Two back-to-back Children in the Wilderness (CITW) camps took place in Namibia at the beginning of December. The camps were held at Damaraland Adventure Camp (DAC), a rustic Wilderness Safaris camp in the heart of the Torra Conservancy. Agnes Tjirare, our CITW Coordinator in Namibia, and her team of Mentors ran fun, informative, inspiring camps, with two different groups of children from the areas surrounding Damaraland.
Here are a few highlights from the week.
On game drives, the children were lucky enough to see many desert adapted elephants.
Desert adapted elephants 
A hot, sleepy desert adapted elephant 
Desert adapted elephant 
Elias helping with some tricky spelling 
A beautiful game drive in the Huab River 
A baby desert adapted ellie
Team building is an important part of our camp programme.
Team building activities – Knots, Ties and Tangles 
Team building activities – Knots, Ties and Tangles 
Team building activities – Mine Fields 
Team building activities – The Sinking Ship 
Team building activities – Spider’s Web
During game drives, we took many opportunities to stop and explore the beautiful environment around Damaraland. This included playing on the sand dunes and learning about the iron that is contained in them, fun with magnifying glasses, and nature walks to learn about the interesting vegetation of the desert.
Learning how elephants help to disperse seeds 
Examining elephant dung 
Learning about the welwitschia 
Nature walk at sunset 
Beautiful nature walk 
Examining the sand on a sand dune – who knew there was iron in this big piles of sand! 
Magnifying glasses 🙂 
Toktokkie beetle 
Happy girls on the sand dunes
We visited Twyfelfontien to see the magnificent rock engravings. A stop at Damaraland Living Museum showed the children how people lived off the land . Ketji explained to the children how Wilderness Safaris Community team have made a borehole that supplies both the community of De Riet, and the thirsty desert elephants with water.
Damaraland Living Museum – The children showing us how its done 
Damaraland Living Museum – Our Mentors getting involved in the dancing 
Damaraland Living Museum – Learning traditional games 
Twyfelfontein rock engravings 
De Riet – How Wilderness has helped the community… And the elephants
And none of this would be possible without our wonderful Mentors. Ketji, Wilderness Safaris’ Community Liaison Manager, joined in on camp. He loved guiding the children – Ketji was a guide for Wilderness Safaris before he joined the community team. Elias and Michael are both Wilderness Safaris guides, who took time off from their usual guiding jobs, to volunteer as guides on camp. They were amazing with the children, and showed endless patience, answering questions and taking time to show the children all the intricacies of nature. Lazarus is a product of CITW – now working as an assistance manager for Wilderness Safaris Doro Nawas Camp. Doris is the most amazing chef, and kept us all well fed. She also jumped into all activities at camp, and showed us all a thing or two about energy and enthusiasm. Saara is also a product of CITW, and is currently studying food science at University of Namibia. Iyambo is a paramedic, and has volunteered on many CITW Camps before. Thank you for all of your hard work Eco-Mentors!
Meet the Team – Ketji 
Meet the Team – Michael 
Meet the Team – Elias 
Meet the Team – Lazarus 
Meet the Team – Doris and Agnes 
Meet the Team – Doris 
Meet the Team – Saara 
Meet the Team – Iyambo
