1. Hotel site discovered on a run
Dave Glynn found the future site of Victoria Falls Safari Lodge during a run. “I stumbled on this site, and I thought, well, I should build a hotel here.” From humble beginnings, great things blossom.
3. Authentic African Celebration
“We went to great lengths to provide an authentic African feel,” Dave says. Thatch, timber, endless views over wilderness, sunsets and wildlife were incorporated.
4. Kenyan Inspiration
“There was no culture of ethnic style hotel design in Zimbabwe in 1991,” says Dave. Inspired by the success of Kenyan hoteliers, architect Josh Ward, Dave and Ross visited 29 lodges and hotels in Kenya to form the design for Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.
7. Back to the Drawing Board
“Designing such a large structure out of thatch was complex. Computer generated designs did not exist back then, so we employed two architectural students to build a miniature, so that they could work out exactly where each pole went. It took two months to build. The contractors put it in the back of a pickup truck to drive it up to Victoria Falls. On the way it blew out of the back of the truck and was smashed to pieces.”
8. Pioneering environmental architecture
“Victoria Falls Safari Lodge was the first tourism project in Zimbabwe to use an environmental architect. From an aerial survey, we marked every main tree, contoured all the roads and services, and mapped the entire site before we put a brick in the ground.”
9. The acts of conservation
“To me, it made no sense to remove natural habitat, some of it hundreds of years old, and then landscape it with new,” Dave says. So not a single mature tree was destroyed during construction. “The day we opened it looked like we had always been there.”
10. Swimming Pool and Tree Saga
“I refused to allow the architect and his team to cut down a tree,” says Dave.” Eventually they came to me and asked if they could transplant the tree, then put the swimming pool there. And I said ‘yes, you can’. And that tree survived for a very long time.”
12. Aligning with Nature
“A little-known fact is that the architect lined up the apex of the central structure with the Victoria Falls,” Dave says. “If you go up to the landing of the first mezzanine you will see the floor panels in a “V” shape pointing east directly to the Falls, and you can see its spray clearly on a good day.”
14. How did the Buffalo Bar get its name?
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge’s renowned Buffalo Bar was named after the massive herds of buffalo viewed while the staff would gather for sunset drinks during construction.
15. The arrival of the first elephant at the waterhole
Dave recalls, “the waterhole was an old road making gravel pit from the 1950s. We brought water from the river and turned it into a permanent waterhole. As the sun set on my 40th birthday, the first seven elephants arrived and have been coming to visit ever since.” Today, live footage from the waterhole can be viewed online and is streamed to the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge website.
16. The first guest checks in on December 14, 1994
“I was on my hands and knees, scraping paint off the Buffalo Bar floor, when the first guest checked in,” Ross recalls. “She was an American interior designer called Trisha Wilson.”
17. Confession Time
“Two weeks after we opened the lodge, my wife Julie and I took a badly needed break,” Dave says. “Once on board the plane I confessed that I thought we had lost everything. Our forward bookings stood at 2%. But by January our occupancy closed at 45%, and we haven’t looked back.”
18. Entrancing View
“There was a tree outside the restrooms,” Dave says. “I refused to allow it to be removed, so a walkway was built around the tree, and it was there for many years. We called it ‘Two Front Teeth’ because one guest was so enthralled by the view as she was walking along the passageway that she walked straight into the tree, knocking her two front teeth out.”
19. Fence confusion
The fence around the property was installed with a unique and positive purpose. It was not to confine animals but to prevent unauthorised human access, allowing wildlife to roam freely.
20. Wild morning commute
Lokuthula Lodges housekeeper and laundry supervisor Rachel Sakara remembers that, “one day early in the morning a group of us were walking to work, and we were close to the entrance to Lokuthula Lodges when we saw two leopards passing by. We all squeezed into the guard room!”
21. Transplanting a giant
“Nearly 30 years ago we found a lone baobab tree in an open cast mine in the Hwange area. It was 18 metres tall and needed a low-loader to transport it over 100km to Victoria Falls. It was a mammoth task,” Dave says. Problems encountered included hitting a power line, and singeing two metres off its top, and getting stuck on a bridge coming into Victoria Falls, holding up dignitaries from flights for three hours! The tree was successfully replanted and is still thriving.
22. Wandering off the beaten path
Dave set up a secluded hide on the side of the waterhole for photography. “I waited for hours one day when suddenly I heard voices, Italian voices, very close to me. I emerged from the hide to find six of our guests in fine leather shoes and fashionable clothing, who had decided to take a walk down to see what this “lake” was all about.
23. When binoculars come in handy
“I was standing at the Buffalo Bar waiting to meet someone,” Dave says. “A group of Canadians were waiting for a tour there, and one of them peeled off and kindly came to join me. At this point his wife turned to him and said, ‘Hey Bob, there’s a moose at the waterhole’. There were two elephants.”
24. Dedicated staff
More than 50 of our staff have been with us for 20 years or more. “I remember proudly presenting the first ten-year service awards to employees – and then presenting 30-year awards to the same people,” says Ross. “Many of today’s management started with us as young trainees, and some left to travel, grow careers, get wider experiences, and later returned in more senior roles.”
25. Tragedy and Heroism
“Tendekai was our professional guide, and one day he walked a New Zealand tourist from the lodge to the Siduli Hide for a hide sit,” Ross says. “There had been a stroppy bull elephant around for a few days. After a time, Tendekai checked that it was safe to leave, and called his guest. They hadn’t moved 10m and this bull came out of the bush from 70 to 80m away. Tendekai knew from the elephant’s behaviour that it was going to be an unpleasant situation. He fired a shot into the ground, but the elephant kept coming. He then told the guest to get behind a tree, and moved away so the elephant rather went for him. He fired another shot over the elephant’s head, instead of at him and the elephant attacked. After the elephant moved off, two staff members rescued the guest.”
26. Inviting a bush buck to tea
“There was a big old male bush buck, called Lameck, who used to turn up at a staff members’ office between 8am and 10am every day to get his morning tea, and again at around 4.30pm for his last tidbit of the day,” says Ross. He was fed with game nuts and now and then a special treat from the kitchen, such as lettuce, banana or pawpaw peel.
28. Community Involvement
To date, Victoria Falls Safari Lodge has proudly raised more than US$230,000 for the Victoria Falls Anti-Poaching Unit to protect the local wildlife and environment around this sought after travel destination.
30. Consistent Excellence
Voted Best Safari Lodge/Resort Hotel in Zimbabwe 25 times by the Association of Zimbabwe Travel Agents, the lodge continues to stand as a beacon of excellence in the industry.
