Our Story
From a trip in 2022 to a camp in 2024.
Thierry Nyfeler left a corporate career in Switzerland after a mobile safari through Botswana in 2022. He partnered with a local safari guide, found land near Chobe National Park, and spent two years turning it into a yoga retreat camp. Munga Plains opened in 2024.
“What is the news of the world?”
The moment that started Munga Plains.
The question
A question from the bush.
Thierry’s first trip to Botswana was a week-long mobile safari. At the end, a small plane came to collect the group from a gravel airstrip. They had to honk antelopes off the runway for it to land.
As the plane taxied, the safari guide turned to the pilot and asked: “What is the news of the world?” Nobody had thought to ask in seven days. Anything could have happened out there — a pandemic, a world war — and none of us would have known. Fully disconnected, fully immersed in where we were.
That kind of disconnection is rare today, and in lives full of noise it matters more than ever. Munga Plains exists to give other people the same week.
The purpose
A retreat camp in Africa.
Retreat centres exist across the world: Bali, Costa Rica, Portugal, Morocco. Africa barely appeared on the list. Munga Plains was built to put it on.
A shala facing the plains. Ten rooms, plus two for visiting tour leaders. A kitchen built around retreat food, designed by a local cookbook author. Chobe National Park at the gate. Retreat leaders bring the group and the practice. We run the rest: airport pickup, transfers, meals, safari, cultural programme.
The feel
Built here, by the people who live here.
Every structure at Munga Plains was built by local artisans in wood, canvas, and thatching grass. Most of the staff grew up in Kavimba, the village next door, and earned their roles by being here through every step of building the camp.
That’s what you feel when you arrive. A sense that the place belongs to the people running it.
The ethos
The twisting path.
Our logo is an Adinkra symbol called Nkyinkyim. It translates as “the twisting path.”
Every adventure in life is unpredictable. Ours was no different — the road from that first trip to the day the camp opened didn’t run straight. We kept the symbol.