Kaelo Destinations Explains Its Sun-Fuelled Green Stays

Southern Africa's summer arrives in November with long days of strong sun, and two very different properties in the Kaelo Destinations collection are built to make the most of it. Pambele Beach House in Mozambique runs completely off-grid, while most of the camps at Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana draw their power from solar. As the new season begins, Kaelo Destinations is sharing a closer look at how these properties work day to day, and at what each guest's stay gives back to the surrounding land and communities.

Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana and Pambele Beach House in Mozambique are the first destinations in Kaelo Destinations, a growing collection of places chosen for their natural beauty, authenticity and sense of purpose. Kaelo is a Setswana word that can mean "to guide", "guardian" or "to nurture". The name reflects the group's aim of guiding travellers and partners on a journey built on care and respect for the land and the people who live there. Maggie and Stephen Lansdown CBE founded the collection on a vision of conservation-first tourism, authentic experiences and community upliftment.

Solar-powered camps in the Tuli

In eastern Botswana, Mashatu Game Reserve covers 42,000 hectares of private land within the Northern Tuli Game Reserve. Kaelo Destinations says five of the reserve's six camps run on solar power and are classed as green camps, helped by the many days of sunshine Botswana gets each year. Gardens use indigenous plants, laundry dries in the sun, and every guest gets a refillable flask, which cuts down on both single-use plastic and water use.

Local spending is just as central to how the reserve operates. Around 95% of Mashatu's supplies come from inside Botswana, covering everything from food and drinks to building materials and vehicle parts. At Merryhill, the reserve's headquarters, a central recycling plant processes glass and tins and manages waste reuse across the property. Guests choosing a Botswana safari lodge will rarely notice these systems, but they shape how every camp runs from one day to the next.

Wild space with no fences

Eight rivers run through Mashatu, and wildlife follows corridors along them freely. No animal on the reserve is hunted or culled. Every stay includes a conservation levy, and the collection says the projects it funds have saved about a million litres of water a month and protected more than 86 of Mashatu's iconic trees. The work continues with erosion rehabilitation, alien plant control and elephant-safe fencing around those trees.

Through the Tuli Conservation Trust and NOTUGRE, the levies also pay for anti-poaching units, managing conflict between people and wildlife, and restoration projects. Spatial data from tracking systems feeds research on elephants, big cats and migratory birds. This means a Botswana safari at Mashatu also supports long-term work in one of the region's most diverse wilderness areas, an area known for big elephant herds and excellent big cat sightings.

Living off-grid on the coast

Pambele Beach House brings the same approach to the coast on Mozambique's San Sebastian Peninsula. This exclusive-use house is in the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary, looking out over the Bazaruto Archipelago. It runs fully on solar energy and has no connection to city power. Desalination provides all of the lodge's water, and drinking water for guests and staff is pulled straight from the air by turning humidity into fresh water.

Guests are given a refillable bottle made from biodegradable wheat straw, so single-use plastic bottles are not needed. Pambele buys from nearby island suppliers and small local producers wherever it can, which supports local livelihoods and keeps its environmental footprint small. Its ongoing projects include building a new community clinic. Few Mozambique beach resorts can say their guests' stay is powered, watered and supplied this way.

What this means for travellers this season

Summer begins in southern Africa in November. In the Tuli, the heat builds, migrant birds come back and young antelope start to appear on the plains. On the Mozambican coast, the dry season ends with warm days and clear skies. Both seasons bring plenty of sunshine, and both show how the collection's properties are built to work with their climate, not against it.

For guests, the benefit is easy to see. The conservation levy is already included in every stay at a Kaelo property, so each booking supports the conservation, community and culture work described here with no extra step. Guests also enjoy small numbers of fellow travellers, private access and interiors designed to blend into the landscape.

The camps and homes in the collection

Kaelo's Mashatu properties include Euphorbia Mashatu, a five-star lodge with eight private villas, and Kolokolo Safari Home, an exclusive-use home that sleeps up to eight. There is also Mashatu Lodge, Mashatu Tent Camp, and Tuli Safari Lodge Mashatu, which has eight luxury tented suites on the bank of the Limpopo River. Groups of eight can book Shalimpo Safari Home or Fika Futi Safari Camp, both exclusive-use and self-catering. WalkMashatu is an immersive walking safari, with nights spent under the stars in custom-designed tents.

Pambele in Mozambique sleeps up to 10 guests and opens directly onto the beach. Activities cover both land and sea, from snorkelling and kayaking through the mangroves to bush drives in the sanctuary.

Many travellers book both, spending time in the Botswana bush and then on the Indian Ocean coast. The trip connects two destinations that take the same approach to conservation, community and design.

What comes next

Kaelo Destinations has said it will launch new journeys, new destinations and new ways to travel meaningfully, and that it is building a portfolio of places with the same sense of purpose. For now, its two founding destinations show what that purpose looks like in practice, from solar panels and sun-dried laundry in Botswana to drinking water drawn from sea air in Mozambique.

Visit https://kaelodestinations.com/ for full details of the collection, current offers and the group's conservation work.

About Kaelo Destinations

Founded under the vision of Maggie and Stephen Lansdown CBE, Kaelo Destinations is a collection of luxury safari lodges and beach retreats in southern Africa. Its two founding destinations are Mashatu Game Reserve, a 42,000-hectare private reserve in Botswana's Northern Tuli Game Reserve, and Pambele Beach House, an exclusive-use, off-grid beach house in Mozambique's Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary. A conservation levy is included in every stay to support conservation and community initiatives.