access is impossible. With such a small window of opportunity to earn revenue it was mandatory that we lived as frugally as possible to get our business on its feet. In more recent years we built a ‘Summer Palace’ in Lusaka to which we retreat every off season.

However April is always eagerly anticipated as this is the time that we return to Tafika, where we spend seven months of each year. The sounds of traffic, loud music, hammering, angle grinders and other irritations of city life are left behind and replaced by the calls of hippo, lions, hyaena and birdsong…and we know we have returned to our spiritual home.

We look forward to receiving guests once more, many of whom have returned time and again and become good friends. Our camps remain not only truly owner run but family run.

[ Orphans on the beach ]