Duba Explorers Camp
Last week as we mingled with fellow Explorers from around the world at the annual Global Explorers conference in the Azores, Portugal, the discussions kept circling back to what exploring really means?
We spoke to more than a few astronauts, each of whom said, at some point, that it is humbling to look down on Earth, and realize our privilege to be alive. Each came back changed by their space ‘safari.’
We spent time with two amazing women explorers who saw out the pandemic in a cramped hut in the Arctic, and another who has been to the South Pole, North Pole, highest peak and lowest trench on Earth. Each came back changed. Without that, there doesn’t seem to be much point. It is why we consider Great Plains as offering a safari as an exploration, a journey of self-discovery and one that will change you. We try to create spaces that allow for some reflection along the way; a slow, meditative mekoro trip for a few hours, time to sit with a leopard or perhaps walk along elephant paths.
One of the best places for that is the new Duba Explorers Camp, just opened after a reorientation and refurb. For some reason, the camp is resonating with so many of our guests as being the ‘perfect’ camp, small at 10 beds, spacious because we have built the main area for 14, with access to water, great wildlife and extreme predators. It is a combination of ‘Okavango water camp’ and dry land wildlife area that means you will probably run out of days before you run out of things to do.
It has me questioning what the perfect camp is, and without a doubt it is access to wildlife in abundance. But you also want a stylish, under canvass, safe home for a few days where the food is world class. But it is also, for me, a place to feel timeless, where the sense of exploration is still alive. I can see why it’s a favourite.
This week we’re adding Duba Explorers Camp to our series of camp walk-throughs for your collection, to get a sense of what it is like, what you can anticipate as an experience in camp.
The recent reopening where we shifted the camp a little south, on the same island, opens up a view across the floodplain; a true explorer’s camp that will change your life, the main reason to travel.
All the best, Dereck Jourbet