Big news for Africa's luxury travel scene today: Sister companies Norman Carr Safaris and Chongwe Safaris, two owner-operated safari brands, will extend their business under the new umbrella Time + Tide.
The T+T brand will undertake expansion with new projects: operating “blue safaris” on an island off the coast of Madagascar and tours to observe the world’s second largest wildebeest migration in Zambia’s rarely-visited, remote Liuwa Plain.
Norman Carr Safaris was founded by conservation pioneer Norman Carr; Chongwe Safaris was founded by Chris Liebenberg, who knew Norman Carr from childhood and attributes his decision to take up guiding, tourism and most importantly, conservation, to Norman’s influence. In 2012 the two companies became “sisters.” Currently, Norman Carr Safari comprises six camps in the South Luangwa – Kapani Lodge, Luwi, Nsolo, Kakuli, Mchenja and their most recent camp, Chinzombo.
Chongwe, one of the oldest and most established companies in the Lower Zambezi (the river after which Zambia is named), is known for its iconic Chongwe River House and for its river camps – Chongwe Classic Tents, Albida and Cassia Suites, Tsika Island and Kasaka River Lodge. The Lower Zambezi is a good spot for canoeing, game viewing and catch and release tiger fishing.
In late 2015 Time + Tide will open luxury lodge Kokomo, which it is underway in Liuwa Plain National Park, one of the most game-rich reserves in Africa and a blue wildebeest migration site that rivals that of the Serengeti. Stretching across north western Zambia, Liuwa Plain is a beautiful, vast expanse of short grassland so flat it’s said the curvature of the earth becomes visible there.
Another Time + Tide project, slated for 2016, is building an uber-luxury lodge on Nosy Ankao, one of five islands in an archipelago off Madagascar’s north eastern coast.