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Entrance to reception - roofs beyond belong to bedrooms. Click to see main public areas
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"was reassured by the operator that no guest had been eaten recently"
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Calling Damaraland a lodge disguises the fact that Wilderness grades its hotel operations - humorously referring to them as 3 paw, 4 paw or 5 paw operations. HotelDesigns will be looking at the operations of these standards through the design and standards of the hotels in this and forthcoming Reviews, an interest sparked by the success of the previously Reviewed Bushmans Kloof in both conservancy terms and as a hotel (recently voted in one survey "the World's Best Hotel").
A key element in the success, as with Bushmans Kloof, is the preservation of the sense of wilderness.The lodges have to somehow make wilderness accessible without destroying it, and at the same time remind the guest that 'wilderness' starts with the word 'wild'.
It may be that there is a sophisticated approach to seeing big game from the Lodges, but that won't stop any of the 18 potentially deadly poisonous snakes, the poisonous sap of the euphorbia bush or a lethal type of spider reminding the unwary who forget that this is indeed 'wilderness'.
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Pool and bar form one end of the public areas. Click for a larger view of the bar
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As you enter the lodge you walk through a doorway to see the landscape through the public spaces. To the right is the communal dining area - click to see the stylish details
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The loud purring one night, possibly a leopard(one made a kill less than a kilometre away), outside my bedroom also acted as a reminder that not all animals are domesticated. I was reassured by the operator that no guest had been eaten recently.
Damaraland, as the oldest of the camps visited was an interesting example of refurbishment to higher eco-credentials than even the first tented encampment. The principle of building is that the camp should be able to be removed and leave virtually no noticeable trace behind. Cleverly using local materials and borrowing from local vernacular styles, the main building blocks were sandbags. The major delivery to site in the construction phase was a car carrying 1300 empty sand bags - the sand simply shovelled into them from the ground by local labour. The walls of sandbags were then plastered in the traditional manner and the thatched roofs generated. Only in the individual bedroom lodges were the canvas walls retained but the main walls were, like those of the public areas, of plastered sandbag construction.
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Damaraland Lodge
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