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The landscape is hard but beautiful, glowing red in the sun. Click to look to the reception and the landscape beyond with the Landrover off road 'tour bus' waiting its passengers
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Each bedroom has a large desk with task light, double to twin bed arrangements with standard bed linens, reading lights, task light on the desk, wardrobe with internal light, safe, luggage rack and so on. Chairs are on the balcony with the view, and there is also a bench there. Balconies are cool and shaded, open to both the landscape and the breezes.
The lodge is about Africa and its wildlife and so everything takes advantage of the fine weather (even though it is often cooler than a European might expect) by having an open wall. This also chimes with the vernacular building styles which take advantage of being open to the wind for ‘comfort cooling’ and have rooms which open into the underside of the thatched roof.
Bare boards have a deep under croft reaching down to the ground and allowing air to circulate not just through the rooms but also beneath them, aiding the cooling effect. Rugs at the bedside soften the interior and in this case walls are of canvas with mesh windows that can again be opened leaving only the insect mesh to slow any breeze for maximum cooling. The whole can be zipped shut at night to retain warmth and for protection against any predators.
Additional ventilation in the bathrooms is provided by cane wind screens, similar to many of the walls. They block visually but allow wind through for cooling.
Patrick Goff
After a visit in July 2009
Design is by Stauch and Partners of Windhoek
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"vernacular building styles which take advantage of being open to the wind for ‘comfort cooling’ "
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Desert adapted elephant and calf. Survival due to local conservancies in tourism partnerships. One guide told me that in one international game park he once counted 40 Landrovers in the landscape - popularity threatens wilderness?
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Bedrooms were very comfortable, the public areas opened like a set of seats in the circle of a theatre, giving views down the valley and to the mountains beyond. The harsh beauty of the landscape is stunning. As the bedrooms are separate lodges the 'bedroom corridors' are tracks marked out with stones moving you through the landscape, increasing the sense of being within it.
The scale of the landscape makes the widely separated lodges seem unimportant. Their construction and method of operation is intended to reinforce this so that if they become uneconomical, or the local community no longer wants them there, they can be removed without leaving a trace.
If you go to Damaraland to see rhino or the famous 'desert adapted' elephants take note. The star here is not the game, nor yet the lodge (3 paw or not), nor yet any other man-made attraction. No, the real star here is the harsh beauty of Damaraland itself. Take the Shepherd Walk above the Lodge and marvel at the richness and variety of this part of our remaining global wilderness.You will be privileged to do so.
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Two of the original rooms have been kept for visiting staff such as pilots or auditors. Click to see solar installations
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Damaraland Lodge
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