Dwililo Farms transforms into exquisite bush camping
Some people prefer a quiet, serene outing away from the industrial noise while others enjoy the township fast life and its noises. Dwililo Bush Farms & Camp offers the former, that natural aura and tranquil lifestyle.
Located at Makgadikgadi pans and about 50 Km from Lotlhakane, lies the greenery Dwililo Bush Farms, which is inspired by travel and tourism. With a view of dazzling trees, nature serenades from afar with buoyance. Owner of Dwililo, Wendy Mchive tells BG Style that her love for travelling and lifestyle, inspired her to come up with this unique place in the bush to offer clients calmness. It is also her love for Agronomy that has motivated her to have in place, Dwililo. Ironically, she started rearing about 13 goats on this 85 hectors piece of land and built a camping site.
She tells BG Style that ISPAAD assisted her with 50 percent funding and soon, she was supplying her goats on the poverty eradication plan, which boosted her and eventually allowed her to think outside the box and own a desirable relaxation spot out of town.
She immediately cut about two hectares for her personal space where she erected two roundavel houses. “After I built these two houses which were initially for my husband and I, and the other for the kids, people kept enquiring about them whenever I posted the houses online.
They actually thought it was a lodge, and so this put me under pressure as I could notice the demand about the place as a camp site,” she says explaining that she diverted the place into a commercial space, and ensured that everything fit the standards of an exotic lifestyle. She started planting various trees and later on constructed a big gazebo that hosts up to 150 people. This is convenient for people’s events and makes it suit the Covid- 19 protocols as the wide space encourages social distancing, she says. Mchive tells BG Style that she was sceptical about this project at first, since it is in a settlement and 10 km off road. The fact that they use a generator as a power source fuelled the pessimism. Nevertheless, travel enthusiasts turn a blind eye on the rocky road to the place and take it as an exceptional experience to reach their destination. She highlights that her first customers visited last year in March, just before the first lockdown. “The first clients turned up with tents to pitch, last year in March, and while lock down was imposed, I had a chance to revamp the place to make it look just the way I want it to turn out to be in the end,” she said. She also introduced a decked tent to fulfil that scenery and finally accepted that she was now realizing her long term dream of Leisure business tourism.
With her qualification of Travel and Tourism, acquired from Francistown Vocational Training Centre, and Business Management from Botswana Open University, she confidently says that she has a greater picture on how to develop the place.
So far, the camp site hosts functions on weekends while other people come for sleepovers on mini vacations or just to relax and order their meals. They prepare mouth- watering food too and take pride in meeting the standards of their clients. Mchive emphasizes that Dwililo Bush Farms & Camp also holds the key to the endless Makgadikgadi adventure, as they include Pan View Tours, quad bikes and a visit to Lekhubu Island in their package, to enthuse the tourism lovers. “Our camp is also ideal for small intimate sessions and our luxurious designs speak for themselves with that African heritage to take people away from the Western world to the African world through travel,” she clarifies. She emphasizes that they believe in class and elegance and shares that they choose to strive through the challenges that they face. The road is not at all smooth especially during rainy seasons, and one of the main challenges, she says, is the elephants roaming the place although some of the clients are happy to take their pictures.