Leaving Londolozi

Today was a sad day. I had to say goodbye to Londolozi this morning. This is truly a unique and special place in the world. I have another days worth of game photos on an SD drive that I just did not have time to offload to my phone before my car arrived. More Leopard and the cheetah from the first night who later again met me on the road leaving Londolozi to say goodbye.

My guides and now friends (left to right): Judas - Tracker and Alfred - Ranger

Instead of spending time in the photo studio offloading my photos I opted for a tour of the Londolozi back of house instead. This was the right choice.

Behind Londolozi is an entire community of over 190 staff (including the family owners) that live onsite 6 weeks on - 2 weeks off. Londolozi spends a lot of time looking at the impact of everything they do. While they have only a small staff, with the average number of dependents per staff member being 7, these staff salaries are helping to support upwards of 1500 people in the local communities. So, with a max capacity of only 64 guests, each guest is hepling to support over 10 other lives by visiting Londolozi

The Shangaan people live by the Ubuntu ethic which looks at things in terms of us and we as opposed to me and you. Londolozi works hard to adopt this philosophy. Behind the walls of the resort is an entire village of staff including a soccer field, staff pool and exercise area, school, day care, medical clinic and communal store and mess hall where staff gather to eat and sometimes guests even join to watch big futbol or rugby matches.

Nelson Mandela visited Londolozi often as he saw the mixed black and white community working in harmony as an example of the potential future of South Africa

Londolozi grows 40% of the food it serves and a large majority of the rest comes from local farmers and ranchers who have been jumpstarted by Londolozi's 'Ripple Fund' that fuels lasting change across Africa by investing in education, training, and investments in sustainable industry.

https://www.londolozi.com/en/impact

The village recycles all the waste water from the resort and processes it for irrigation, washing and other non-potable use cases. Its drinking water for half of the year comes from recycled rainwater processed through another water treatment plant. The rest of the time it comes from well springs. Today 40% of the power used to run the resort and village comes from solar and they are actively exploring other renewable energy sources with careful consideration to the environmental impact of all elements of those sources.

Truly a special and important place...