Hodi Hodi Conservation
How we became friends with the Elephants.
In 2019 we found the secret valley that was to become the heart of the HODI HODI conservation area, and we arrived to build a dream camp.
The Beginning
We pitched 6 little temporary tents in a Marula grove that provided us with a home, office and construction headquarters for the first two years - through bushfire, massive floods, drought, financial struggles, and finally pandemic!
We were initially granted the title deed of 75 acres where the camp was situated. It was originally village land, but had never had human habitation. There was some timber harvesting as the mountain slopes have a good quantity and variety of ancient hardwoods. There was occasional grazing by cattle, and there had been incidences of poaching and extraction of rocks for road building.
Our Communities
We fostered good relations with the two villages behind the mountain ridge – inaccessible from the camp due to the rocky, densely forested, steep slopes rising 1,000 metres in altitude behind the camp area. We fixed their junior school roof, built a house for the local doctor, sent an ambitious young villager to medical school, drilled a village borehole, funded a chicken farm and built 3 classrooms and staff room for the secondary school.
We were intent on making sure there was no further extraction on the land, and so entered into agreements with the villages to jointly patrol and conserve the wider acreage – extending to 65 square kilometres around the camp area – as far as they eye could see, and to the boundary of the Wildlife management area.
We signed 30 year conservation contracts, and our annual lease payment now funds a variety of other education and healthcare projects in the villages.
A Wildlife Sanctuary
The game was initially skittish and elusive, and the local residents were just a pair of jackals, a troupe of baboons and a couple of shy klipspringer gazelle. The elephants were very wary of us. The area was adjacent to a hunting block, and there were incidences of snares set for bushmeat.
Working with community village rangers and wildlife authorities, our presence and efforts gradually reduced all incursions, and developed the wildlife sanctuary we intended.
We quickly started to notice a significant change in the wildlife behaviour.
The Elliebar
Three bull elephants began making frequent visits to the little campsite, and when we designed their own waterhole, topped up with delicious clean water from our solar powered borehole, they were regular visitors during the build, even when there was a lot of noisy construction activity.
Drinking at their HODi HODI Elliebar saves them the long hard walk around the mountain ridge to the nearest river and village, with the temptation to raid crops while there.. and that keeps our community happy too.
Our New Friends
We knew we had gained the full trust of our new friends when the camp was finally open and the breeding herds started to visit. Our first baby elephant was born in 2021 just under one of the guest tents which hang over the ridge, and there have been two more born on site since.
The Elephants of Hodi Hodi
So now in the dry season from July to December, when travelers come to stay with us to explore the beauty of our conservation area and the Ruaha National Park, they will probably meet the elephants of HODI HODI strolling up the path to their waterhole... sometimes as many as 100 a day will visit in the dry season. Wild dog pass through too, and we keep a nearby spring damp which attracts impala, kudu, bush pigs and warthogs, as well as buffalo and giraffe. We have a semi resident leopard, and the wild dog pack have made kills near our guest rooms.
When you visit Hodi Hodi, it’s not just a camp in a beautiful area – it’s part of a wider re-wilding, flora and fauna conservation area that we partner with our communities to keep as a special piece of wild Africa, protected as HODI HODI’s legacy.