My Island in Africa

Adventurer, traveller, tourguide and lodge builder, Salomé Visser tells the very personal story of how, as a tour guide, she found this spot on the banks of the Kwando River in the Caprivi, where she dreamed of building a lodge. The book takes the reader on an intimate journey showing Salomé's love of the land and the people. She relates the arduous process of obtaining permission to occupy the small Mazambala Island and to build her dream lodge there.



"Somewhere in the Caprivi-Strip, about a hundred kilometers from Katima Mulilo on the road to the Zambian border, there is a beautiful lodge named Mazambala Island Lodge. This specific corner of the world had stolen my heart in 1995 when I worked as a tour guide in Namibia. I don't think anyone could have travelled in the then unspoilt Golden Triangle up to Horseshoe, amongst herd after herd of elephant, buffalo, lechwe and hippo and remain untouched. That is what happened to me, to such an extent that after a year, I knew that that was where I had to be. Not as a holidaymaker, but to live in the untamed bush - and to build a lodge.

Many years later, the difficult times and miseries long forgotten, almost every visitor to the lodge would sooner or later ask the inevitable question - usually when we had been relaxing around a late-night campfire: Where is your husband? - I don't have one. - Who built the lodge? - I did, using only a handful of locals! - Unbelievable! Tell us! This was almost always the amazed reaction.

It is the insistence of people such as these that has persuaded me to tell this story ten years after building the lodge and a few years after giving up my ownership of Mazambabla Island Lodge.

At the same time I have a message to bring: that any person, male or female, despite their appearance, abilities and many other aspects, can can successfully accomplish whatever they wish."

- Salomé Visser