News from the field

Early on a September morning two of our rangers found fresh tracks near a waterhole on the eastern side of the Ombara Kalahari Reserve. A small set of prints ran beside the mother's. Three days later they saw the calf itself, about a month old, staying close in the thick camel thorn.

It is the second calf born on the reserve since black rhinos were brought back in 2019 under a government custodianship scheme. Both mother and calf are healthy. The rangers follow them on foot every day and record where they feed and drink.

Guests at Redsand Lodge will not see the calf for now. We keep the area closed to drives until it is older, and we do not share its location. Part of every Redsand stay goes to the anti-poaching team that guards the reserve.

On a cold August evening in Windhoek, 31 students received their certificates from the Ombara Hospitality Academy. Families drove in from Rundu, Opuwo and Keetmanshoop for the ceremony, and the students cooked and served dinner for 200 guests.

The course lasts 12 months: six months of classes in Windhoek and six months of placement at our lodges. Students pay no fees, and the Ombara Foundation covers their transport and lodging. This year's class is the largest since the Academy opened.

Twenty-four of the graduates have already taken jobs with us, from the kitchen at The Tidewater to the front desk at Saltpan Lodge. Others are going to hotels in Windhoek and Swakopmund. If you are served by a young member of staff on your next stay, there is a good chance they trained here.

July is busy at Ombara Farm. The team of 26 has been lifting butternut, beetroot, onions and carrots, cutting spinach and kale, and packing crates for the lodges. This winter's harvest came to about eight tonnes, the most since the farm started in 2014.

The vegetables grow in beds watered by a drip system fed from boreholes, and the soil is built up with compost from the farm's cattle. The same herd gives beef and milk, and the small dairy now makes yoghurt and a mild farm cheese.

Every week a refrigerated truck leaves Mariental for Redsand Lodge, Dune Hollow, Klipkop Lodge, Kloofhuis and Ombara Town House. If you see a salad of roasted beetroot or a plate of farm cheese on the menu, it most likely came from here.

Six trackers from conservancies near Ochre Ridge have spent the past year logging desert elephants along the Huab and Aba-Huab rivers. Each sighting goes into a simple phone app: herd size, calves, location and what the elephants are eating.

The data shows two herds moving up to 70 km between water points in the dry season. It helps farmers know when elephants are near, so they can protect water tanks and gardens. The Ombara Foundation pays the trackers' salaries and fuel and has funded two elephant-proof water points.

Guests on our tracking drives ride with these trackers. They share what they have learnt and show you how to tell one herd from another by the shape of the ears.

This spring The Tidewater opened its eighteenth suite. The Lighthouse Suite takes the whole top floor of the north wing, with two bedrooms, a lounge with a wood fireplace and a wide deck facing the sea.

Local craftspeople built most of it. The floors are from salvaged railway sleepers, the light fittings are woven by a cooperative in Swakopmund, and the bathroom tiles were made by hand in Windhoek. It sleeps four and suits families or two couples travelling together.

The suite opened on 1 September. You can book it for stays from October, and it is included in our long-stay rates for a month on the coast.

The Namib is one of the darkest places on Earth. With no towns for over 100 km, the Milky Way casts a faint shadow on a moonless night. In summer, look for Orion rising in the east after 22:00, upside down compared with the northern view, and Sirius, the brightest star, close behind.

Look south for the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two small galaxies that look like smudges of mist. The Southern Cross sits low in the south-east before dawn. Planets are easy to find this season: Jupiter is bright in the east late in the evening.

Give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust and keep your phone off. Every guest at Dune Hollow and Stillwind Camp can join a free star talk on clear nights, and the villas have a sky bed on the deck for sleeping outside.