Hannah Cambridge, Alice Agnew, Lucy Smith, Jordan Williams and Ben Colonna have been in Tanzania for one month. Lucy, a fervent diarist gives us a glimpse of what happens in Camp Tanzania. Thanks for sharing! Mothercamp (Mbokomu) We arrived at Camps International, Mbokomu on the first day of our tour and were immediately greeted with [...]
We are always really touched when we get personal letters from people who have spent time with us at our Camps and even more honoured when someone writes something about us who was part of Camps.
Thanks Rachel…this meant a lot…
Just been looking through this year’s photos of our Kenyan Gap year projects and found this shot:
Not sure what makes me smile more, the face of the dangler, or that we can’t see the face (or feet) of the danglee…
Click here for more of our africa and asia project photos on flickr
Question:
What happens when you have 150 campers all tucked away in a peaceful little Kenyan village?
Answer:
Tell everyone to bring out the drums and party the Camps International way!
And what a day it was!
A BIG THANKS especially to Muhaka Primary school who hosted the event and all the crazy school teams for making special moments like these possible…
Click HERE for more photos of the Muhaka Big Bash
Just got back from Camp Tsavo buzzing with excitement to be back out in the field and to be a part of the Camp Kenya team. Although I came on board officially as the Africa Projects Manager less than a week ago, none of this is really new to me as I have watched the Camp Projects grow over the past few years. It’s a great feeling to come on board and feel very much at home.
Won’t bother you all with the details but its my first personal blog post on the Camp Kenya site and it actually all started in Tsavo a couple of years ago when I helped Camp Kenya to initiate various projects with the communities surrounding one of Kenya’s greatest natural heritage wonders: Tsavo National Park renowned for its volcanic landscape, its healthy population of elephants and its once upon a time man- eating lions (thankfully, all that is left of the latter is a great story for a Hollywood blockbuster).
Yes, it’s all beatiful and exotic when you are touring around the park clicking away at the giraffe and forgetful warthogs or elephants cooling off in mud baths but there is a much deeper story that not many travellers get to really understand. The reality of that complex web of people and wildlife and the environment they share is something that reponsible travel companies and the reponsible traveller is increasingly playing a much more critical role. The unfortunate reality is that most communities surrounding national parks live in abject poverty and understandably have a strong aversion to wildlife. Put yourself in their shoes for a minute and imagine your crops being destroyed year in and year out by marauding elephants…amazing creatures to watch from a distance and no question that they deserve to have a conflict free existence but the same applies to the communities who are surrounded by the national parks…they also deserve to make a decent living and get on with their lives…
I have been involved with various community and wildlife projects for several years and have increasingly begun to realise that one of the main solutions to human-wildlife conflict can come from responsible and ethical business models. I believe that responsible tourism is one such model that can benefit every player. And people like yourselves who choose to travel and learn and be a part of the solution are critical to that much bigger and complex web of global responsibility for the protection of global heritage.
So two years ago when we set up various community based projects around Tsavo, I really hoped that they would continue to grow and expand over time and it is great to come back and rejoin something that is far bigger than I ever imagined. Camp Tsavo based on Rukinga Ranch and managed by Camp Kenya is a life time committment with obvious benefits to both the people and the wildlife and its great to be on board!
You will be hearing lots from me as not only do I love to get my hands dirty in the red soils of Tsavo, I also love to blog about it!
