Doro Nawas Camp
 

What is this Wilderrness safaris camp like- is it "just like" the other Damaraland camps? like Palmwag etc

The following is the situtation in 2006. No, the focus at Doro Nawas is on those doing self-drives. While game drives are available, they are an option and not that many guests do them. Some guests do visit by plane and for the most part they are the ones doing the drives with staff. There tends to be more families with children. So, it is a different environment than the other wilderness camps, but it is not a huge difference and if it had not been explained to me I am not sure I would have known the difference except to note there are more children about. One plus is the airstrip is very close to the lodge so it is only about a 5 minute transfer.

We stayed at Doro Nawas for two nights in August this year and loved it! I cannot compare it to other camps in the area because it is the only one we stayed at in Damarland. We did, however, prefer it to the other Wliderness property that we stayed at, Sossusvlei Wilderness Camp. Our 'hut' was lovely, the food was better (though not great, but what made it for us was the friendliness of the staff and the attentiveness/unobtrusive presence of the managers. We were self driving, but did go on the game drive to see the desert elephants - we found this slightly disappointing as the herd obviously stay close to the local man-made waterhole and it all seemed a bit 'staged' if you see what I mean. We didn't go looking for them ourselves in our 4x4 because we didn't know that we could.

There were no children there whilst we were there and the property was more or less full - maybe we were just lucky (we are teachers so like a break from children while on holiday!).

Gaynor

Hi Gaynor, we were there in August 2006 so maybe you were just lucky. I didn't mean to suggest that there would always be a lot of children there, just that the percentage would be higher than at other camps. As I recall when I was there there were one or two familes with children there. Just out of curiosity, what was it about Sossusvlei Wilderness Camp that made you prefer Doro Nawas?

tuckeg,
Why do you say that the percentage of children at Doro Nawas would be higher than at other camps?

Perhaps I am wrong, but I believe that's what I was told when I was there. The reason was that entire European families often come and do self-drives where at the fly-in camps it is usually adults. The reason is probably cost. I don't think it it's a huge percentage difference. I would say the same thing is true at other camps (all not just Wilderness) where driving-in is possible. If you look at the percentage of guests with children, it is higher for those guests doing self-drives. It's just that the percentage of self-drives is higher at Doro Nawas because the camp is designed and marketed with them in mind.

I should mention that if you fly in to DN, then you would be taking game drives with the staff and probably would not be grouped with the children who most often would be doing self-drives. I recall only two families there when I was there, one from Italy and the other I don't recall. I only encountered the kids at the pool and they were well behaved. I guess they were also at meals but I don't recall them there. For the average guest it would not be an issue but if you absolutely don't want to be around children I thought I should mention it.

Hello Tuckeg,

We found the staff at Doro Nawas very friendly and the managers showed what seemed to be a genuine interest in our travels (past and present). We don't like overpowering attention - they just seemed to have got it right! At Sossusvlei we didn't have that experience. Also, at Doro Nawas we really liked the enourmous balcony/verandha which enabled us to sit outside and soak up the view. At Sossusvlei you could not do this - there was a minute, freezingly cold plunge pool with a couple of chairs alongside, though not really 'outside' (quite a novelty for us) but it did not come up to the Doro Nawas experience. The bar/lounge area at Sossusvlei was not terribly inviting and no-one really used it while we were there so there was no real atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed both prpoerties in different ways - Doro Nawas was a pleasant surprise, however, whilst Sossusvlei was a slight disappointment.

Gaynor

Thanks Gaynor. I agree with all you said about Doro Nawas but I had a positive experience at SWC as well. I thought the view from SWC was outstanding. When were you there? The managers when I was there in August 2006 were very nice people who seem to also take an interest in guests. Perhaps they were not there when you visited.

Sorry Gaynor, I see you mentioned you were there in August of this year so perhaps the managers I met moved on. Hopefully Wilderness will improve the atmosphere soon.

Tuckeg, The view from our room at Sossusvlei was outstanding - I just couldn't sit outside and enjoy it as I would have liked! We were there for 3 days/2 nights and there was a different manager each day so we didn't build up the same kind of relationship as we did at Doro Nawas. Maybe we were just unlucky. It wasn't a bad experience by any means, but Doro Nawas, on this occasion, was better.

Gaynor