Contact us :
Owner and professional guide: Neeltjie de Graaff - Bower
Telephone: 011-267-72104270
FAX: 011-267-72804270
Postal Address: PO Box 19 Ghanzi, Botswana
Email: neeltjie@grasslandlodge.com or degraaff@it.bw
About your host :
Neeltjie de Graaff-Bower (lshown on the right), is a professional guide, and speaks the local language (Naro), Afrikaans, and English fluently.
A native Botswanan, Neeltjie grew up on a cattle ranch where she and the San Bushman children shared the pleasures of a free childhood in a natural environment.
After attending college in Pretoria she received her professional guide's license and has been working in the industry for over twelve years.
She has worked with outfits such as Birds Safaris in the Delta, Kwara Camp, and Ker & Downey Safaris. With Neeltjie's vast knowledge of culture, the animals, and the country, she will guide you through a magnificent experience, observing the interaction of the world's oldest people with nature in the ancient Kalahari.
More than 100 years ago the first European people moved to Ghanzi district by ox-wagon from South-Africa, lured by the good grazing opportunities for their cattle in this fertile area and the shallow underground water.
The word 'Ghanzi', if directly translated means "big buttocks" in the Naro language, indicating abundance of veld food.
Almost exactly one century later, the De Graaff family, direct descendants of the first settlers, saw the opportunities of combining game farming with the cultural activities of the San people.
Such foresight offered them a means of sharing the charms of the unspoiled semi-desert area in western Botswana with other people.
From this dream grew Grassland Safaris, a one of a kind safari opportunity.
To contact Neeltie direct, please click here