Time + Tide

Time + Tide can trace its roots back to 1950, when Norman Carr – the legendary doyen of conservation and walking safaris in Zambia – pioneered the first community-based safari experience in the wilderness of the Luangwa Valley. Inspired by Norman’s vision, the Liebenberg family followed suit in 1986 in the Lower Zambezi with the creation of Chongwe Safaris, which incorporated anti-poaching activities and community engagement into a holistic safari tourism model. Time + Tide itself was born in 2012 as a merger of Norman Carr Safaris and Chongwe Safaris under the visionary leadership of Mauritian investor Thierry Dalais.

Still, a family-owned concern, Time + Tide retains a strong focus on Zambia, where its network of small exclusive camps (between 3 and 9 guest rooms each) offer active safari experiences in some of the country’s top wildlife destinations. Its five camps in South Luangwa National Park specialise in expertly guided walking safaris, but also offer game drives, night drives and seasonal boat excursions. It has three camps in Lower Zambezi National Park, all set on the bank of the Zambezi, making them ideally located for game drives and boating activities.

More remotely, Time + Tide also operates the only permanent camp in western Zambia’s underrated and little-visited Liuwa Plain National Park, which has been protected by the King of Barotseland since the 19th century. Famed for its big cats, Liuwa Plain hosts Africa’s second-largest wildebeest migration, comprising around 30,000 individuals.

Time + Tide’s only property outside Zambia is altogether different in feel: an exclusive luxury beach lodge set offshore of Madagascar on a private Indian Ocean island called Nosy Ankao. An excellent post-safari venue for chilling on the beach, the lodge is also great for scuba diving and snorkelling, while helicopter excursions to forested national parks offer the opportunity to see lemurs, chameleons and other typical Malagasy wildlife.

The independently-managed, non-profit Time + Tide Foundation represents the brand’s philanthropic side. It is rooted in the Kapani School Project established in the 1980s by Norman Carr, a pioneering advocate of a philosophy that recognises conservation and community engagement as the foundation stones of safari tourism. Today the foundation plays a proactive role in education and healthcare projects in communities associated with the wildlife economy of Zambia and Madagascar, and it employs 40 people on a full-time basis as well as working with 140 voluntary caregivers.