Speke Bay Lodge LTD. - Past and Future

Speke Bay Lodge Ltd was established in 1992, and was granted a Certificate of Approval from the Investment Promotion Centre of Tanzania (later changed to the Tanzania Investment Centre). The land we bought, had been used partly for agriculture, the rest was barren. The area has savannah type vegetation, but there were almost no trees. We started with developing the grounds by planting trees, levelling the area and draining the swamps. The rest of the land we left to nature and it started to regenerate itself.

We started building in 1995. There were no facilities like water or electricity. After studying the conditions and possibilities, we chose an ideal whereby we would be completely self-sufficient both in our Lodge management and its construction. We decided to train the people from the area ourselves, and to set up our own electricity and water supply, workshops, machines, etc. Wood was bought freshly sawn, was seasoned and planed. For concrete we broke rock into small pieces for aggregate, and dug sand out of a river, after which it was cleaned. Each cement block was made by hand with a small press. We constructed the main buildings first (bar, restaurant, lounge and kitchen) and opened them in December 1997. For accommodation we started off with 9 safari tents, under A-shaped frames with thatched roofs. They have communal showers and toilets. Then we constructed 8 bungalows, which were finished in December 1999. While constructing and using the buildings, we implemented improvements based on our growing experience, and on the advice from visitors. Because we constantly maintain, evaluate, improve and develop our Lodge, we continue to employ our building staff.
In our next phase we are going to build a pool on the shore of the lake. The climate here is ideal for swimming and the lake is very tempting but swimming is not advisable, due to bilharzia, as in all standing water in Africa. Furthermore we are going to add 6 to 8 bungalows to keep up with the demand. We do not want to grow larger, so as not to endanger the attention we give to our guests.
As along the lake the land is mostly used for agriculture, there is hardly an original eco-system left. Therefore we want to turn our property into a small consevation area and are already being rewarded for our work, which you will see once you visit us here.