From trekking to see the mountain gorillas to spotting Eastern black rhino in Akagera National Park, Wilderness offers some extraordinary safari encounters.
With just two photographic safari guides, a Land Rover, a couple of tents and a passion for conservation, hospitality group Wilderness Destinations (formerly Wilderness Safaris) was established in Botswana’s Okavango Delta back in 1983. Founders Colin Bell, a South African, and New Zealander Chris McIntyre had worked in the remote reaches of the country since 1977 and by the early 1980s had struck out on their own.
They wanted to ensure that the financial benefits of their safaris flowed to Botswana and its people and ensured the sustainable protection of the country’s wildlife areas. The dream was to offer authentic safaris with integrity that catered for people as passionate about nature as they were.
Forty years on, those initial motivations behind the company remain the same – to protect and share the wilderness by investing in precious wildlife, land protection, and community initiatives, for the better of the planet and its people. Since those first fixed-tented camps were established in 1985 in remote areas of the Okavango Delta, Wilderness Destinations has grown to more than 60 camps operating across eight countries – Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Wilderness CEO Keith Vincent rates their biggest achievement as having pioneered the purpose-driven conservation tourism model, expanding this into new areas over the past four decades, and inspiring others to do the same.
“A great example of this would be our expansion into Rwanda, with the opening of Wilderness Bisate in 2017, focused on the restoration of the natural habitat for gorillas and other species conservation, followed by the opening of Wilderness Magashi in Akagera National Park in 2019. This created an impactful tourism circuit within the country and positively contributed to the economy of Rwanda.”
Wilderness Bisate Trekking in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda, to witness the rare mountain gorillas, is one of the most incredible wildlife experiences on the planet. These animals were nearly wiped out due to poaching and today they remain on the critically endangered list with just over 1,000 left in the wild according to the last census.
Proper management of tourism and conservation is vital in this region. Wilderness Bisate (below) engages in numerous initiatives that have a hugely positive impact on conservation and communities. Wilderness Rwanda Operations Manager, Ingrid Baas, says “The conservation purpose behind the lodge is our visionary reforestation programme, which has restored the natural habitat on old agricultural land and is now a natural extension of Volcanoes National Park, attracting many species to the property.”
Wilderness Magashi Akagera National Park in Rwanda’s East is home to Wilderness Magashi, and is a partnership between Wilderness, the Rwanda Development Board and African Parks. The camp plays an important role in building sustainable conservation economies in Rwanda and growing tourism in the region by offering an extended high-end circuit that goes ‘beyond gorillas’.
Akagera National Park offers visitors a wildlife safari haven. It has a healthy population of the rare Eastern black rhino, and Wilderness provides ongoing monitoring support of these rhino, along with monitoring of other key species such as leopard and lion, with all sightings shared with African Parks. Wilderness Mombo
In 1990, Wilderness acquired Mombo, which still proudly holds the flagship title. Situated in a particularly beautiful part of the Okavango Delta, the area had previously been hunted, but with the conversion to photographic safaris, it became renowned as a wildlife haven. Thirty-three years later, Mombo has maintained its reputation as the Place of Plenty.
Wilderness currently oversees the protection of 2.3 million hectares of land and hopes to double this figure by 2030. This leading conservation and hospitality brand has now set its sights on new areas, regions and opportunities in Africa and across the globe.
