News

Last week, we launched our #itsup2us campaign at the Delight Hotel in Swakopmund. The Gondwana Collection Namibia has adopted a “Zero waste to Landfill” goal together with our partner in this venture – Rent-a-Drum (RaD) who originally adopted this initiative. 

On 2 February, the Gondwana Collection welcomed Three Wheels Co, a group of travel bloggers attempting to create a world record! The three gentlemen hail from all over the world. Travis Bluemling is the US, Chris Parkes is British-South African, and Ross OC Jennings is the Scotsman who aims to play the bagpipes in every country across the globe.

The year started with various groups of Gondwana Employees making their way to the Kalahari Farmhouse for the 2018 Gondwana Training Academy. The Lodge Group invites promising employees from all over the country. A total of 220 of Gondwana’s 850 employees will participate in the Academy this year.

Remarkable sound effects were emanating from the grounds of the Gondwana Travel Centre in Windhoek on Friday, 19 January. The noise of hammering and sawing mingled with peals of laughter as some 70 staffers deserted their desks and rolled up their sleeves for some manual work. It was an afternoon of teambuilding, the highlight of the entertaining exercise was a group project to construct small, portable vegetable gardens. All the effort was for a good cause: the little vegetable gardens were handed to the Mammadù Trust.

Leave it or go for it? When it comes to planning a trip and deciding on accommodation, TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel site is a popular source of information. Four of our lodges received the TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence for the excellent reviews posted in 2017: Kalahari Farmhouse, The Delight Swakopmund, Namib Dune Star Camp and Eagle's Nest Chalets of our marketing partner Klein-Aus Vista.

The Gondwana Collection Namibia is gobsmacked by how many people have viewed its cheeky video clip on ‘shithole’ Namibia. In just ten days it has reached more than 670 million people all over the world – a prime example for the power of the internet and social media! And one of the most successful destination marketing campaigns for Namibia since independence in 1990.

It stands there, silver-coloured, shimmering in the sunlight, a bit broad with a square rear end and that nice “Namibia2Go” logo on its doors. The car’s interior has lots of space for children, dogs and shopping bags, a nice city car. And on top of that it’s all-wheel drive? That is what the offer says. I am tasked to test the Duster in the Kalahari Desert. 

On 8 and 9 December, the 2017 Nedbank Desert Dash played out from Windhoek to Swakopmund. And for the first time, the Gondwana Collection Namibia had two teams to participate in the action packed event. The Gondwana Dust Devils finished the race in an excellent third place in the 4 men team category. 

Riding through the desert landscape, with nothing but your bicycle and headlamp to guide you through the dry, harsh terrain. Darkness stretches its daunting fingers into every direction, making you wonder what is hiding in the shadows… Intimidating, isn’t it? The Desert Dash, while exhilarating, challenging and absolutely thrilling, is most definitely not for the feint hearted.