African Design Magazine December 2016 | Page 10

Revolutiona Belmond Eagle Island Lodge in the heart of the Okavango Delta, Botswana, has rece taking. We take you on a tour through its natural, awe-inspiring setting and show yo accomplish this project. T he Belmond Eagle Island Lodge is situated on the banks of the Okavango Delta in Botswana which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The lodge closed down for 10 months to undergo its dramatic transformation, but with this transformation came a few challenges – for example : an ecological condition of developing in the Okavango Delta is that none of the structures can be permanent – on the expiry of the lease, the owner must break down and remove the entire lodge to the extent that there should be no evidence that a lodge was ever there! Eagle Island Camp is one of the oldest camps in the Okavango Delta. It was founded by the Rawson family in the early 1980s and was a basic lodge made of reed huts with local grass roofs and operated under the name of Game Trackers Botswana. At that time the lodge was called Xaxaba Camp and was upgraded by Belmond (then Orient Express) in 1997 and now again in 2016. The lodge has always operated with 12 guest rooms, however, during the recent refurbishment an extra Tour Leader room was added. The primary re-design 10 africandesignmagazine.com