Our story
From one journey in 2021 to a house of camps. The path that became Munga.
Munga was born on a gravel airstrip in Botswana, after seven days of mobile safari without signal. When the guide asked the pilot for the news of the world, everyone measured the same thing: anything could have happened, and nobody would have known. Every Munga journey tries to find that moment again.
The founding idea: a retreat camp bridging yoga and safari — practice in the morning, elephants in the afternoon. Munga Plains opened in May 2024 on the ancestral Basubiya land it is named after, built in wood, canvas and thatching grass by artisans from the neighbouring villages; naming it so honours the people and traditions that were here long before us.
Our travellers arrive by two paths: retreat weeks, led by visiting teachers and joined by participants from around the world, and signature safaris, created with QoQa for the French-speaking Swiss Qommunauté — more than 100 travellers since 2025. Many arrive alone; the shared table does the rest. The house has grown with them: Munga Safaris, the mobile operation across northern Botswana, and Munga Shaba, the lodge in Zimbabwe's Matobo Hills, opening January 2027.
What makes it all possible is the team from here: guides, kitchen and management come from the neighbouring villages, on land they have known all their lives. Without them, none of this would exist.
Our logo is inspired by Nkyinkyim, an Adinkra symbol for “the twisting path” — a reminder that every journey unfolds unpredictably. Munga's own path has been no different.
The founder
In 2021, Thierry is 29, a sales director at a Swiss tech company: a lake-view apartment, a career on rails, and the feeling of living someone else's life. A mobile safari in Botswana that year changes the frame. In 2022 he buys a piece of land in northern Botswana, between Chobe and the Okavango; in 2024 he leaves tech to launch Munga Plains.
What is the news of the world?
The story of Munga Plains, told from the inside by Thierry: money that vanished into invoices nobody could verify, funding that never arrived, savings buried in a half-finished camp, tour operators advising him to walk away. And the lesson that runs through the book: you meet yourself before you meet your vision. The title takes up the question asked of the pilot, after those seven days off-grid.
Exclusively available in print at Munga Plains.
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