In the culmination of a process that started more than 20 years ago, eco-tourism stalwart and Natural Selection co-founder Colin Bell is finally realising his dream of opening a lodge on South Africa’s unspoilt Wild Coast.

Situated in the Mkambati Nature Reserve in the Eastern Cape, Natural Selection will open GweGwe Beach Lodge around Easter 2024 with nine premier quality bedrooms (including two family suites).

In early 2000, seven villages inland from Mkambati formed a trust to represent the rights of their community members whose ancestors were the original inhabitants of the land. Their land claim has been successful and today the Mkambati Land Trust owns the Mkambati Nature Reserve. The Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Authority provides the conservation management of the reserve and Mkambati Matters is the contracted private sector partner for the northern, private sector of the reserve.

The Mkambati Land Trust have agreed to expand Mkambati Reserve by around 40% and commit the use of the reserve in perpetuity to conservation in return for the financial benefits and jobs that the reserve will create.

Mkambati Matters tendered and won the rights to develop the northern sector of their reserve. The concession agreement binds Mkambati Matters to build a prestigious, “ultra-green” lodge that will be totally off the grid, powered by the latest and most efficient solar, wind and grey-water technologies.

The community will benefit from the creation of hundreds of new jobs in time; their lease fees (9% of gross turnover); the creation of community owned business and many other financial and upliftment benefits. 

Guests can easily access the reserve by boat, air, helicopter out of Durban, Margate or Port Edward – and by road.

As depicted in the video below, the reserve is spectacularly beautiful, hosting pristine rivers, waterfalls, gorges, grasslands, pockets of dense swamp forest and secluded beaches.