Namibia May 2023 - Zambezi region and more!

[mungopark]

 

I had a great time visiting Namibia this past May.  It was my first visit to the country and in most respects I did not leave disappointed.  There are so many great trip reports on this website but I thought I might add my own since I visited some destinations which have not really been covered in any real detail by anyone before me.
 

 My time was to be limited, as work and family responsibilities left me with less than two full weeks for my trip.  Coming from the US, getting large chunks of vacation for all but the self-employed is very challenging.  I therefore am, at best, able to get a nice “taste” of places I visit,  and if enjoyable enough can plan a return visit.  This trip was to be no exception.  

 

After some sleuthing, I decided to use US-based Timbuktu Travel to help with trip planning.  I mentioned to them that I wanted an itinerary that would include some time in Etosha, but also up into the Zambezi region of Namibia.  I have an old DVD set of a tv series hosted by a British photographer named Robin Taylor who chronicled visits to a variety of parks throughout Africa, and in two episodes he had visited Bwabwata National Park.   I had been very intrigued by the thought of visiting the park and so asked Timbuktu to include it in my itinerary.  

 

What they eventually came up with was this:

 

 

1 night Okonjima Plains Camp

2 nights at Onguma tented camp just outside Von Lindequist gate of Etosha

1 night Taranga Safari Lodge on the Kavango River along the border with Angola

 2 nights at Nambwa tented lodge in  Bwabwata NP

2 nights Nkasa Lupala Lodge, Nkasa Rupara NP

1 night in Windhoek with city tour

 

My international flights were all on Delta and the travel dates were 5/18/23-5/30/23

 

 

 

 

Edited February 11 by mungopark
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[mungopark]

I found Timbuktu Travel to be an adequate travel agency.  This was the first time that I had used them and they were fairly prompt in responding to questions that I had along the way.  There were no major mishaps with my trip, though there were some minor inconveniences as might be expected.  
 

They sourced me out to a local safari outfitter for the bulk of my trip, Ultimate Safaris.  What I’d understood I would be paying for was a privately-guided safari, but as it turned out they really provided transportation and not much else, with the exception of a game drive into Etosha NP.  At the properties that I stayed at, only guides from the camps were allowed to do game drives and I ended up sharing vehicles the vast majority of the time with other guests, with my Ultimate Safaris guide either staying back in camp or, on one single occasion, joining the game drive as a spectator and getting in my way as I was trying to get some photos of something that was on his side of the vehicle.  
 

I tried to find out in advance from Timbuktu what my daily itinerary would be i.e how many game drives I would be entitled to in each camp, etc.  Unfortunately they were never really ever able to provide satisfactory answers to this question ( probably because all logistics were being handled by Ultimate Safaris) and in the end I only found out the day of what game activities I would be able to participate in.  That was one of the somewhat disappointing features of my trip, as I ended up with a lot fewer game drives than I had hoped for.  With a trip as brief as mine was, I wanted absolutely as much time gamewatching as possible.  
 

But in the end it was still a fabulous trip and I left with so many wonderful memories.

Edited January 31 by mungopark
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[Atravelynn]

Thanks for explaining how your private safari worked at the various camps.  So glad that in the end it was fabulous!

[mungopark]

I arrived late into the airport in Johannesburg and overnighted at the Intercontinental OR Tambo, which literally is a 30 foot walk from the baggage claim area.  Talk about convenient!  
 

The hotel was nice and modern and I had a nice buffet breakfast the following morning before crossing the street back to the airport to check in for my onward flight.  I flew on South African Airways, and as it is a relatively short flight, by 11:00 am I was arriving in Windhoek.  

 

My guide from Ultimate Safaris was Wilson.  He was very personable and we hit it off pretty well.  He was from Zimbabwe, and he reported having been a guide in several of the national parks in that country prior to relocating to Namibia.  He presented me with a small satchel which contained some species checklists, some toiletries and, as I would only later learn, the vouchers for the game activities which were apparently included in my trip.  The fact that he did not point this out to me caused problems later on in my trip once he was no longer with me.

Edited January 31 by mungopark
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[mungopark]

As it was by then lunchtime, he took me to a local restaurant called the Cape Town Fish Market.  The food was good and the views out over the city were spectacular.  Unfortunately I did not have my camera on me just then.  
 

Our first destination was going to be Okonjima wildlife reserve, which was about a 3.5 hour drive north of Windhoek near the city of Otjiwarongo.    

 

The drive there was somewhat featureless, but the company was good and time passed quickly.  I was surprised to see that there was really just the one highway, heading almost due north.  I can see why Namibia is such a great self drive destination as it would be very very hard to get lost!

Edited January 31 by mungopark
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[mungopark]

A little bit about Okonjima.  The word “Okonjima” apparently means “place of baboons “.  It is a 220 square kilometer nature reserve on what was formally ranch land.

 The non-profit Africat foundation is headquartered there and they apparently rehabilitate injured predators, in particular cheetahs.  

 

Aside from small numbers of predators the reserve also is home to several antelope species, giraffe, white rhino and the elusive brown hyena.  

 

My impression is that it is frequented by travelers as a stopover on their way to Etosha.  Probably not somewhere that would warrant more than a two night stay.  There are several lodging options in the reserve and I was placed at the Plains camp, which I think is the more budget-friendly option.  

Edited January 31 by mungopark
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[mungopark]

We arrived in the late afternoon, maybe around 3:30 or so.  After passing through the gates, which are shaped like a cheetah, we entered in to the reserve and almost immediately began to see wildlife.  Giraffe, gemsbok, kudu, impala, baboon and zebra were all seen within only a few minutes upon entry.  As I began enthusiastically taking pictures my guide grumbled something about him not having permission to do game drives in the reserve and urging me to cease and desist so that we could get to the lodge!    

Edited January 29 by mungopark
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[ElenaH]

I've been to Namibia 10 years ago and visited Okonjima as well. I financially supported one cheetah from Okonjima until her death. Her name was Savannah. I don't know if they still have this dupporting programm. It looks starnge for me that you had a private guide in Namibia. Normally people are doing self-driving there.

But lets see how it is going on. Where are the pictures? 

[mungopark]

"

Hi @ElenaH.    For this trip I wanted to be worry-free as far as not getting lost, not having to deal with flat tires or breakdowns or other issues which I personally am woefully inadequate to address.  So hiring a guide seemed the prudent thing to do.  Having now been there and seen what great condition the roads are in, easily navigable highways etc I would definitely consider self driving on a return trip

Edited January 31 by mungopark

[mungopark]

I’ll add here a few snapshots from my entry into the reserve.  I saw very few giraffe on this trip, so it was nice to see one right off the bat.  IMHO they are one of the most photogenic animals of Africa.   

In the background here you can sort of see how the red earth and the green shrubs made a nice contrast.

Edited January 29 by mungopark

[mungopark]

Next were some greater kudu.  Another highly photogenic animal, and this guy seemed to be posing.

[mungopark]

This nice pair of zebra provided a nice welcome, with an unusual juxtaposition of one standing and one lying...

[mungopark]

Perhaps not the most exciting or interesting animal, but springbok were actually a new species for me and I loved the contrast on their markings. 

[mungopark]

And finally, gemsbok - one the grandest and most elegant antelopes.  i had seen them in the past but they were shy and uncooperative.   I just managed a photo of this fine specimen before he trotted off into the bush. 
 

Not a bad start for having just arrived in the reserve!  But as I mentioned above, my guide (*maybe I should just start calling him my driver, since that is mostly all he did) was adamant that we needed to move on.  In the end it worked out well, as we arrived in camp just in the nick of time for an afternoon game drive! 

Edited January 31 by mungopark

[wilddog]

Lovely pictures. So pleased you enjoyed it despite some setbacks.

 

I think your are right, you employed a driver, rather than a guide.

 

The term guide is bandied about a lot but in effect you had a country guide, rather than a wildlife guide.

 

Can I suggest that next time you use an African safari specialist travel agency. There are several which members here can recommend to you.

 

Thanks for telling us all about it.

[mungopark]

We literally pulled into camp as several of the camp's vehicles were exiting for afternoon game drives.  I lucked out and got a vehicle all to myself, as Wilson stayed behind to get my bags to my room. 
 

This game drive was billed as what they called an "endangered species game drive", which, according to the itinerary given to me by my US TA, meant we'd be looking for rhino, brown hyena , pangolin and/or aardvark. 

 

Straightaway we found a lone male white rhino and had the sighting all to ourselves in a very lovely setting.    I know there are mixed opinions on whether posting rhino photos is problematic or not so I'll err on the side of caution not post any.  This was one of the big highlights of my trip overall, however, and some of my favorite photos as well. 

 

After spending around a half an hour or so with him we moved on.  I think, for those who care, that rhino sightings at Okonjima are a pretty sure thing and, though I know there are plenty of other places to see them in Namibia, this fact makes a visit to Okonjima very much worth the while. 

 

We continued on our quest for some of the other rarer animals, or quite frankly anything of interest that we might discover.  We struck out as far as pangolin and brown hyena are concerned (to no one's surprise) but we did see some nice plains game. 

 

Here is a lone impala in nice lighting and surroundings.  

Edited January 31 by mungopark

[mungopark]

On a large flat area there were several herds of waterbuck in very nice lighting.

[mungopark]

In all, including on the drive in, I think I counted 14 mammal species in a single afternoon at Okonjima.  Though I didn't see any predators aside from jackal, yet I was very pleased with this my first official day on my Namibia safari.  The day ended with sundowners at a nice spot, with a heart-shaped tree silhouetted by the setting sun as a nice parting image of the day.   

[mungopark]

I had a written a few paragraphs here about the lodge itself but for some reason it didn't post. 
 

Sufficeth to say that I enjoyed the wildlife aspect of this camp but found the lodging and the main area rather too modern for my tastes.  As it was, I only arrived in my room (seeing it for the first time) at 9:00 pm and left it at 6:00 am, so it didn't really matter whether the décor was  to my liking or not. 

 

I had imagined that I might possibly get to do a morning game drive but it was not to be.  I'm not sure if game activities there are sort of on an a-la-carte basis, where you pay for them separate from your lodgings, or whether my tour operator deprived me of a game drive I was entitled to just to be on the road earlier. 

 

Regardless, after a quick breakfast we were on the road before 7:00 am.  I would have loved to do game viewing along the way but my driver seemed to be in a big hurry and so we saw nothing on the way out of the reserve (he claimed because it was a Sunday there would be "massive" traffic on the road with all the weekenders returning home.  we barely saw two or three cars all day... ) 

 

Final thoughts on Okonjima:  game was easy to find and see i.e. no thick bush along the roads.  Good variety of game species as well.  Hard to comment on quality of guiding with just a single game drive, but my guide was engaging and seemed competent.  And finally, convenient location along the highway heading North toward Etosha. 

 

I was very pleased with my stay there, but did not feel too sore about leaving  after so short a time because further adventures awaited me at Etosha!

Edited January 31 by mungopark

[ElenaH]

@mungopark, nice pictures! 

Do you know that you can post many pictures in one post if you copy them one after another? You actually can make a review of one safari day in one post. But in many posts it works as well ;-)

As I visited Okonjima I made a cheetah-tracking and we aslo saw a leopard, sometimes they are there for rehabilitation. we also made a bike-ride on concession ;-)

But one night stay is too short to do a lot of activities.

Let's see what the Etosha brought for you!  

[mungopark]

@ElenaHI’m still figuring the ins-and-outs of posting on here.  I’ll get the hang of it eventually.

[mtanenbaum]

Beautiful photos--Namibia is on my list to go someday, especially Ethosha so I'm looking forward to hearing more details about your adventure.

[mungopark]

On the road once again, we quietly slipped out of Okonjima Nature Reserve and back onto the highway.  After passing a police check-point, the next stop of interest was a pit stop at the Farmhouse Deli for food and restrooms. 

 

To break up the trip we had planned to visit Otjikoto Lake, one of the few true permanent standing bodies of water in all of Namibia.  The lake (I would honestly be more inclined to call it a pool based on its small size) has quite a history. 

 

During WWI, back when Namibia was still German Southwest Africa, local troops saw that the writing was on the wall as far their impending defeat was concerned.  Not wanting their artillery to fall into the hands of the enemy, they dumped canons and machine guns into the water of the lake.  Legend has it that that wasn't the only thing dumped into the lake, however.  Allegedly boxes full of riches - gold, diamonds, etc - were also thrown in, of course with the intent that they would later on be retrieved.  Numerous attempts, both professional and amateur, have been made trying to find these supposed riches.  Are they still there awaiting discovery?

 

I did not find diamonds or gold on my visit, but I did score some nice photos and had a pleasant experience overall.  We paid for a guide (it was required, I think to help prevent vandalism) who unfortunately only spoke Afrikaans.  Wilson was able to interpret for me.  

[mungopark]

[mungopark]

Our final destination on this leg of the trip was Onguma Tented Camp, one of several properties in the Onguma Reserve which abuts the Eastern side of Etosha NP.  Not to be confused with the much more upscale Ongava Reserve, which also lies in close proximity to Etosha, but on the southern side of the park, Onguma is a 34,000 hectare reserve whose entrance is literally within walking distance of the Von Lindequist gate of Etosha. 

 

The main reason for this reserve being included in my itinerary was due to the fact that staying there kept me along my eastward trajectory toward the Caprivi region, where my trip would eventually terminate.  The reserve does not have elephants but contains most other game animals associated with Etosha.  They offer afternoon drives in the reserve (for reasons that were never really clear to me, morning drives were not a thing there).   But honestly, other than for lodging I expected to not be doing much at Onguma because I fully anticipated doing all my game activities in Etosha. 

 

We reached Onguma by midday and entered into the reserve through an imposing gate with large watchtowers attached that looked somewhat out-of-place.  It was a short drive to the camp and due to being around the hottest part of the day we only saw a few scattered herds of impala and springbok along the way.  

 

The camp had a nice floodlit waterhole in front of the main area which attracted a variety of wildlife while I was there, including wildebeest, giraffe and kudu.  Each chalet had a view of the waterhole which I thought was nice.  Here are a few photos from the property.