Mufindi Highland Fishing Lodge

The Fox family have lived and farmed in the Southern Highland part of Tanzania in Mufindi district for over 50 years.

It’s from here that they’ve built the Foxes Safari network of Camps and game lodges throughout Tanzania.

Here at the Mufindi Highland Fishing Lodge at 6500 feet above sea-level is a glimpse of a “white mischief”/”Happy Valley” Colonial world that most people thought had died out.

The Lodge is about an hour from the airstrip and the Malawian hostess, Izzy, met us from the plane and transferred us the 40Km to the lodge in the Land Cruiser.

We really didn’t know what to expect.

Other Hotels and Holiday Lodges Nearby

What we found was just 8 simple log cabins sleeping two people each overlooking an Alpine valley all clustered around a stone-built colonial-style Club House comprising dining room, sitting room and bar.

Although it looked like it had been there for decades, in fact it’s all just 12 years old.

At altitude it’s cooler than at sea level and there are never any problems with mosquitos.

Locally there are mud-hut villages, forestry and subsistence agriculture ,there are some tea and coffee plantations including one operated by Unilever.

Tip: It can be quite cold at night so, although you’re nearly on the equator, you’ll need to bring a warm fleece for the evenings and early mornings.

Here’s a place to relax and enjoy lawn tennis, badminton, croquet and golf with the family.

There are over 20 horses and you can trek around the countryside. There are about small 10 dams on the estate and fly-fishing on the small lakes is all included as part of the amenities.

There are mountain bikes to discover the local paths and tracks. It’s safe, wholesome and you’re free to roam around at will.

We stayed in the ‘Honeymoon’ lodge [Cabin1], which was a proper stone and log cabin - think Davy Crockett - complete with four-poster bed and fireplace, which was lit at 6pm every night.

Hot water comes from nearby firewood boilers improvised from metal 40-gallon drums, which are lit in the morning and evening by the staff.

Once we sorted out the air-lock and the dodgy plumbing, we had lovely hot showers and baths although the bathroom wasn’t upto the latest standards.

The food was exceptional – it’s all grown on the farm with dairy cows, beef cattle, pigs, sheep plus vegetables from the market garden.

The dairy herd produced more cream than they can use so there were lots of rich deserts and even home-made icecream.

They also contract with local farmers to raise pigs and sheep, which are then bought and prepared for consumption on the farm and in the other Fox camps.

This has created quite a local cottage industry amongst the nearby villages. We visited the Fox’s coffee estate nearby, which organically produces all the coffee that’s used in all the other Fox camps too.

It was pay-day and it was remarkable to see how many local workers were employed in growing and processing the coffee up in the mountains that we’d had for breakfast at the Fox’s Rufiji River Camp a few days previously without even giving it a second thought.

The Highland lodge is the Fox’s family home and they’ve been around there for over 50 years. In that time they’ve created a beautifully landscaped ‘alpine’ oasis with beautiful flowering plants in manicured gardens from the original scrub. It now looks like Austria!

Having been around for so long, the family is clearly part of the local scene and they operate their own Charitable Foundation that has built a ‘Childrens Village’ – really an orphanage for 72 poor children who have lost both parents to AIDS and have no other relatives.

The Foundation also works with local villages to support a further thousand vulnerable AIDS orphans with more distant relatives.

They get deeply involved with the local primary and secondary schools.

They have pioneered the treatment of AIDS, which has ravaged some local areas, and have actually built and operate hospitals in the local area as well as provide leadership on local conservation projects.

Now THAT’S what I call Corporate Social Responsibility.

Our visit to the hospital, local primary school and orphanage was one of the highlights of the whole holiday.

The Mufindi area is quite poor so they hire local people, who are then trained to work in the Fox safari camps in other parts of the country.

Fathers often follow sons into The Business.

We were so impressed and you could see how the Tourist Dollars from all the camps provided work and directly benefitted the local community in an otherwise poor and remote area up in the hills.