Varty Camp is the original Londolozi Camp and one that is laced in lore. But why do people still feel so drawn to this history seeped, original camp?
In the competitive world we live in today, with so many other luxury lodges to choose from, why does this one still hold a body of knowledge and tradition that has been passed down among members of the Londolozi Family for generations?
Why do guests come back to Varty Camp again and again…
Varty Camp is almost like folklore, full of mythical figures and family adventure. This has stemmed from 1926 when the first pioneers arrived…
“In 1926 the late Mr Charles Boyd Varty and the late Mr Frank Unger, both ardent sportsmen and true lovers of wildlife, purchased “Sparta”, and thus pioneered the ‘game farm’ idea in this area…” ~ Extract from Toulon, one of the first original books written on this area revealing Charles and Frank as the first arrivals, others would then begin to arrive a year later.
The original Rondavels, from where Londolozi was born. It cost R3 a day, and can still be seen today at Varty Camp
98 years later and the feeling of Varty Camp has not changed.
Today, in 2024, arriving at Londolozi is a moment and a feeling you want to encapsulate and keep forever. No matter whether you’ve flown in or have driven into the reserve, you journey through the vast wildness with butterflies in your tummy, wondering whether there really could be a lodge at the end of this road.
This feeling can only be evoked because we know there is huge difference between hotel cultural entertaining and family hospitality.
We believe that ‘entertaining’ is about me and how I can impress you. This might be through a perfectly set table, gourmet meals, and ensuring everything is aesthetically pleasing, almost ready for an Instagram photoshoot. Whereas ‘family hospitality’ is focusing on you. If ‘entertaining’ says look at me, ‘family hospitality’ says look at you. If ‘entertaining’ says look how impressive my lodge is, ‘family hospitality’ says how can I make you feel at home here? How can I make you feel safe to adventure here? How can we create together here?
You see, the feeling of a place cannot be bought with “things” and décor, it has to be lived. That’s what we know.
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This understanding has come from almost a century of hospitality. The Varty Camp fire has been lit every night in the same place and it was around this fire that the idea to become ‘the protector of all living things’ was born. It was around this fire that the Londolozi values have been tried, tested, shared and re-imagined. It was around this fire that Nelson Mandela talked to us about the oneness of humanity and the inherent value of Ubuntu. And it was around this fire that the blueprint for the safari industry was conceptualised, leaving Varty Camp as an iconic beacon in an ever-expanding industry.
This is why we hold on tightly to the original ways of care in all that we do and we make sure that care ripples outward.
The Varty Campfire: Then & Now – 1968 & 2024
From the second you set foot on the crunchy river sand of the car park – you have joined a movement to seek a better way of living in partnership with each other and the natural world – you are at home with family. While you might be blown away by the beauty that is Varty Camp, more importantly you feel welcome, a feeling that can only be described as a sense of return, or a homecoming. This camp is more than a place to stay, it’s a living museum of Londolozi’s beginnings, where tradition, laughter, and storytelling all come together to create a magical experience. As the original camp, this camp stands as a testament to the owner custodians nearly century-long connection with this sacred land, celebrating a legacy deeply rooted in family and heritage.
As your safari unfolds there will be many micro-moments of connection with the Londolozi Family – from catching a smile from a gardener tending to the aloes along the camp paths or making coffees with your Tracker somewhere deep in the wilderness – it’s through connecting with the Londolozi Family that this small lodge becomes your home-away-from-home. While many are in the hotel entertaining business, who have chains of lodges all over the place, we feel we are in the family hospitality business – whereby even today three generations of the Varty Family live on site and the Londolozi Futuristic African Village is the at the heart of the organisation.
Dave & Shan Varty – co-founders of Londolozi and the current managing partners
The same Varty Camp fire in 1975
Few campfires in Africa – or indeed anywhere – have had so much history stem from their flames as the one that still burns in Londolozi’s Varty Camp…
Jemma Thorpe
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