Freiwilli­gen­pro­jekt Namibia - Emilia

Profile

Name: Emilia

Age: 27

Project: Elephant Conservation Damaraland

Period: August 2026

Duration: 12 days

Rating

Elephant Conservation Project:

My field visit in Damaraland: 12 days in the wild

I always thought elephants are especially fascinating. So when I learned more about human-wildlife conflict in different parts of the world, I knew I wanted to experience this kind of conservation work for myself.

That’s what brought me to Damaraland in Namibia, joining our Natucate Elephant Conservation project for 12 days in the field.

Getting ready for 12 days outdoors

I joined in August, during winter in Damaraland. With a long packing list in hand and 12 days of sleeping outdoors, mostly in a sleeping bag, and not necessarily having the chance to shower or freshen up every day ahead of me, I made one last stop at the supermarket in Swakopmund.

Moisturiser, gloves for Build Week, cold drinks for the evenings, snacks to share, eye drops… all those little things you suddenly realise you might need when you’re going to spend nearly two weeks in the wild (and that were mentioned on the packing list).

On Sunday evening I was finally meeting the rest of our group for the next 12 days. We had a short introduction with our two guides, went through all the relevant information and got ready to head out into the field the following morning.

From Swakopmund to Base Camp

On Monday morning, we left Swakopmund for the two- to three-hour drive towards Base Camp.

It was our first proper opportunity to get to know one another, while the landscape outside the windows slowly changed. From the coastal area around Swakopmund to the sandy outskirts of Damaraland.

Once we arrived, there was no time to waste. It was getting dark, so we started preparing dinner almost immediately. Meanwhile, we were given our sleeping mats and covers and made our way up to the treehouse platform at Base Camp, where we would spend our first night.

After dinner, we went through the plan for the following day and received more information about Build Week, our work site and how everything would be organised around camp — including cooking and other daily tasks.

We divided ourselves into teams of two, with each team taking responsibility for camp duties for 24 hours. My first duty started right away: cleaning the dishes after dinner.

Everyone was pretty tired by then, so we snuggled into our sleeping bags, looked up at an incredible night sky and listened to baboons vocalising somewhere nearby.

05:30. Time to get up.

The next morning, my alarm went off at around 05:30. Duty time.

That meant making a fire, heating water, preparing something warm for everyone to drink and getting breakfast started.

Once everyone was up and had eaten, we rolled up our sleeping mats, secured them to the vehicle, loaded the food and equipment we would need for the next few days and set off towards Khorixas.

We arrived at the project site, scanned the area and were invited to camp next to one of the houses of one woman who kindly offered for us to set up our communal tent there.

And then, Build Week began.

Part 1: Build Week

Lets do this! We drove to the project site and started to clear the area around the solar panels and water pump. On our first day, we cleared the area of stones and plants, always keeping an eye out for potential scorpions and other little surprises hiding underneath. We also started mixing the cement for the foundation of the wall.

Making the foundation as even as possible turned out to be one of my favourite tasks. There was something incredibly satisfying about seeing a proper structure slowly emerge from what had initially just been a patch of ground.

Over the following days, we found our rhythm: collecting rocks, shovelling sand, mixing cement and, finally, bringing all those individual pieces together.

Slowly but surely, the wall started to take shape.

One of the biggest surprises for me was how many local people joined in and helped while we were there. There was a lot of people power — and a real sense of everyone contributing to the same goal. That positive energy really stuck with me.

A typical day during Build Week

For the duty team, the day started at 05:30.

05:30 – Wake up and start camp duties

06:00 – Coffee and breakfast

07:00 – Stretching and getting ready for the day

07:30–10:00 – First building session

10:00–11:00 – Coffee and fruit break

11:00–13:00 – Second building session

13:00 – Lunch

Until 14:30 – Downtime and rest

14:30–17:00 – Third building session

17:00 – Back to camp, dinner preparations and watching the sun go down

The days were physical, but there was something really rewarding about them.

After three and a half days, we had built roughly half of the wall.

Standing there and looking at something that hadn’t existed a few days earlier — something we had physically built together — felt pretty amazing.

An unexpected visitor on our last night

Our final night of Build Week came with a very special surprise.

At some point during the night, the dogs nearby started barking. Nothing particularly unusual about that, but this time it sounded different. Something different had caught their attention.

We got out of our sleeping bags and grabbed our binoculars.

The moon was shining, and then we saw them.

At least five elephants were moving through the trees, roughly 100 metres away from us.

After spending the past few days building structures designed to help protect communities and elephants from human-wildlife conflict, suddenly having elephants quietly roaming through the landscape around our camp made it even more real.

It was unexpected and beautiful … and an unforgettable way to end Build Week.

Back to Base Camp

After Build Week, we headed back to Base Camp for the weekend.

We cleaned and reorganised our boxes, stocked up on food for the next part of the project and spent some time in Uis.

It was also a chance to rest, reset and prepare for what was coming next.

Because Build Week was only the first part of the project.

Patrol Week was waiting.

Part 2: Patrol Week

For the second part of the project, we packed up again. But this time, we reduced everything down even further. We took two outfits, one set of clothes to sleep in, wet wipes, our sleeping mats and sleeping bags, and the food we would need for the next few days.

And one very important addition: our cameras.

Our goal was to head into the area where the Mama Africa Herd had last been seen and try to find them.

Our first encounter happened around midday, when the elephants were resting in the shade. So, naturally, we did the same. We moved a little further away, set up our lunch camp, ate and rested while keeping an eye on the herd from a distance.

As soon as the elephants started moving again, we moved too. We followed at a respectful distance, taking photographs that could later be used to identify individual elephants.

Eventually, the herd started heading towards a swamp area. We knew we wouldn’t be able to follow them in there, so we set up camp somewhere safe, cooked dinner and settled down for the night.

There was no tent this time.

Just our sleeping bags, our mats, the landscape around us and the stars above.

Following the elephants

The next morning, we headed to a nearby lodge first, where we had to wait for some organisational things before heading back out into the field.

By then, we knew the herd was somewhere in the swamp. Rather than trying to follow them into an area we couldn’t access, we made a plan: take the long way around and wait for them on the other side.

The drive took us through completely different landscapes of Damaraland. The Brandberg was almost constantly somewhere on the horizon, and we took our time to enjoy the scenery while learning more about the environment around us. For example about the fascinating Welwitschia plants or about the ostriches we encountered along the way.

Eventually, we reached our next campsite. But almost immediately, we thought: We’re too late.

Local people told us that elephants had already passed through. And the tracks in the sand seemed to confirm it. There were elephant footprints everywhere.

But something didn’t quite add up.

After looking at the signs and the direction of the tracks, our guides came to another possibility: perhaps another elephant herd had passed through, meaning we might actually be somewhere between two different herds.

We set up camp, prepared dinner and enjoyed the beautiful views over the dry riverbed.

Then the weather changed: The wind suddenly picked up. And just as the first people were falling asleep, we saw lightning in the distance. Soon, a few drops of rain started falling.

Rain in August in Damaraland is very unusual.

Luckily, the storm never came directly towards us. We made it through the night under the open sky while the weather slowly moved on.

And the next morning brought another surprise.

“The elephants are here.”

I was on duty to prepare breakfast when our guide suddenly returned from scouting.

“The elephants are here.” About 600 metres away, in the thick vegetation, a herd was slowly emerging in our direction. The other herd had come back.

We quickly finished breakfast, packed everything up and moved into position on the higher rocky sides overlooking the riverbed.

And then we watched them pass through.

It was a beautiful sighting. Simply sitting there and watching them.

Once again, we took plenty of photographs from a distance. These images would later help us identify individual elephants and contribute to the ongoing monitoring work.

Later, our guide also collected elephant dung for further research.

But the elephant dung was not the only thing we were collecting information about.

From the swamp area, we also took a water sample to be analysed as part of the research into the ecosystem.

It was a good reminder that elephant conservation is never just about the elephants themselves. Understanding the environment they depend on is just as important.

One last encounter

After leaving the riverbed, we made our way back towards the other side of the swamp. And somehow, we got lucky once again. We encountered the first herd again. After all the tracking, waiting, driving and wondering where they had gone, seeing them a second time felt incredibly special.

For our final night of mobile camping, we found another beautiful spot in the wilderness. We cooked pap with vegetables, white beans in tomato sauce and a surprisingly nice potato salad.

Then we settled down for our last night out in the complete wild. No buildings. No showers. No real facilities. Just us, the landscape and the night sky.

The next morning, we started making our way back towards Base Camp. And, as if the elephants wanted to give us one final goodbye, we encountered a lone elephant bull on his way towards a nearby waterhole. After everything we had experienced over the previous days, it felt like the perfect way to end our time in the field.

Back to Base Camp… and back to reality

Once we reached Base Camp, we cleaned all our food boxes, organised our equipment and started packing everything away. We still had one last afternoon in Damaraland. One last evening at Base Camp. And one more night beneath the incredible Namibian sky.

The following morning, it was finally time to say goodbye and head back towards Swakopmund.

Elephant Conservation Project: what I’m taking home

For me, having a more intense experience focused specifically on elephant-human relations gave me another impressive insight into the world of wildlife conservation.

The combination of Build Week and Patrol Week was what made the project so special.

Build Week showed me the very practical side of conservation: physically working alongside local communities to create structures that can help reduce human-elephant conflict.

Patrol Week was completely different: There was much less physical work, but a lot more observation, patience and attention to detail. Following elephant signs, watching their movements and photographing individual animals made me look at the landscape in a completely different way.

And then there was the simplicity of it all.

We carried very little. We spent days outside. We cooked simple meals, slept under the stars and focused almost entirely on what was happening around us.

There is something incredibly grounding about that.

For a long time, my mind hadn’t felt this calm or present, like with the elephants. I think that was one of the biggest gifts of the whole experience to me.

To spend 12 days immersed in the landscape, learning from knowledgeable and passionate guides, sharing the experience with a group of fellow wilderness enthusiasts and getting a glimpse into the realities of elephant conservation is something I’ll take with me for a long time. Hopefully forever.