Our Story
We are Quintin and Tessa Reijndorp Smit, proud owners of Kasabushi Camp since January 2023. Two people with a shared love for Africa and a professional background in hospitality and management. We surprised ourselves and everyone around us with a drastic change in scenery when we made the bold move to immigrate from The Netherlands to Zambia in September 2022.
“If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough”
– Ellen Johnson Sirleaf –
The origin of our story is strongly connected to the philosophy to dream big, to be led by passion, ambition and curiosity. To live to our full capacity and to unfold untapped opportunities.
It’s a love story, where our calculated, safe and organized life in the west was replaced by the unpredictable, wild and beautiful African bush.
Our initial visit to Zambia was in April 2022 during our holiday and family visit.
Our passion for camping and being in nature made us decide to explore Zambia with a 4×4 Lancruiser and a roof top tent.
On day 4 of our roundtrip we arrived at Kasabushi Camp where we experienced one of the most scenic boat cruises ever. During the cruise we stopped for sundowners on an island in the middle of the Kafue River and the most unexpected happened, Quintin proposed and we got engaged on this magical spot. We celebrated with a good bottle of champagne that night and without a doubt this place would have a very special place in our hearts from this moment onwards, not yet knowing what the near future would entail for us.
Waking up the next morning with a stunning view over the Kafue River we said to each other:
After a few minutes of silence we reminded each other of the fact the owners told us, during dinner the night before, the camp was for sale and they were planning to move on.
Shortly after this realization this ‘daydreaming’ moment became the initiator of a major unexpected adventure and a dream coming true. The seed was planted to set our minds to putting all efforts and energy together to make this dream reality.
Nine months later, on the 12th of January 2023 was the day we received the key to our
hidden gem in the wilderness of the Kafue National Park. We did it, it is now for certain, we own, live in and manage our very own piece of paradise and are ready to share this with our future guests.
