Returning to Okonjima: Three Guests and Nearly Three Decades of AfriCat
This article was written by Heather UJ Nependa of Okonjima & AfriCat Foundation, based on interviews with three long-standing Okonjima guests and supporters: Bruce Allen, Robert and Penny Greenwood, and Janet and Carey Widdows. Their stories span nearly three decades of returning to Okonjima Nature Reserve in Namibia, from first encounters with rescued wildlife and AfriCat’s early conservation work to witnessing the organisation’s evolution towards research, habitat restoration, education and long-term conservation outcomes. The article explores what repeated visits reveal that a single safari cannot, including changing conservation approaches, veterinary work, relationships with the people behind the organisation, and the ways guests themselves can become involved in conservation. From Bruce Allen promoting AfriCat through his own community to Carey Widdows serving on the AfriCat UK board and the Greenwoods participating in veterinary checks, these stories offer a personal perspective on how long-term engagement can develop from a guest experience into meaningful support for conservation.
Stories From Guests Who Have Grown with Okonjima and AfriCat
A leopard called Mawenzi was defending a kill from four brown hyenas and a black-backed jackal when Robert and Penny Greenwood found him at Okonjima Nature Reserve in Namibia. They were tracking him with guide Gideon Lisara, twenty-three years after they first arrived for a single night. “AfriCat isn’t on a journey. It’s a relay,” Robert says. “A journey has an end. A relay carries on.” That relay began in 1991, when the AfriCat Foundation was founded on the reserve, and each of these guests has followed it for two decades or more.
Some places reveal themselves quickly. Others require time.
At Okonjima Nature Reserve, understanding does not arrive in a single game drive or a brief stay. It develops gradually through repeated visits, familiar faces, changing landscapes, and animals whose lives unfold across years rather than moments. For these guests, Okonjima has become not a destination to be ticked off, but a place to return to as both the land and their own perspectives evolve.
Bruce Allen, Robert and Penny Greenwood, and Janet and Carey Widdows arrived at Okonjima for different reasons and at different stages of life. What connects them is a shared willingness to stay with the reserve as it changed, to ask questions, and to engage with conservation as something that unfolds over time rather than as a single experience.
Across decades of return, Okonjima and AfriCat have grown alongside them. Conservation priorities have expanded, landscapes have recovered, and research programmes have deepened, while their own understanding of what conservation entails has evolved in parallel. Their stories are not testimonials. They are personal histories, shaped by relationships, by moments of uncertainty as well as clarity, and by encounters whose significance often only becomes clear in retrospect.
The Widdows encountered AfriCat at a time when its rescue work was highly visible. Seeing animals under care and learning about conflict with farmers planted the seeds for deeper involvement. Not long after, they became supporters of AfriCat UK, beginning a relationship that would extend well beyond guest-hood.
Okonjima in 1998: Rescued Cheetahs at the Hanssen Family Farmhouse
The Widdows trace their relationship with African conservation back to 1991, when they travelled independently through Zimbabwe. At the time, global concern over ivory poaching was intensifying, and their decision to visit was driven by a desire to see elephants while they still could.
Early in that journey, they encountered a white rhino while self-driving through Hwange National Park. The experience crystallised something fundamental for them. Conservation ceased to be theoretical and became personal, embodied in an animal that felt both powerful and vulnerable. The moment stayed with them long after they returned home.
Several years later, in 1998, their travels brought them to Okonjima’s Main Camp, which was still the Hanssen family farmhouse. The atmosphere was informal and personal. Bougainvillaea framed the garden paths, birdlife was abundant, and wildlife often appeared close to the accommodation. Three rescued cheetahs, Cesar, Chinga, and Chui, were frequently visible in the nearby field, while two warthogs rescued from a neighbouring farm had become part of daily life around the house.
“You could see the cheetah in the field behind the accommodation. It felt very close, very intimate. There was also a warthog called Piggy at Main Camp. I thought it was a wooden structure at first, only to discover that he was a real warthog.” Janet Widdows, guest since 1998.
The Widdows encountered AfriCat at a time when its rescue work was highly visible. Seeing animals under care and learning about conflict with farmers planted the seeds for deeper involvement. Not long after, they became supporters of AfriCat UK, beginning a relationship that would extend well beyond guest-hood.
Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia: One Night That Became Twenty-Three Years
Robert and Penny Greenwood’s relationship with Okonjima began almost by accident during their first visit to Namibia in 2002. Their itinerary, arranged through Cox and Kings, allowed for only a single night at the reserve and was included largely on the recommendation of a guide they had met during an earlier trip to Kruger National Park.
Penny, a forensic scientist who had also studied zoology and botany, was immediately drawn to AfriCat’s cheetah and leopard research. Robert, a civil engineer, read Namibia’s landscapes analytically, noticing patterns of structure and ecological interaction that made the country feel unlike anywhere else they had travelled.
Together, they decided to extend their stay by several nights. The openness of the landscapes and the visible interactions between people and wildlife challenged simple ideas of wilderness. Okonjima did not explain itself quickly. As Robert later reflected, understanding takes time. The Greenwoods’ most recent visit marked twenty-three years since their first stay, and they intend to continue returning.
Cheetah at Okonjima: Why Bruce Allen Travelled to Namibia for One Reason
Bruce Allen flew to Namibia in 2006 for a single purpose: to spend time with cheetahs at Okonjima. His first visit in 2006 was a deliberate solo journey driven by a growing fascination with the cheetah. His interest began with a magazine article about American actress Tippi Hedren and deepened after watching a television programme hosted by Dame Joanna Lumley that featured AfriCat’s work.
“You don’t forget the first time you see one properly, up close, and realise how vulnerable they actually are.” Bruce Allen, guest since 2006
Rather than planning a multi-stop safari, Bruce travelled to Namibia for a single purpose: to spend time at Okonjima. During his stay, he joined feeding runs with former guide Clive Johnson and spent long evenings in conversation with AfriCat field assistant Dave Houghton, learning about the complexity of the organisation’s work. The experience did not feel complete in one visit. Bruce returned later that same year, and he has visited annually ever since, other than the COVID years due to travel restrictions.
AfriCat’s Shift from Cheetah Rescue to Research: What Returning Guests Saw
Over the decades, all three guests have witnessed AfriCat’s transition away from large-scale rescue and release. In the early years, more than eighty cheetahs were present on the reserve, and the work was highly visible. Bruce recalls the emotional pull of those experiences but recognises that the model could not continue indefinitely.
“Not all the changes were easy to watch, but I understood why they happened. You can’t keep doing something just because people like it. What mattered to me was that they were honest about why things had to change.”Bruce Allen, guest since 2006
Robert Greenwood describes the early rescue programme as a “noble experiment”, acknowledging its emotional appeal while recognising the ecological challenges faced by animals habituated to human care. In his view, AfriCat’s transition toward research, habitat restoration, and long-term ecological outcomes represented an important evolution.
Janet and Carey experienced their own moments of uncertainty. When fencing was introduced on the Reserve, Janet initially worried about restricting movement and altering natural behaviour. What mattered most to them was the opportunity to discuss those concerns openly with staff.
Okonjima’s fencing was part of the Reserve’s gradual transformation from a working cattle farm into a private nature reserve. As the Hanssen family acquired neighbouring properties over the years, these areas were incorporated into the expanding Reserve and fenced to create a continuous, managed space for wildlife. Fencing also helped protect animals within the Reserve from moving into surrounding farmland, where interactions with livestock and people could create risks for both wildlife and neighbouring landowners. For returning guests who had known an earlier, more open Okonjima, the changes were visible and sometimes difficult to reconcile with their expectations of a natural landscape. The fencing therefore became one of the many practical conservation decisions they witnessed as Okonjima evolved. As vegetation recovered and research programmes expanded, those early doubts gradually evolved into trust.
“We’ve seen huge changes over the years. When they fenced the whole lot, I was very unhappy about that fencing. It changes the dynamic. But we talked about it with people at Okonjima. You could question things and still be part of it.” Janet & Carrey Widdows, guests since 1998
As vegetation recovered and research programmes expanded, those early doubts gradually evolved into trust.
Okonjima Guides, Staff and the Hanssen Family: The People Guests Return To
For returning guests, long-term loyalty is sustained not by spectacle but by relationships with the people who shape Okonjima. Bruce Allen speaks warmly about the reserve’s staff. Over nearly two decades, he has built friendships across guiding teams, kitchens, camps, and research staff, making a point of learning names and remembering personal stories.
For Robert and Penny Greenwood, connections with the Hanssen family have been central to their experience. Over the years, they have watched three generations shape the reserve and its conservation philosophy.
“If you could bottle Wayne up, you would have a commodity that is so rare. His enthusiasm for the natural world is extraordinary.” Robert Greenwood, guest since 2002
The Widdows share a similar sense of community. During an extended stay in 2011, Donna Hanssen allowed them to see behind the scenes of AfriCat’s operations. The experience proved transformative and eventually led to Carey joining the AfriCat UK board, where he became involved in the governance and logistical realities that underpin field conservation.
Leopard, Aardvark and Honey Badger Sightings over Two Decades
Returning guests remember the unplanned sightings best: an aardvark at the night hide, a hunt on foot, a leopard defending a kill.
Robert and Penny Greenwood recall assisting with AfriCat’s 2006 veterinary checks, where Penny was able to help veterinarian Professor Henk Bertschinger. They also remember tracking a cheetah on foot with guide Dene Mafika and witnessing a hunt at close range, only to realise that a leopard was using the group as cover to approach the same prey.
On their most recent visit, they joined guide Gideon Lisara to track a leopard called Mawenzi, eventually finding him defending a kill from four brown hyenas and a black-backed jackal.
The Widdows remember celebrating Carey’s fiftieth birthday at Okonjima in 2004. What was meant to be a quiet evening at a hide turned into their only sighting of an aardvark.
“We went down to the hide after dinner that night. I was looking through the night hide. Then I saw an aardvark come in. It’s the only time we’ve ever seen one. That’s the sort of thing that stays with you.” Carey Widdows, guest since 1998 and AfriCat UK board member.
They also laugh about a honey badger with “far too much attitude”, swaggering around a waterhole until an oryx sent it somersaulting into retreat.
Bruce’s memories are quieter: known places, individual animals he recognises, and time spent watching the landscape change.
“Not every visit needs a highlight. Sometimes the highlight is seeing my beloved cheetah again.” Bruce Allen, guest since 2006.
AfriCat Foundation Fieldwork: Veterinary Checks, Schools and AfriCat UK
All three guests emphasise respect for the work that often remains invisible to visitors.
The Greenwoods speak passionately about AfriCat’s outreach work with schools and about the visiting veterinarians, researchers, and long-term supporters whose contributions rarely appear during a game drive. The Widdows echo this view, noting that their involvement with AfriCat UK exposed them to the administrative and logistical challenges that underpin conservation work.
Bruce’s support has taken a different form. Over nearly two decades, he has sponsored several animals, encouraged contributions from friends and colleagues, and even turned his work vehicle into mobile advertisements for AfriCat.
“I’ve always been very open about the fact that I’m not academic. I don’t need all the graphs to know when something feels right. My role was never to analyse it. My role was to support it.” Bruce Allen, guest since 2006.
Why Guests Return to Okonjima: Continuity, Trust and Belonging
When asked why they continue returning, all three parties speak about continuity.
Okonjima changes, but it does not lose its identity. Decisions are explained openly, conservation is treated as a long-term responsibility, and relationships with people and place deepen with time. For the Widdows, loyalty is rooted in trust developed through years of observation. Robert Greenwood captures this continuity through a simple metaphor.
Okonjima changes, but it does not lose its identity. Decisions are explained openly, conservation is treated as a long-term responsibility, and relationships with people and place deepen with time. For the Widdows, loyalty is rooted in trust developed through years of observation. Robert Greenwood captures this continuity through a simple metaphor.
“AfriCat isn’t on a journey. It’s a relay. A journey has an end. A relay carries on.”Robert Greenwood, guest since 2002.
Bruce Allen describes something more personal. Okonjima has become a place where he feels recognised and welcomed, where familiar faces and shared history create a sense of belonging.
Conservation Tourism in Namibia: How Guests Support AfriCat
Together, their stories point to a quiet truth about conservation tourism. Meaningful conservation is not built through brief encounters or one-off visits. It is built through patience, continuity, and people willing to walk alongside a place as it grows and changes.
Conservation tourism in Namibia works when guests stay long enough to become part of it. For these guests, that has meant sponsoring animals, assisting with veterinary checks, serving on the AfriCat UK board and promoting AfriCat in their own communities. Meaningful conservation is built through patience, continuity, and people willing to walk alongside a place as it grows and changes, and AfriCat’s outcomes are measured not in moments, but in decades.
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