Little Makalolo Camp
- Hwange, ZimbabweOverlooking a vibrant waterhole, it offers privacy for guests who enjoy small camps and a sense of remoteness
touch the soul of africa
Tembo Plains, meaning "Elephant Plains" is built in the thick riverine forest on the edge of the Zambezi River, in the private 128,000 hectare Sapi Reserve, which is just east of Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park.
Offering six tented suites, Tembo Plains offers guests the choice of 4 double or twin bed configuration suites, each with their own private indoor lounge area and outdoor swimming pool, veranda and outdoor dining area. A beautiful 2-bedroomed family suite comprises two rooms with private shared lounge and dining area is available. All rooms enjoy expansive en-suite bathroom facilities including indoor baths, showers and double vanities.
What makes Tembo Plains' design genuinely unique is the combination of canvas and stone walls, an architectural reference to the Zimbabwe Ruins. Outside this packstone wall design continues along the back of the guest accommodation, affording guests greater privacy whilst leaving uninterrupted views of Zambezi river flowing just meters away.
Painted dogs (wild dogs), lions and leopards are seen increasingly whilst buffalo, and of course, elephants, which are often seen daily in front of the camp.
Activities include canoeing and boating on the Zambezi River and guided wildlife viewing drives in open vehicles and walks.
Enjoy moments where wildlife congregate along the Zambezi River to drink and marvel at the setting of the African sun through the trees. The safari experiences on offer will certainly appeal to any safari guest who is looking to truly enjoy and partake in the excitement of wildlife viewing game drives, boating and canoeing or tracking and exploring the interior of the private reserve, being one of Africa’s remote wilderness areas.
Whilst you traverse the diverse terrain of the Sapi Reserve, discover the legendary Mtawatawa pan, encounter some of Africa’s largest wildlife species by vehicle or on foot whilst continually learning more about this incredible ecosystem. The opportunity to view Africa’s animals and birdlife with the water activities on offer including canoeing or boating is special indeed.
The reserve has a large array of baobab trees, one of which is believed to be the final resting place for an eclectic mix of personal paraphernalia of Chief Chikwenya including bows, arrows, and spears. The tree itself is estimated to be twelve hundred odd years old and has rotted within providing a voluminous hollow inside the bark walls.
We use custom-built, open Toyota Land Cruisers specially designed for our conditions and photography, including fold-down windscreens, raised roofs, photographic bars, and multi-plug inverters. Each of the Land Cruisers is fully stocked with reference books, drinks, and snacks. Guests have the opportunity to experience up-close encounters with elephants, lions, leopards, hyenas, wild dogs, buffalo, eland, zebra, and other ungulate species. This is a prime bird-watching country, and opportunities abound for guests to spot resident and migrant species, especially in the early morning and late afternoons.
The focus of your stay is centred around exploration and adventure. Many activities involve day and night wildlife viewing drives and walking with some canoeing and excellent boating opportunities on the Zambezi River.
Thoughtfully designed to explore a range of experiences and topics from birding to cooking to art to tracking wildlife.
Guided walks are led by licensed guides with firearm training.
Enjoy the thrill of heading out on the Zambezi River with your guide to try your hand at catch and release fishing.
Great Plains is first and foremost a conservation organization that uses eco tourism as a tool to sustain conservation programs. We even coined a new name for what we do – “Conservation Tourism”. We define it as the use of quality led tourism experiences that are environmentally sound, with the benefits going specifically into making the conservation of an area viable and sustainable.
It is important to us that this is done without any negative influence on the land, on any species that uses that land, or, indeed, on any individual animal. We do not do conservation by triage, killing some to save the rest, because this is a defeatist and disrespectful way of interacting with nature.
Our model takes stressed and threatened environments, surrounds them with compassionate protection and intelligent, sustainable management, and funds them with sensitive, low-volume, low-impact, tourism. Communities are an intrinsic part of this model and benefit directly from it. The final piece of the puzzle is you – our clients and guests – who pay to visit the camps we create, and through doing so, become our valued partners and agents of positive change.
Our philosophy is grounded in the fundamental appreciation of the good in life… Good people, good staff, good decisions, good things we share and enjoy, but most of all we try to extend that “goodness” to our interactions with you, with wildlife, with nature and with the local communities which so depend on them
