ABOUT US
OVERVIEW
Covane Community Lodge is owned by the local Canhane Community near the Moçambican town of Massingir, and is commercially managed by Andre & Marina Scholtz. The lodge was originally established with the support of Helvetas, a Swiss NGO, which was subsequently taken over by Lupa, a Moçambique-based NGO. Covane Community Lodge offers an escape from the hustle & bustle of everyday life, providing accommodation and camping facilities for adventure travellers and backpackers. It is the ideal over-night stop for people travelling between the Moçambique coast and South Africa's Northern provinces. The Massingir Dam, with a 5km wide wall, stretches 20kms into the Elefantes Gorge, all the way up to the South African border with the Kruger National Park.
HISTORY OF THE CANHANE COMMUNITY AND THE NAME 'COVANE'
Situated in the Canhane Village, the Lodge was originally called the Canhane Community Lodge. With the redevelopment plans, a decision was made to rename the lodge to better explain to travellers what they would experience at the Lodge. In deciding to keep the name 'Covane' the community explained the significance of Covane.
According to folklore, Covane - who came from another village - was the first explorer to discover the Canhane area. He married the chief of Canhane Village's daughter and later also took a second wife before returning to his village. His wives were jealous of each other however and argued often. After his wife's brother passed away, Covane returned to Canhane village so that they could pay their condolences, but one of his wives contaminated the gift of condolence by placing a dreadlock on it. The father of the dead son was so upset about this that he passed away. Following these events Covane left, but the Canhane area was hit by terrible droughts. Consequently they called on Covane to come back in order to set right what happened by performing a traditional ceremony that consequently resulted in rain. The community therefore needed him to stay in order to rid them of the droughts. They gave him the land on which the lodge is currently built and he lived there until his last days. He was also buried near this site. The community thus decided to give the lodge the name 'Covane'. (Information from Open Africa)
Covane Community lodge pumps water daily to the Canhane Village from the Massingir dam.
The lodge build 2 classrooms and 2 teacher houses at the school as part of the upliftment program in Canhane Village.
