An intimate lodge in Botswana, Khwai Leadwood may have been built with the core aim of conserving the landscape, but there is a strong design eye in this carefully crafted safari camp.

“I always dreamed of having a site on the river,” says Beks Ndlovu, founder and CEO of African Bush Camps, as the aluminium boat glides through the reeds and launches onto the bank, the motor now killed. It’s nighttime and Khwai Leadwood, African Bush Camps’ new lodge on the Khwai River in the Khwai Concession, is aglow with lanterns, the bush alive with the croaking of frogs. “People said it would never happen – but sometimes it just takes a little bit of time.”

For Beks, patience (five years of it) was a worthy exchange for the perfect riverside site, which isn’t easy to come by. “You see how the river bends,” he says standing by the firepit on a sunken deck shaded by a leadwood tree, pointing to the U-shaped curve in the waterway. From this spot, the hook in the river guides your eye through the grassland and onto the neighbouring Moremi Game Reserve – and you can see why he held out for this precise location.

Beks is a stickler for details, but it was with the help of design duo Debra Fox and Chris Browne of Fox Browne Creative that the lodge became a reality. Turned around in six months, it was a project only experts could pull off. Not only did the team need to bring their sharp design skills, they also had to ensure they were gentle on the fragile landscape. At African Bush Camps, design is important – but conserving the landscape is critical.

“The tents had to have as little impact as possible, and because of the solar farm, we had to choose electrical appliances very carefully,” says Debra, adding that there were many elements to consider – such as the wooden decking for which the material had to be sustainably grown and certified. “Wherever possible, natural materials were used and Botswana crafts were celebrated.”

The six-room tented camp is loaded with eye-catching pieces such as woven baskets, sly wooden crocodiles pinned to the pool deck, a custom beaded chandelier by Mud Studio that dangles in the entrance, and steel cabinets created from small Kavango baskets in collaboration with Design Afrika. The honey-coloured palette, inspired by the Okavango Delta’s wintertime hues, is seamlessly licked throughout the property. “The grass was the base colour, which morphed into a mustard, outlined with black and white,” says Debra. In the river-facing tented suites, headboards are made from flat baskets, providing a fresh take on basket-ware from northern Botswana, and the steel beds feature draped mosquito nets, mustard linen pillows and earthy throws by African Jacquard. There are also less obvious design elements that serve as proof of Beks’s attention to detail, like the shape of the camp, which is designed to resemble a bird in flight – something that can only be seen from above.

But perhaps the most captivating design element is nature’s doing: the twisting river that leads the eye through a grassy landscape, and onto hippos, elephants and golden sunsets.

Looking for more architectural or travel inspiration? Take a look at the Sossusvlei Desert Lodge.

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Located on the water’s edge, the safari-style suites at Thorntree River Lodge give the illusion of drifting down the Zambezi River on a boat.

African Bush Camps – a safari outfit started by professional safari guide Beks Ndlovu – was until recently best known for its explorer-style camps in Zimbabwe and Botswana, including flagship Somalisa Camp in Hwange National Park.

Ten years on, the opening of Thorntree River Lodge on the banks of the Zambezi is not only the company’s first foray into Zambia but also its hippest, most sophisticated property to date. Located upstream from Victoria Falls in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park, close to Livingstone, the lodge’s suites sprawl between a bird-rich wetland and the slow-flowing waters of the Zambezi. Each has a private pool and sunken outdoor lounge.

There’s a distinct safari camp ambience, but the main inspiration for Thorntree’s design was the Zambezi. The team behind it comprised designers Alex Stovold and Cherry Hulley, Michael Kornmüller of Tenthouse Structures, builder Warwick McCance-Price of Inside Projects, and Fox Browne Creative, which collaborated with Alex and Cherry on the redesign of Somalisa Camp for Beks two years ago.

Chris Browne of Fox Browne Creative describes Beks’s style as a natural aesthetic sense of collectibles and layering, which is reflected in his camps and private homes in Zimbabwe and Cape Town. The overall effect is one of a collection that has no strict rules and no conclusion – a look that can be added to, layer by layer, over the years.

“Clean and uncluttered, the 12 suites are like shipshape river cabins, moored on the water,” says Chris, who worked closely with colleague Stefania Magni on the project. The understated nautical lines were inspired by the cruise boats that operate on the Upper Zambezi – although not here in the secluded private concession where Thorntree is situated.

Key elements include tensile hightech canvas-like material forming the roofs, walls panelled in reclaimed railway sleepers, the sheen of Zambian copper sheets, and locally sourced reed ceilings. A calming palette of soft blues, from indigo dip-dyed curtains designed by Johannesburg-based artist Ira Bekker to cerulean fish-print cushions, completes the sense of floating down the river. A double layer of sliding doors on three sides of the suites include a steel mesh layer that functions as a mosquito net while securing the space.

With the glass layer opened wide and the steel layer closed, a fresh breeze blows through the suite, and the sounds of hippos and birds can still be enjoyed. Further design inspiration was drawn from the Lozi, a group of people who traditionally relocated seasonally up and down the river following their king, for the design of beehive-shaped structures that house the reception, library, shop and spa.

In the main areas of the lodge, floor to ceiling glass stacking doors were the obvious solution, blurring the boundaries between the river and sophisticated spaces for relaxing and dining. The furnishings are a mix of second-hand pieces and Mid-century Scandi furniture such as rattan sofas and curved slatted chairs.

Fine designs and luxury amenities aside, Beks is quick to point out that he is not a hotelier. “As safari camp operators, we’re used to canvas and being immersed in the sights and sounds of the wild. We wanted to bring those elements into play here, while also providing our guests with an easy transition from the intimacy of a small bush camp to a lodge close to Victoria Falls – as an antidote to the bustling hotel experience more typical of the area.” Mission accomplished then.

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Beks and Sophia Ndlovu’s weekend home in the Matobo Hills region of Zimbabwe is where they find peace and unity as a family.

The house that Beks Ndlovu built in the Matobo Hills just outside Matobo National Park is but a short drive from Bulawayo. A former safari guide to the stars and now CEO of African Bush Camps, which runs adventure safaris in Zimbabwe and Botswana, Beks wanted to create a weekend getaway for his family in the land of his ancestors, a majestic and hilly locale hewn out of a solid granite plateau over thousands of years. This is his story.

Matobo is the historical land of my ancestors King Mzilikazi and his son Lobengula. It is also originally the land of the aboriginal people of southern Africa and the place where Cecil John Rhodes is buried.

By 3 pm on Fridays we are packed and ready to go. There is no cellphone or Wi-Fi signal at Matobo. This is a place where we can focus on connecting with nature and with one another as a family.

My wife, Sophia, was born in Germany but raised in Australia from the age of six. She is a nurse, and we met when she started visiting Zimbabwe doing volunteer work in remote clinics. From the -moment we met I set about convincing her that I needed permanent nursing!

Sophia and I have three children, Jeremiah (8), Zenzele (7) and Zahra (5). They go to a local school in Bulawayo, where we live. We also have two beloved Rhodesian ridgebacks.

When we met, Sophia and I spent our free days hiking and exploring the Matobo Hills area. We fell in love with its beauty and sense of energy, so much so that we were married there in 2003. From then on we knew that one day we would build a home in the area. Two years ago we found the perfect spot and set about purchasing a 240 ha tract of land in this magical area.

I designed and built the house from scratch. I used lots of wood and corrugated iron, plus local stones resembling the carefully carved and shaped stones of Great Zimbabwe. During the build, family and friends joked that I was building my family a shack in the bush.  We called the house Khayelitshe, which is Ndebele for “house in stone”, not dissimilar from Khayelitsha in Cape Town, which means “new home”.

Sophia and I regard ourselves as Africans, but we are also citizens of the world. This is reflected in the architectural styles in our Matobo home, a mix of North, East, West and Southern African styles. But there is also art and some fixtures such as doors and windows that come from India.

To me, a house must be unpretentious and built with an acute awareness of its surroundings. I think we have achieved this. It is organically built, a clean and uncluttered space that is honest to the environment in which it finds itself. Khayelitshe has no straight lines. It is perfectly imperfect, and so easy to live in. And on Sundays when the time comes to pack up and return to Bulawayo, we struggle to leave.

Khayelitshe is available to rent via Airbnb.

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