Rubondo Island Camp

Rubondo Island Camp’s Guest Chalets are positioned along the shores of Lake Victoria, the second largest lake in the world. Each of the 7 guest chalets backs onto lush grass and forest, facing out over the water. The spacious bedrooms consist of a king-size bed with mosquito nets, a dressing table and stylish furniture. Tucked behind the bedroom, you will find your private en-suite bathroom with a flush toilet and hot and cold running water. Toiletries, as well as a set of flip-flops, will be provided for you. Spend a restful evening enjoying the gentle sounds of the forest while sitting out on your private verandah, watching the orange and pink trails of the setting sun reflected in the lake’s calm waters.

Rubondo Island Camp’s Family Chalet can cater for up to 4 guests, making it ideal for families and small groups travelling together. The master bedroom features a plush, king-size bed with mosquito nets and soft pillows. The second bedroom is adaptable, with either double or twin beds available on request. There is one large bathroom that includes a flush toilet and has both hot and cold running water. The chalet looks out onto your private verandah where you can sit together, swapping exciting stories about chimpanzee trekking and game drives through the national park, against the backdrop of Lake Victoria’s tranquil waters. The family chalet is located close to the main area and swimming pool for convenience.

Guests staying and Rubondo Island Camp can look forward to 3 delicious meals each day, all freshly prepared by the camp’s chefs using fresh ingredients. Start the day off with a light breakfast of fruit, cereal and tea, coffee or juice. Guests can also order hot food from the kitchen. After returning from your first activity of the day, enjoy a selection of hearty two-course lunches, served with salad and freshly baked bread. Alternatively, guests can choose to take a picnic lunch into the bush to make the most of their time during game drives. In the evenings, guests will be served a mouth-watering three-course meal, finishing with an indulgent dessert and a refreshing beverage under the stars.

Venture out on a game drive with Asilia’s professional guides, and explore the untouched sub-tropical forests and sweeping grasslands of Rubondo Island. Look out for herds of elephants, giraffes and suni antelopes as you traverse across the island’s diverse landscapes. Enjoy stunning views of Lake Victoria, and the snorting hippos that gather in its waters, from the comfort of a specially designed safari vehicle with comfy beanbags and powerpoints for keeping camera batteries topped up. Learn about the incredible inhabitants of this private island and see these amazing creatures up close.

Explore the forests of Rubondo Island and learn about the flowers, shrubs and trees that fill this sub-tropical haven. Asilia’s expert guides will be able to teach you about the fauna and flora that lives on the island’s protected land, while you look out for the many birds and animals that lurk within the trees – including Rubondo’s rescued grey parrots. Guided walks and hikes can last from an hour to the whole day. Guests can even choose to camp out at the fly camp or enjoy an overnight rest and the camp’s treehouse, so that you can optimise your time out here.

Explore the coast of Rubondo Island and look out for the incredible wildlife that lives within Lake Victoria. Asilia’s professional guides will help you to spot hippos, otters and monitor lizards in the water as you travel around the perimeter of the private island. The safari boats are open, allowing for incredible photographic opportunities and undisturbed views.

Rubondo Island is a family-friendly oasis that captures the excitement of an era of exploration. Let your children explore the 25,000 hectares of forest, grasslands and plains, reenacting scenes from Jurassic Park with Tanzania’s giant monitor lizards. Children aged 5 years and over are welcome and Rubondo Island Camp, and will be able to participate in fun activities such as fishing, nature walks and bird watching in this unique and diverse setting.

Take a trek into the forest with an expert guide and travel to the home of Rubondo’s resident wild chimpanzees. Learn about their journey from captivity to living free on a protected island where they can build up their populations in peace. The chimpanzees are becoming more accustomed to human visitors over time and continuing to improve their confidence, but sightings cannot be guaranteed. You will certainly be able to hear them calling to each other, however, and the presence of humans helps them to adjust to humans, aiding the island’s researchers in their studies.

Guests can enjoy incredible fishing trips at Rubondo Island, with options to fish from the camp, beach, rocky shore or out on a boat. Rubondo Island offers some of the best freshwater fishing in East Africa, with opportunities to catch the incredible Nile Perch, which can grow up to 2 metres long. Guests can use a range of different fishing techniques such as spinning live and dead bait, and fly-fishing. Fishing is done on a strict catch-and-release basis in order to protect the aquatic life populations.

Enjoy watching the many species of birds that rest in the forests of Rubondo Island. Guests can enjoy abundant birdlife year-round, but birding is especially amazing from December to March, when the migrating birds visit Rubondo bringing the number of different bird species to over 300. You can expect to see dense populations of African fish eagles, as well as Rubondo’s rescued grey parrots, malachite kingfishers, herons, spoonbills and storks.

Asilia understands that nature and humans are inseparable partners. They endeavour to support local areas, projects and communities through revenue and awareness created through tourism. Every year Asilia releases a report on the Positive Impact projects to show how these efforts have come to fruition and made real changes. Over 2018 and 2019, Positive Impact made contributions to:

• Offsetting 1,505 tonnes of CO2
• 44 scholarships
• Chimpanzee Habitation protection
• Community and Conservation projects
• Training local staff
• Developing economies

Asilia’s Twende Porini programme welcomes children from local communities so they can get a taste of what a safari is all about and learn the importance of conserving natural environments and wildlife. Most of the children live near conservation areas but don’t fully understand why tourists travel from all over the world to see the animals that they see practically daily. Safari favourites such as lions, buffalo and elephants can actually be very serious threats to local villages. By taking children on safari they get to see the animals in their natural state and can learn the importance of each animal in the ecosystem.

In 2010, the Serengeti Lion Project (SLP) expanded from the south-eastern Serengeti to work on lion conservation in the parts of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) inhabited by Maasai people. Coexistence has often been difficult as lions will disturb and attack Maasai herds, and the Maasai will retaliate by killing lions. Growth in human populations has also created a barrier for the lions in the area, meaning that they have become isolated and increasingly inbred.

The NCA hopes to foster coexistence between lion and human populations and to help enable this they have launched a large water project. Competition over water sources is often what brings herds and wild animals into close contact and creates conflict. By removing this competition, therefore, conflict between humans and wildlife will be reduced.

Each year, Asilia identifies students who have incredible potential but whose families would not be able to afford to support them through higher education and provides them with funding for a scholarship. Assistance is given for courses that fall under tourism and teacher training, and job opportunities are provided on completion of study.

The population of lions in Africa has decreased by around 50% in the last 25 years as a result of factors like human-lion conflict, bushmeat poaching, and habitat loss. The Lionscape Coalition was formed in 2019 by the Lion Recovery Fund (LRF) for the benefit of lion populations and local businesses. Through the initiative, Africa’s top tourism operators can take a more active role ‘to support on-the-ground conservation work and encourage clients to support the future of lions’. The goal of the Lionscape Coalition is not only to protect lion populations but to also raise awareness of the role lions play in ecosystems and the suffering they’ve experienced as a species.

Due to the loss of natural habitats and other factors, lion populations have been declining and remain under threat. The Tarangire Lion Project (TLP) has been working to monitor lion prides, mitigate human-wildlife conflict, and educate and raise awareness about lion conservation among local communities. Asilia supports the TLP, helping to provide equipment for tracking and monitoring lions, staff operations and training.

By keeping track of the lion prides the TLP can implement the most effective conservation strategies, especially in the long term. They are also working with local communities to set up predator-proof bomas so that livestock herds are protected and there is much less retaliation against lion populations.

The grasslands of the Maasai Steppe’s Simanjiro Plains, on the outskirts of the Tarangire National Park, are crucial grazing areas for both wildlife and for the cattle herds belonging to the local Maasai. Factors such as hunting, farming and human population growth have infringed on the balance of grassland available for both pastoral herds and wildlife. In 2004, a group of tourist operators with concerns for the integrity of the ecosystem enlisted the help of the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) to help them engage with Simanjiro villages. The easements resulted from several agreements to keep large parts of land unfarmed so that there are areas where wildlife can graze safely and undisturbed.

The Southern Tanzania Elephant Project (STEP) is an elephant conservation programme that aims to conserve elephant populations and habitats, and to enhance human-elephant coexistence. Their 3 main initiatives are:

• Monitoring and research – mapping elephant distributions and trends, expanding elephant databases and evaluating effects of poaching to inform management and policy decisions
• Protection – defending elephants against ivory poaching through aerial surveillance, ranger patrols and law enforcement
• Human-elephant coexistence – working with farmers/landowners to reduce the damage done by elephants, helping to diversify livelihoods not dependent on farming, working with local authorities to show what drives human-elephant conflict and help resolve it, and helping facilitate safe elephant migration routes

Established over 30 years ago by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), this project monitors changes in the birth and survival rates of cheetahs. With approximately 210 cheetahs in the ecosystem, the research done ‘provides invaluable insight into the challenges facing cheetah’ populations and makes huge contributions to planning out conservation strategies that will benefit them. Pictures of cheetahs taken by guests staying at one of Asilia’s camps can directly help the project because it helps them keep track of cheetahs in the area.

The Honeyguide Foundation is committed to empowering local communities so they can shape their futures and runs ‘community-based conservation initiatives across nearly 1.2 million acres of wilderness in Tanzania’. These initiatives have 5 key areas – enterprise development, management and governance, communications, human-wildlife conflict mitigation, and wildlife and habitat protection. Asilia supports 2 of their projects, the K9 Unit and the Chimpanzee Habituation Project.

Honeyguide established the K9 Unit in October 2011 to provide operational assistance to anti-poaching teams and in every area where dogs were used elephant poaching decreased dramatically. A K9 Unit was allocated to the Kilimanjaro region and within 2 years, all elephant poaching ceased. The Chimpanzee Habituation Project was first created by Professor Bernhard Grzimek of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, who released rescued chimpanzees onto Rubondo Island. The project hopes to introduce the chimpanzees to a human presence in a non-threatening way as they are fully habituated into the area.