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Solitaire Guest farm Solitaire - Namibia

Email Solitaire Guest farm reservations and enquiries: booknamibia@madbookings.com

Solitaire was named by Elsie Sophia, the wife of the original homesteader, Willem Christoffel van Coller, who purchased the farm in 1948. It was originally named Areb after the nearby river. She named the farm "Solitaire" meaning "a diamond set all by itself".
We are a cozy, private guest farm and if you are an animal lover this is the place for you. Among the animals on the farm are tame springbok, suricates (meerkats), dogs, cats, and numerous birdlife.

Some ideas of what to do at Solitaire Desert Ranch Guestfarm
Experience our numerous hiking trails, nature and night drives in which you may see oryx, kudu, springbok, mountain zebra, bat-eared foxes, cheetah, leopard, and smaller animals.
Enjoy a sundowner and an incredible African sunset on the nearby Sunset Hill or just relax by the pool and take in some of Namibia’s most fantastic scenery

Where is Solitaire Desert Ranch Guestfarm?

Email Solitaire Guest farm reservations and enquiries: booknamibia@madbookings.com

The Owners:

The Solitaire Guest Farm Desert Ranch is a cosy privately owned guest farm and opened its doors in 2004 by co-owners Walter and Simone Swarts.

Walter and Simone their twin boys Rickie and Dylan. Walter and Simone live on the farm and oversee the day to day operations.

The Swarts' business partner and good friend is the renowned explorer, adventurer and geophysicist Pasquale Scatturo.

Walter, Simone and Pasquale envisioned a facility where conservation could be sustained through low impact eco-tourism. To achieve this vision Solitaire Guest Farm engaged in a partnership with the N/a'an ku sê foundation by making their land available for the Namib Carnivore Conservation Centre which opened in June 2011.

Awards:
The hospitality Association of Namibia has twice awarded the Silver Award of Excellence to Solitaire Guest Farm Desert Ranch.

It truly is the Diamond of the Namib Desert and guaranteed to be a highlight of any traveller's Namibian Experience.

History:

Soon after Solitaire Guest Farm Desert Ranch opened they were visited by Mrs Liebenberg, a former resident. Mrs Liebenberg very kindly wrote a letter describing the farm’s history and also provided some photographs.

‘My name is Beulah Marie Liebenberg – formally van Coller. This is, to the best of my recollection and, with the co-operation of my sisters; Augusta and Antoinette, the true history of the farm “Solitaire”. My parents Willem Christoffel and Elsie Sophia van Coller were both school teachers. From 1939 to 1945 my father was a captain in the South African Air Force and was stationed at 21 Squadron in Johannesburg in an administrative capacity. In 1946 the family moved to the then South West Africa and farmed with Karakul sheep on the farm Koireb to the South of Solitaire. I was 10 and Augusta was 7 years old at the time.

My youngest sister, Antoinette, was born in 1947 and soon after (I think it was in 1948), my father bought 33,000 hectares of land from the South West Administration. This was a totally undeveloped tract of land situated between Ababis to the North and Koireb to the South and was called Areb. He later sold 10,000 hectares to the west. My mother named the farm “Solitaire” meaning “a diamond set all by itself’, (and she also meant “a very solitary or lonely place’) thus combining the definition of being unique or one of a kind and very precious but solitary place. My mother also laid out the name in white washed stones on the base of a koppie to the south of the present shop.

When we moved there the farm had no house, no fences and no water. We lived in a caravan (which my father had built in the back yard of our home in Johannesburg), and my father built a 2 room cottage on the farm where the homestead was built later. Water was brought in on a truck in 44 gallon drums from Swartkops until the first borehole (producing water) was sunk near the river close to the present Guest Lodge. That was where the homestead was built and and the shop was also there originally . My father also built the stone kraal near the house as well as the dam wall across the river bed. When the farm was sold to my father it had been declared “waterless” but over the years my father drilled 5 boreholes producing water: 2 at the farmhouse, 1 at the present shop, 1 to the West and 1 to the North toward Ababis. There were also innumerable boreholes sunk that were dry.

When the shop was moved to its present position, my father built a shop with a large stoep in front, a petrol pump was installed and, eventually a small church was built. A Dutch Reformed minister from Maltahohe came out to Solitaire every 3 months and a weekend of services ensued. My mother played the organ and rehearsed the choir. The shop was also the local Post Office and weekly postbags were delivered . Later a small flat was also built. A shortwave radio was installed and an airstrip laid out. In 1968 my parents were divorced and, soon after, my father sold Solitaire to a Mr Maritz, who was a retired magistrate from Luderitz.’