Life along the river

Cameron Wilson

Co-owner, Nunda River Lodge (page 124), Kavango River

We started building here in 2006 and we officially opened the lodge in 2008. There’s enough business going around for all the lodges and camps. We get a lot of European visitors – at least 90% of our guests are German, Austrian or Swiss.

Especially for a Namibian, where rain is scarce and rivers even more so, it’s a privilege to be on the river. It blows me away every day. It changes all the time; the water level dropping and rising throughout the year. You see the guests walk through the front door and the first thing they do is go to the deck and say, “Wow, look at this!”

We’ve got challenges, but I’m sure they can be overcome. You have to keep educating people about the effects of wiping out forests, burning the bush every year, over-fishing the river. It starts at grassroots level – it doesn’t help us as lodge owners to be at the forefront; everyone must buy into conservation, starting with the chief and filtering down.

I like people. If you