Flat Dogs Camp - Zambia

Episode Number: Tenth
 
Flat Dogs Camp - Zambia
 
Adrian Coley - Managing Director

Episode Summary:

Where are you?
Ways to get there.
What is a flatdog?
About the camp
Food glorious food
Local Community
Where does Adrian holiday

Guest Information:

Adrian Coley

https://www.flatdogscamp.com/

Key Takeaways or Topics Covered:

South Luangwa

Contact Information:

Should you want to contact me directly, please email:  mailto:rael@wildsunsets.travel

Blog Post:

Please find the shortened version blog post of this podcast at: https://www.wildsunsets.travel/blog/

Transcript

Rael Zieve: [00:00:00] Welcome, I am Rael Zieve and your host for Keep Traveling Your African Vacation, the only podcast which brings you insightful information in the African tourism industry by real tourism professionals. Today is our 10th episode and I have the pleasure of introducing Adrian Coley, who is Managing Director of Flat Dogs Camp.

Adrian, welcome to the show.

Adrian Coley: Thanks, Rael. Yeah, it's a pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

 Let's start off with whereabouts are you? Situated and how do you get your guests to you?

Adrian Coley: So we're in the eastern side of Zambia, right on the boundary of the South Luangwa National Park. So we're on the Luangwa River which flows from, Northeast Zambia down into the Zambezi, just to the east of the Lower Zambezi National Park. And we're about a a one hour flight from Lusaka. So most of our guests fly into Lusaka, either through Dubai or Doha or Ethiopia or Nairobi or Joburg, and then they catch a little plane up here for an hour, and [00:01:00] it's a scheduled flight. From Lusaka to Mfuwe and we're about 40 minutes from Mfuwe airport.

Rael Zieve: You were telling me off air that the commercial flight is done by pro flight zambia?

Adrian Coley: Yeah, exactly. They've serviced the Luangwa for 20 odd years now, and they're by far the most reliable and professional of operators. And we're an agent for them. So if anyone wants us to book their flights for them internally, then we're able to do that. But ProFlight, yeah, they're the people that fly up to us.

Rael Zieve: I'm assuming you could also do some kind of charter flight if that was necessary as well

Adrian Coley: Yeah, absolutely. Lots of charter companies based in Lusaka. So you can charter in, although during what I would say is the high season from sort of May through to the end of November, there's plenty of scheduled flights. So chartering isn't necessary unless you've got a connection you want to meet or something and then, we can, put you in touch with people to charter planes up here as well.

Rael Zieve: Coming from Africa myself, I understand the terminology flat dogs, but some of our international guests might not understand why you've [00:02:00] decided to call your camp that. So perhaps you can just fill us in with why it's called flat dogs camp.

Adrian Coley: Yeah, it goes back to our original business partner when Flat Dogs first started before me and Jess, my wife, were involved in Flat Dogs. A friend of ours called Jake, he set up Flat Dogs on what used to be an old crocodile farm where they used to farm crocodiles and Flat Dogs is the nickname for a crocodile.

So, they replaced the crocodile farm with flat dogs, which was then just a campsite, and that was in 1992. So yeah, it comes from the fact that it used to be on an old crocodile farm.

Rael Zieve: Do you get many international guests asking you that same question?

Adrian Coley: Yeah, we do, and it's, on our logo. I'm not sure how much of our logo you can see on my shirt, but there's quite a subtle sort of reference to a crocodile. 

Rael Zieve: So tell me, have you had any instances with crocodiles in that area?

Adrian Coley: Not really, no, not us or our guests. Crocodiles are, you know, they're, plentiful. There's thousands of crocodiles in the Luangwa River and the lagoon systems that surround the Luangwa, we [00:03:00] see them every day. But you know, crocodiles generally don't stray too far from water, so as long as you stay out of the water you're pretty safe.

At this time of year when lagoons are filling up and, you know, rivers are flowing faster, you do sometimes see crocodiles. moving from the river to a lagoon and you'll see them walking on land, but they're not comfortable on land, so they tend not to attack things on land. But sadly, we do lose a few fishermen every year who make their living from fishing the Luangwa River and, you know, occasionally there'll be an accident and a little canoe C traditional canoe might tip over or something. So there is a terribly, sadly sometimes incidents with local people, but we, we never have any issues with crocodiles. 

Rael Zieve: Yeah, I must attest to the fact that there's some rather big ones there in the river, isn't there?

Adrian Coley: Absolutely, and when you see, you know, we, we've got the biggest hippo population in the world in the Luangwa river. And even in good years, obviously hippos die because. You know, everything dies and you see a dead [00:04:00] hippo in the river and that's when you realize how many crocodiles there are because suddenly there are literally hundreds around these, these dead hippos. So yeah, there's plenty of them and there's some big ones.

Rael Zieve: Adrian, tell me a little bit about the property. What it encompasses. What can you offer guests?

Adrian Coley: So we're an owner run property. We live on camp. This is my house at camp where I'm talking to you from. So myself, Jess and our business partner, Paolo all live here and we're here on a daily basis. So it's very much a sort of feels like a homely place. We make everyone feel at home and we get a lot of return guests because of that.

We have a, quite a, a different variety of accommodation right from private houses, which are our sort of top end properties. So we've got the crocodile nest, which is a three bedroom, private tented house with a private pool, and then we've got the treehouse, which is a dry season product only which is two en suite bedrooms.

And then we've got brick chalets, which are for people that might want a bit more security when they're staying. If they may have kids, we [00:05:00] do take kids. We take kids of all ages and then we have our sort of Meru style safari tents, which are again, all on suite, all fully powered and very, very nice and looking onto the Luangwa. So there's sort of four different types of accommodation and it's quite a relaxed atmosphere. We, focus on our standards of what we do do, and our standards of safari. So we really focus on the safari experience, the wildlife experience. So our guides are some of the best guiding teams in Zambia and hence, probably Africa and we've got an a la carte restaurant, which is unusual. So we have a lot of flexibility over times and what you can order when you eat in our restaurant. So it's all about giving guests what they want and when they want it and giving them products of a, high standard and great service.

Rael Zieve: So if guests come from a walking safari after five in the afternoon and they're a bit peckish you're happy to serve them something if they really if they want something, right?

Adrian Coley: Yeah. And that really suits families well, because sometimes we have kids who want to come back early from a game drive from a [00:06:00] safari and, you know, and feed the kids early. and that means we can do that. So yeah, it's really flexible in that term, that sense, but also some people come back from their morning safari walk or, drive and might want to go and have a snooze before having lunch. And there's no sort of set times for buffets and things. It's all you order off a menu and you get what you order. And that's all included in our inclusive price, which includes your safaris, your accommodation, your food, park fees, and conservation fees. So it's like sort of bistro style restaurant. It's just like eating in a restaurant and it's a really nice atmosphere.

Rael Zieve: So you mentioned three or four different kinds of accommodation do those come at three or four different rates? Or do you have one rate that goes across the board?

Adrian Coley: No, we, have everything. Some of our tents, we've got three smaller tents, which are our sort of cheaper accommodation, the best value, and we often have single travelers who would stay in those smaller tents or people that want to stay for a long time. So, you know, when you pay a single supplement in the smaller tent, it still works out [00:07:00] cheaper than going into one of the luxury tents. So we have the smaller tents we call classic tents and there's still plenty big enough and they've still got on suite facilities. With single supplement, they're still cheaper than if you go into what we call our luxury tents, which are bigger and the only real difference is they have tea and coffee making facilities and they're, they're slightly bigger, really. So there's not much difference. Then we have the chalets, which are slightly cheaper than the tents and often suit families. Then the two private houses, the tree house is the next sort of level and then the crocs nest is our top end, but all our prices in high season range from about 300 per person per night up to about 600. We've actually won best value Safari property in Africa in the Safari awards a couple of times and because we're owner run we're very hands on. There's a push nowadays towards sustainability, renewable energy. Can you tell me what you doing in that sphere? 

So Jess, my wife was involved with a Dutch funded program called the CBI, [00:08:00] and they came to Zambia and helped small businesses do more business in the European market. But part of it was they gave some lessons and things on how to become more sustainable as well as marketing and things. So she did a sort of two year program and in November, 2024 we got the first ever. Property in Zambia to become fair trade tourism certified. So we got certification last year and in a year before we invested in a big solar system. So we get 80 percent of our power now through renewable energy. We buy a lot of produce locally. We have very good relationships with local farmers and local producers of all sorts of things from furniture thatching at the moment. We've got quite a bit of thatching going on in camp and we buy the grass locally and we employ local people to do it. So all those things added to our, ability to get certified for fair trade tourism. And it was quite a process. I tell you to get that certification, it was a long old process, but we found it really valuable and we're [00:09:00] very proud to have got that. It's very important to us.

Rael Zieve: You just mentioned that you employ locals to do the thatching. I'm assuming most of the staff compliment are locals in the area, and obviously these people have families. So what do you do in terms of helping these families.

Adrian Coley: Yeah, so we employ 76 people and they're all local people or from the the villages around us Right up to director level So our director of human resources and community projects is a Zambian guy Harold Chumbamuntu who's been with us for 20 years and he's worked his way up it's all local people whose salaries go into the local economy. So none of that goes out to a city or a town anywhere else. On top of what we do with our employees, and I'll come back a little bit to what we do do with our employees. We also support conservation and community organizations. So I'm on the board of an organization called Project Luangwa, and we set that up about 15 years ago with a couple of other of safari lodges, and focus is education and improving the education [00:10:00] standards in the area because we recognize that our staff came through that system and their kids are going through that system as well. So we put infrastructure into schools, into government schools. So we've built many, many classrooms, lots of boarding houses. We have now a digi process going on in seven schools, giving kids better access to IT. We've got an early years reading program going on in eight primary schools. So we're really focused on the education and not only for our staff, but all the people in the local area benefit from the tourism industry. But yeah, our staff are well looked after. We gave bicycles to another 10 of our staff who have been with us 10 years or more, and that's now 47 of our staff. So they've been with us a long time and think that says a lot about what they think of us as an employer. We help them with school fees and things like that. So yeah, it feels like a big family. Several of our safari guides have now kids and Harold is the director, have kids in universities in Zambia, and they've been able to do that because of [00:11:00] their work in the tourism industry. You know, there was no way they would have been able to afford to send their kids to a university in Zambia. So we're very proud of that.

Rael Zieve: It's a good feeling of giving back, isn't it?

Adrian Coley: Yeah, it really is. And making such a difference. You recognize, you know, you've lived in places like this. It makes such a difference. A job is more than a job. You know, it's, it really is a livelihood. And when you say a livelihood, it's everything to these people. You know, it really is. You make such a difference in an area where there's very little else, you know, we're the biggest economy in the area, The only other big economy is subsistence farming. So, you know, we really are offering a professional skill to many people to get into the tourism industry. And yeah, it feels great.

Rael Zieve: You've been in the game for so long you've obviously seen many different people come and go and there must have been a funny moment that happened to you or one of your guests. Do you want to chip in with a funny moment and you don't have to mention any names, but you know something that someone's gonna laugh about when they listen to it

Adrian Coley: There have been lots, some of which probably I shouldn't talk about. But [00:12:00] there's a couple of that come to mind. One is when I first got here I was sort of fairly new to the area about 20, 20 odd years, 23 years ago or something. I did something that didn't please the chief particularly well.

I'm not sure what I did, but I was obviously not very experienced in how you work with the local chief and I got summoned to his court and I, and I was sat down in the middle and I was I was told I was insubordinate to the chief. So my fine was. To go and get him six live goats and they had to all be female because obviously he wanted to breed from them. So I'm sent off and obviously word went around the village that this Mzungu was going to be in the village, in the market for goats. So the price of goats sort of tripled in the next two hours and I managed to find six goats, but the only vehicle I had at the time was a pickup.

So I put them in the back of the pickup and I drove back down to the chief. And on the way down there, one of the goats jumped out. So I turned up with my five goats. And gave them to the chief and apologized for losing one, which he had a good old giggle about. We sort of shook hands and I said, yeah, sorry. I won't do it again. Whatever I did and it was nothing serious. It was, I didn't greet him properly or something, [00:13:00] but he taught me a lesson and he actually came to our wedding about four years later. So, we still see him and he's still in, he's still the chief of the Kunda people in this area. So funny things like that happen and you always have a laugh about them over a beer sometimes.

Rael Zieve: And you're still married.

Adrian Coley: And we're still married, 

Rael Zieve: Adrian, what do you do when you want to get away? I know you have a holiday planned. Tell me a little bit about, where do you like to go? What does Adrian and Jessica like to do?

Adrian Coley: So, we're about as far away from the sea as you can get in Africa, so sometimes, just before Christmas, actually, we, pop down to Cape Town for a week and we love going to the Cape because we can eat seafood and spend a bit of time by the sea and go to shops because we don't really have very many shops here.

So it's quite nice, especially for Jess to, to get into a few shops and things. But actually tomorrow we leave here and we're going off for a tour of Vietnam with some other friends who are in the safari industry. So we're getting out of Africa, but we're doing a trip around Vietnam, going into some of the national parks and things.

So a bit of a combination between the two is get into a city and we love [00:14:00] food. One of the reasons we have an a la carte restaurant in our, camp is because Jess and I both love food. We both love cooking. So cities, because we love going out and eating out in good restaurants. But also going to places like Vietnam and we haven't ever been before, but we're really looking forward to the sort of slightly wilder areas of Vietnam. To see a bit of wildlife and habitat and stuff like that and we'll do some cooking courses. So everywhere we go, we've been to India. We've been to Thailand. We've done them in France, in the UK, we'll do a cooking course. Might only be an afternoon, sometimes it's two or three days, and we'll bring those things back to our chefs in the kitchen and we'll add them to the menu.

So we love doing food stuff. But just experiences, you know going and, you know, Finding different experiences and sometimes getting to a city to watch a film or something, you know, but yeah, just various stuff. We've done quite a lot of safari stuff in Africa as well. We've been to see g chimps and we've been to Ethiopia, so quite varied.

But yeah, often, often sort of busman's holiday, but occasionally a big city.

Rael Zieve: Adrian, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it coming on the [00:15:00] podcast and I wish you well at Flat Dogs Camp. And if I'm ever in the area, I'm coming for lunch because I hear the food's so good. So yeah, thank you so much.

Adrian Coley: Be welcome, it's a pleasure. Thanks very much for having me. it's been great. It's lovely to chat. 

 Thank you. It was my pleasure. Today we were chatting to Adrian Coley, Managing Director of Flat Dogs Camp in Zambia. Tune in again next week when we will be chatting to Chileya Ndeke, Sales and Marketing Manager of Royal Zambezi Lodge in Zambia, on the banks of the Zambezi River. All the details can be found in the show notes of this episode, or head over to www. wildsunsets. travel forward slash podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate the show on Apple Podcasts or drop me an email. My name is Rael Zieve and consider this, a few years from now you will not remember how much it cost you, but you will still remember the memories you made. Keep travelling.