N/a’an ku sê, which means God looks after us, is not just another lodge where visitors can experience the untamed African bush, wildlife and pristine sunsets over waving savannas.
It is a serious conservation effort aimed at reintroducing problem animals in natural habitats, rehabilitating injured animals and researching the reasons why predators become problem animals.
For Marlice and her husband, Dr. Rudie van Vuuren, N/a’an ku sê is home, but also a lifelong project of love, ploughing back into the San community and contributing to nature conservation in a unique way.
The Van Vuurens bought the farm Ovuuyo in 2005 and for the following two years, with the help of partners, worked tirelessly to establish this sanctuary just 40 km from the capital.
The Windhoek-based architect, Dirk Theunissen, realised the dream of building a lodge with ecologically clean material, incorporating solid wood logs, glass and thatch.
Today the lodge offers six luxurious individual chalets, a magnificent dining area overlooking a ravine with the spectacular unspoilt Namibian landscape as backdrop.
In contrast to the rugged landscape, the interiors of the chalets are luxurious and pampering, offering large twin beds with crisp white linen, airconditioning, en suite bathrooms and private verandas from where one can survey the landscape.
For the day visitor a sumptuous buffet meal awaits. Take a carnivore feeding tour and witness from close range, though protected by electric fence and under the watchful eye of a trained guide, how lion, cheetah, leopard and wild dogs are fed.
If you are lucky, you may also get the opportunity to stroke a caracal as these magnificent felines with their pointy ears meander among the visitors in their designated camp.
The animals seen on these feeding tours are the unlucky ones. They are destined to live out their natural lives in captivity as they can’t be rehabilitated and reintroduced into the wild.
Some of them are problem animals that hunt on domestic farm animals, or they were injured, or over the years became so tame due to contact with humans that they won’t be able to survive in the wild and fend for themselves.
The attraction they hold for tourists however helps to pay for the far more extensive and ambitious project of reintroducing other captured predators into the wild. At present 19 predators and 17 baboons are kept in captivity at N/a’an ku sê.
However four caracals, one jackal, eight cheetah and six leopard have already been released back into the wild in the conservation areas of Namib Rand and Namib Naukluft park.
These animals were fitted with electronic tracking devices and their movements are monitored daily through telemetry, GPS and aerial tracking.
The N/a’an ku sê research programme was started in February 2008 and built on the work of the Okatumba Wildlife Research project.
It has now evolved into a large carnivore rehabilitation project as well as the development of cheetah footprint identification software.
Overseeing this project is a biologist, Florian Weise. N/a’an ku sê also offers international volunteers looking for a unique African wildlife adventure the opportunity to have a hands-on experience.
Volunteers can help injured or orphaned animals, research large carnivore or make a difference to the medical welfare and education of the San community by joining N/a’an ku sê’s volunteer programme.
International filmmakers have often sought the African bush as backdrop for their movies. Recently N/a’an ku sê featured on German television in a popular soap opera, with the semi-tame cheetah and some baboons almost outshining the actors.
N/a’an ku sê also has a guest house in Windhoek and offers car hire services.
