Safari Real Estate Brief | What a Year Can Hold: Our 2025
Last week we had our team Christmas dinner.
We looked back at where we were this time last year, and what the past twelve months actually contained.
It was a full year.
A year ago, we were a team of seven. We had zero operating properties. Close to zero bookings.
I was living in the bush, finishing our Serengeti camp, and spent Christmas with the team instead of family.
During this year, we:
Launched two safari properties in the world-famous Serengeti and Tarangire national parks
Built a team of 45+ professionals on the ground
Started an internship program
Were recognised as Best Luxury Tented Camp of 2025
Successfully went through our first high season
Received a ton of five-star guest reviews
Launched collaborations with the world’s best sommelier and bartender
Received bookings from close to 200 tour operators
Those are the visible outcomes.
This same year:
Elephants tore down our public toilet
Suppliers slipped timelines and deviated from deliverables
I grew a beard, and got rid of it
Water pipes broke more than once
Vehicles failed far from workshops, with expensive repairs
People we trusted let us down
A few tried to game the system and take advantage
Both lists belong to the same year.
My five lessons from 2025
1. Communication is everything, especially in Africa In Tanzania.
In Africa communication is mostly indirect. Issues are rarely stated head-on. This is very different from Northern Europe, where directness is the norm.
I’ve learned that calm tone, patience, and repetition matter more than intensity. I must have come across as aggressive with my direct communication style.
Message lands better when delivered gently and with humor.
2. Just keep going Done is far better than perfect.
When things don’t go to plan, momentum matters more than elegance. Get it working. Then improve. Then refine. We did this with platforms, tents, furniture, just about everything. The worst outcome is getting stuck with something half-built.
3. Nature doesn’t negotiate.
Wildlife, weather, and terrain don’t care about schedules.
Design, infrastructure, and buffers must assume disruption, not hope to avoid it.
We were creating those buffers along the way and it was painful. I’m grateful to my partners and team who stayed all in and helped make it happen, no matter what.
4. Systems protect relationships.
When expectations are clear, emotions stay out of operations.
Strong systems reduce conflict, misunderstandings, and fatigue for staff, partners, and leadership alike. Systems are also how we keep things stable among co-founders. Very important.
5. The right people make hard years workable.
This year was carried by people who go the extra mile.
By a team that shows initiative without waiting for instructions. By people who show up early every day, even after late nights. By those who take ownership when things break, slip, or get uncomfortable.
The same is true for my co-founders.
We support each other. There’s an unwritten rule among the co-founders: when one of us goes down, gets tired, mad, or angry, the others go up. They step in, take weight off, and give a hand and grace until balance returns. I probably went down most often among us. :D
That’s how work keeps moving forward when conditions aren’t ideal.
Conserve Safari is built by people who show up, every day, and carry more than their share when it matters.
This year reminded me that building something real is rarely clean from the inside.
Grateful for the team that carried 2025 in all of its forms.
Picture from last year’s Christmas. The first and last time we could have it in our Serengeti restaurant before the very first guest arrived the next day.
