Our story began two decades ago, when a family fell in love with an old farm and decided to make it their life’s work restoring the land back to its original natural state...

 

Mount Camdeboo is an entirely family-run reserve that’s deeply committed to  the restoration and preservation of the Great Karoo's incredible environment and all that inhabit it. Everything we do here is connected to our  four main guiding principles: 

Restoration, Celebration, Conservation, and Education.

 

This breaks down to include:

• Restoring  the reserve's fauna and flora back to its natural environment 

•  Creating a sanctuary to conserve endangered species for current and future generations to appreciate

• Celebrating the culture and history of the region (from the Bushmen to the settlers to today)

• Creating symbiotic relationship between local communities and the natural environment

• Instilling a sense of appreciation and celebration of the  Camdeboo (its people, its history, its wildlife) 

• Providing guests with  an authentic safari experience  

• Educating future generations about the importance of conserving our wild places

 

If it doesn't fit into at least one of those principles, we aren't interested.

 

Our vision behind the a volunteer programme

Our vision is to develop a volunteer program that offer participants the experience of a lifetime, one that imparts on them our passion for the conservation of wildlife and nature and shares our knowledge of and experience in the many aspects that go into running a successful game reserve.  We also support and involve our volunteers in outreach initiatives that are currently running in Graaff-Reinet and Pearston. When our volunteers leave Mount Camdeboo, we want them to leave  knowing that their contribution has made a lasting impact on conservation and the local community.

 

 

 

Why choose the Karoo?

Known for its legendary hospitality, stark landscape, unique flora and fauna, and extreme terrain, the Karoo is at once both wild and subdued, a study in contrasts and a place people come back to again and again. It is a place to rejuvenate the senses and calm the restless soul. It is a place to both lose yourself and find yourself again. 

 

The word ‘safari’ means journey. And there are few places in this world that better embody the idea of a journey than the Karoo. This land is filled with stories of travellers, be they migrating herds, indigenous tribesmen, or European settlers. And it is a land full of surprises. Waterfalls and rock pools hide within the cliffs. Spectacular thunderstorms pass through, carrying life-giving rains that bring parched plains  to life in mere moments. Flowers carpet the valley floors and hillsides in brilliant pinks and yellows.  Verreaux's eagles  soar on thermals high above.   

 

Even today visitors to the area can’t help but be affected by the awe-inspiring landscape of open plains and jagged mountains, the warm and friendly people, and the unique wildlife.  And the land is really FILLED with life, though sometimes you have to look a little harder to find it.  

 

Unfortunately, this area and its wildlife are not very well protected. We are trying to change that. 

 

Where are we?

Set amidst the craggy mountains and green valleys of the Great Karoo, Mount Camdeboo is a private 12,000-hectare (30,000 acre) reserve located in the beautiful malaria-free Eastern Cape of South Africa. The reserve boasts several different and unique ecological biomes and tons of wildlife, making it a truly one-of-a-kind location, particularly as it relates to conservation work. In fact, three of our main biomes are the least protected in all of South Africa. 

 

But Mount Camdeboo is about more than just wilderness. The historical and cultural significance of the reserve is no less important, with rock paintings by the indigenous San people decorating cliff faces, and relics from the Anglo-Boer War standing as reminders of the region’s turbulent past.

 

These days the reserve is surrounded by local communities who also play a large part in keeping Mount Camdeboo running and in helping with our conservation work. As part of the volunteer experience, we seek to employ people from those communities as well as give back to them through outreach education programmes and environmentally focused skills development. 

 

Fulfilling our part of the bargain

All of our projects are created with the greater good in mind. We incorporate environmentally sustainable practices in our work and do our best to ensure that everything we do has an end goal of improving our world in one way or another, whether in small ways or big ones. Whether it’s monitoring critically endangered species such as rhinos and cheetahs, conducting and providing important wildlife research to NGOs and universities, rehabilitating the area’s unique natural landscape, empowering and educating local communities, or creating innovative and sustainable usage for waste, we live by the idea that we should think globally and act locally. 

 

Conservation isn’t just one thing. It’s everything – from how we grow and source our food, to how we live on and treat the land, to what we buy at the shops, to who we buy from. It is how we tread on this earth. At MCCE, we do our best to tread lightly, so that we leave only footprints and take only memories. It's just who we are. And we look for volunteers who get our ethos about protecting the planet and its inhabitants.

 

Are you one of them?

 

 

 

 

 

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