Khayelitshe House

Khayelitshe House consists of 4 Luxury Rooms, each furnished with a large double bed, adorned with soft and colourful linen. The rooms all feature large floor to ceiling windows that offer incredible views over the sloping granite hills and wilderness, where guests can look for passing wildlife from the comfort of their beds or from the bathtub. Each bedroom leads to an en-suite bathroom, complete with large showers, twin basins, bathtubs and toilets. The house has various indoor and outdoor dining areas and opens out to a spacious garden, with an extended viewing deck on the first floor and a rooftop balcony on the 2nd. Relax in the comfy lounge area, or on one of the house’s many day beds and enjoying a refreshing stay in tranquil surroundings. Khayelitshe House is available for a minimum stay of two nights.

Guests can enjoy three delicious meals of their choice each day at Khayelitshe House, all freshly prepared and cooked by your private chef. Guests can also enjoy local drinks including beers and wines.

Embark on an exciting game drive with your private guide, and learn all about the amazing wildlife that resides within the local area. Matobo Hills is home to an incredible range of creatures including zebras, giraffes, baboons, warthogs, reedbucks, monkeys, impalas, bushbucks, both black and white rhino, and Africa’s largest concentration of leopards. Tailor your game drive to follow the species you are most interested in and gain insider knowledge from your guide who will show you the best spots that are perfect for watching game.

Explore the Matobo Hills on foot and enjoy a relaxing hike across the rugged landscape. Guests can enjoy the stunning views that stretch across the horizon, and admire the rolling granite hills and red boulders that hold thousands of years of history on their surfaces. Due to the absence of lions and elephants in the Matobo Hills area, guests are safe to walk around and get up close to the amazing wildlife and experience this incredible setting.

Guests at Khayelitshe House can enjoy watching the many bird species that visit the granite hills. Matobo Hills is home to approximately 400 of the 674 bird species that can be seen in Zimbabwe, including the world’s largest population of black eagles. Enjoy the beautiful songs of the Black-collared Barbet, Augur buzzard and Black-shouldered kite and make the most of your chance to capture stunning photographs of them.

Take the chance to track black and white rhinos, two endangered species which thrive within the Matobo Hills area. Follow clues in the wilderness such as tracks and droppings which will lead you to incredible sightings of rhino. Your experienced guide will be able to teach you how to follow these clues, as well as interesting facts about rhino and other local wildlife. Explore the wilderness on foot, and look out for unique photographic opportunities to capture images of one of the last populations of wild white rhinos in the world.

Matobo Hills was once a site where nomads held ancient ceremonies. The granite hills are of significant spiritual importance, thought to contain nature spirits. The area is also known for having one of the most prolific collections of San Bushmen rock art in Southern Africa. These paintings date back thousands of years and show the progression of cultural and spiritual ideology, as well as the history of the area and the tribes and local fauna who inhabited it.

The African Bush Camps Foundation has established a number of projects that aim to improve education, empowerment and conservation efforts within the local communities where they operate. They work with members of the community in order to improve school facilities, provide educational textbooks and supplies for students, and supporting a local health centre, as well as encouraging these communities to form a peaceful relationship with the local wildlife, and finding ways to resolve human and animal conflict. African Bush Camps contribute $10 USD towards the Foundation’s running costs for every night that a single guest stays at one of their camps.

The Detema Sewing Group was launched to empower women with limited employment opportunities by allowing them to practice creating garments and provide sewn products to local schools, businesses, and community members. The 8 women from Detema are all aged over 50 years, making it difficult for them to find employment due to being close to retirement age. This initiative supports them while allowing them to develop their sewing skills. The ladies then pass their skills on to local children who attend classes to develop this useful life skill.

African Bush Camps work with local communities in the areas where they operate in order to teach and encourage ways of living harmoniously with wildlife. When wildlife habitats become too close to human villages, predators such as lions and wild dogs can attack livestock, and elephants may trample crops. This can cause humans to retaliate in order to protect their livelihoods. By providing the tools and skills to protect livestock and crops, African Bush Camps are helping to reduce human and wildlife conflict.

‘By coexisting with wildlife and using the natural world to grow crop yields, protect livestock and use resources to preserve the environment, communities can improve their food security and achieve a higher quality of life without negatively impacting wildlife. With projects that aim to improve the perception and tolerance of wildlife in the area, we can help communities restore a harmonious relationship with nature for their benefit.’

Tourism helps to support the local communities, and by showing the benefits of sustainable travel, African Bush Camps can highlight why protecting and conserving wildlife habitats is crucial for human communities and the local economy.

African Bush Camps support both orphaned and vulnerable children through their scholarship programmes. The scholarships pay for school fees and allow children to attend Life Skills Workshops where they can gain skills that will boost their employability prospects. African Bush Camps also work with schools to improve their facilities in order to better support the students. By providing a safe, clean, engaging and social environment, students are able to work better and their physical and mental wellbeing is cared for. Providing children with a safe space to learn is crucial for overcoming poverty and offering children the chance to have a higher quality of living and a career.

The African Bush Foundation runs a ‘Greener Camps’ programme which means that ‘African Bush Camps Safari Properties are committed to operating in a sustainable manner, ensuring that we preserve the environment, culture and conservation of Africa. Where possible we use solar power, low energy lighting systems, wastewater treatment, greywater recycling, and single-use plastic reduction initiatives.’ This means that the impact on the environment caused by African Bush Camps is kept to a minimum.

The biggest threat to African lions is conflict with humans. Livestock is vital for many people’s livelihoods, and if lions attempt to attack livestock, it can have devastating effects for both the owners, and the lions themselves if people were to retaliate. Because of this, the Lion Guardian teams are trained to empower and educate local communities about living in harmony with wildlife. By providing an income for the local members of the community that become Lion Guardians, the African Bush Camps Foundation is able to support the guardians and their families as well as protect lions and livestock.

The Mambanje Community Garden and Solar Borehole project aims to provide clean and safe water sources for the local community and their livestock so that the community can be self-reliant, and not have to use the local school’s borehole which is struggling with the current demand for water. Creating a community garden will also provide a source of healthy food and income for the community.

‘The water shortage is critical in Mambanje village with only 1 working borehole servicing both the school and greater community. Currently, households are limited to 20 litres of water per day at the school while school children can take back home only 5 litres per day. The school is now limited to the amount of water it can use which has affected the output of the school’s nutrition garden. The community lies in Zimbabwe’s Farming Region IV which is characterized by annual rainfall of 450-650 mm, severe dry spells during the rainy season, and frequent drought and this limited rainfall speaks volumes as to why areas such as Mambanje are still underdeveloped as water is a key and fundamental resource for rural communities and their livelihoods.’

Providing additional waterholes would also benefit members of the community who have to travel a long distance in order to collect water. This is often a task given to young girls, who may miss out on time in school because they had to collect water for their families instead.