Namibia Trip Report
May 15th, 2007, 12:18 PM
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Namibia Trip Report
We were in Namibia for 16 days beginning April 6th. It's not a great time of year for me to write much, and in any case most of the places we visited are on the well-trodden route and have been reported on here and elsewhere many times before. So, I'll TRY to keep it brief and descriptive for once.
Itinerary was
Olive Grove Guesthouse - Windhoek 1 night
Okonjima Bush Camp - 3 nights
Okaukuejo - Etosha - 3 nights
Hobatere - 3 nights
Cape Cross Lodge - 1 night
Desert Homestead (Namib) - 2 nights
Bagatelle Game Ranch (In the Kalahari near Mariental)- 2 nights
Garden Court something-or-other near Johannesburg Airport
Since my Kodak account appears to have been cancelled, I followed Tom to Smugmug. I'm not wholly convinced but I do think they look closer to what I see on the prints or the screen than on Kodak (with the exception of the Sossusvlei pics which appear burnt). I'm afraid there are probably too many photos, but after going to the trouble of taking more pictures of the places we stayed this time mostly in order to post them here, I had to post them. Some are not the best, and please view the landscapes as simply giving a sense of place - I really don't have a clue in that department. Most photos are massively reduced in size and quality (had problems uploading). This is my first trip with my first DSLR camera, which I bought a few weeks before we left. Results are not too bad in the circumstances. Captions are not complete but I put them in trip order and the first picture for each place is captioned so you can tell where they were taken. I'll be finishing off and improving the gallery sometime (will try reposting some of the pictures in a larger size) but there's no reason not to show them now.
http://paul-k-imburu.smugmug.com
We flew from Bangkok to Johannesburg on Thai, in economy this time and using the
50% discount we get thanks to my wife (we only got back from Kenya at Christmas and
so we probably wouldn't have felt we could afford the trip without savings like this..
although somehow we ended up significantly over budget... what a surprise!). We wanted
to see it all of course but with chartering planes outside our budget and neither of us
really very keen drivers we tried to be realistic. In the end I am not sure we succeeded with that because the roads were much worse than we had expected and we had a couple of epic drives which took it out of us a bit. Part of this was plain bad luck but I think it is mostly because the end of the rainy season is when they start to regrade and regravel the C roads and they obviously hadn't got to the bits we used yet. Of course it should be taken into account that we are not used to interesting road features such as corrugation and had a brand new, sporty, low-slung 1.8 Honda Civic Automatic which just is not the right car for the Kamanjab to Uis road (we'd been 'upgraded' and were tired and had been waiting at the airport in a queue at the
Europcar desk for 30 minutes; so we were itching to get on the road so didn't really think through the consequences of this...). We'll make sure we get something higher next time - getting dust kicked in your face by speeding Landcruisers gets really old really quick.
Anyway, Olive Grove is definitely a nice place. It is simply a very superior guesthouse. For me it's weak point is that it is a house with an annexe built, so some of the rooms are next to the dining area and others are right next to the (tiny) pool, but inside the rooms are very tasteful and very, very comfortable. Most importantly given that we needed to sleep, the beds are among the most comfortable either of us has come across anywhere. We had eaten an early lunch on the plane and has a reservation at Joe's for the evening so we didn;t eat there, but the food looked nice, people seemed to enjoy it, and the terrace is a very pleasant place to eat. They have good wines too. Staff are friendly and helpful and reasonably personal given that most of their guests only stay one night. I was a bit disappointed with the external look of the place - kind of square and dull - and there's not really much to look at (it's tasteful but very suburban and in the end a bit boring) but all the 'internal' bits are in very fine working order.
Olive Grove offered to arrange a taxi to Joe's Beerhouse in the evening - we had planned to walk but they and Cardboard Box both advised against it. Given the distance involved the price was pretty outrageous, but since we still had full wallets it's not something we bothered about. We got to Joe's early (around 6.45) and sat in the German-style beergarden. It's one of those places that I don't quite know whether I like. The bar area is busy and looks fun (but we weren't partying after the long flights) and the food is excellent providing you like "hearty" fare - we had game meat. We shared our long table with Chinese and Namibian diplomats and that was kind of unreal, especially once the wine we had with the meal began to bring on the tiredness in waves. Called our taxi (we
bought a phone card) and went home to bed. Slept like angels.
Next morning after a good breakfast (strangely breakfasts never got beyond 'good' in Namibia) we set off for Okonjima. Unfortunately we only had the Windhoek map in the Bradt guide and missed our turn. I began to think something was wrong when we started to see lots of people in the street and the houses suddenly got small and ugly. We had found our way into the old township areas from apartheid times and for some reason that is not on the city map in the Bradt guide. I didn't really know how safe Windhoek was and we were feeling very conspicuous, but eventually, using the names of the areas (no streets
named on the map) and a policy of three right turns to take us roughly back where we had come from, we found our way back to the B1.
It was then just under four hours to Okonjima (three to the turn off and forty minutes for the last 25 km where the speed limit is 40 or 50). Bush Camp is a friendly and fairly casual place and after signing our waivers we drove out to our chalet. The rooms are huge rondavels which are attractively furnished and cool. They
are open at one side with canvas walls which roll down to keep out rain or insects (if you are a phobic). There were no mosquitos and the weather was good, bur we decided to keep only one flap open as a kind of compromise - we weren't sure about how many moths there would be and wanted to limit the number of birds in the room at night - they came in a few times during the day.
While I am sure there are places that beat it for distance between individual rooms, there can't be many; we could see the top of the roof of one other chalet from ours and could probably have heard its occupants if they had screamed. Otherwise it is just you and the bush. Very, very nice. It was a three minute walk to the Lapa and all the chalets are laid out like that for maximum privacy without having too far to walk to the Lapa. Rooms 1-3 on our side are all highly recommended. I liked ours (No.3) because there is nothing beyond except the Bush House 2-3 km away, but they are all isolated. They all have resident birds too, and birds are a feature of the whole place. Never a dull moment for the birder here. At No.3 we also had a resident elephant shrew (a first for me). I'll try and list some of the birds later.
You can choose your activities at Okonjima from a relatively limited menu, and at Bush Camp you get to do what you want (although not always when you want; there is a rigidity and discipline here which some moght find a little stifling, but they do have a lot of short stay visitors and we do undersand that for certain activities the Foundation's work comes before the conveniencve of guests). Of course we chose to visit the cheetahs who can't be released first - they live in very large enclosures in the bush in two groups (of five and six I think). First evening was the over-twelves and the handicapped. I think you can read about them on the Africat Web site so I won't go into details. One thing I was surprised seeing a lot of cheetahs in a short period of time was ther variety of faces, shapes and sizes. I tended to think of cheetahs as being more similar to each other than they actually are.
The ones who are going to be released (nearly all) are kept away from the tourists, although you'll see some of them if you arrive by plane (some of the holding pens are next to the runway) but we were extemely lucky in that our visit coincided with the annual health check for the cheetahs that live on the property - and those waiting for a ticket out were done too of course. We were able to visit the vets and their team at work twice - cheetah dental care; cheetahs having ultrsound; cheetahs on stretchers... a pretty amazing sight. The vets are volunteers from various countries and fly in once a year to help out.
Itinerary was
Olive Grove Guesthouse - Windhoek 1 night
Okonjima Bush Camp - 3 nights
Okaukuejo - Etosha - 3 nights
Hobatere - 3 nights
Cape Cross Lodge - 1 night
Desert Homestead (Namib) - 2 nights
Bagatelle Game Ranch (In the Kalahari near Mariental)- 2 nights
Garden Court something-or-other near Johannesburg Airport
Since my Kodak account appears to have been cancelled, I followed Tom to Smugmug. I'm not wholly convinced but I do think they look closer to what I see on the prints or the screen than on Kodak (with the exception of the Sossusvlei pics which appear burnt). I'm afraid there are probably too many photos, but after going to the trouble of taking more pictures of the places we stayed this time mostly in order to post them here, I had to post them. Some are not the best, and please view the landscapes as simply giving a sense of place - I really don't have a clue in that department. Most photos are massively reduced in size and quality (had problems uploading). This is my first trip with my first DSLR camera, which I bought a few weeks before we left. Results are not too bad in the circumstances. Captions are not complete but I put them in trip order and the first picture for each place is captioned so you can tell where they were taken. I'll be finishing off and improving the gallery sometime (will try reposting some of the pictures in a larger size) but there's no reason not to show them now.
http://paul-k-imburu.smugmug.com
We flew from Bangkok to Johannesburg on Thai, in economy this time and using the
50% discount we get thanks to my wife (we only got back from Kenya at Christmas and
so we probably wouldn't have felt we could afford the trip without savings like this..
although somehow we ended up significantly over budget... what a surprise!). We wanted
to see it all of course but with chartering planes outside our budget and neither of us
really very keen drivers we tried to be realistic. In the end I am not sure we succeeded with that because the roads were much worse than we had expected and we had a couple of epic drives which took it out of us a bit. Part of this was plain bad luck but I think it is mostly because the end of the rainy season is when they start to regrade and regravel the C roads and they obviously hadn't got to the bits we used yet. Of course it should be taken into account that we are not used to interesting road features such as corrugation and had a brand new, sporty, low-slung 1.8 Honda Civic Automatic which just is not the right car for the Kamanjab to Uis road (we'd been 'upgraded' and were tired and had been waiting at the airport in a queue at the
Europcar desk for 30 minutes; so we were itching to get on the road so didn't really think through the consequences of this...). We'll make sure we get something higher next time - getting dust kicked in your face by speeding Landcruisers gets really old really quick.
Anyway, Olive Grove is definitely a nice place. It is simply a very superior guesthouse. For me it's weak point is that it is a house with an annexe built, so some of the rooms are next to the dining area and others are right next to the (tiny) pool, but inside the rooms are very tasteful and very, very comfortable. Most importantly given that we needed to sleep, the beds are among the most comfortable either of us has come across anywhere. We had eaten an early lunch on the plane and has a reservation at Joe's for the evening so we didn;t eat there, but the food looked nice, people seemed to enjoy it, and the terrace is a very pleasant place to eat. They have good wines too. Staff are friendly and helpful and reasonably personal given that most of their guests only stay one night. I was a bit disappointed with the external look of the place - kind of square and dull - and there's not really much to look at (it's tasteful but very suburban and in the end a bit boring) but all the 'internal' bits are in very fine working order.
Olive Grove offered to arrange a taxi to Joe's Beerhouse in the evening - we had planned to walk but they and Cardboard Box both advised against it. Given the distance involved the price was pretty outrageous, but since we still had full wallets it's not something we bothered about. We got to Joe's early (around 6.45) and sat in the German-style beergarden. It's one of those places that I don't quite know whether I like. The bar area is busy and looks fun (but we weren't partying after the long flights) and the food is excellent providing you like "hearty" fare - we had game meat. We shared our long table with Chinese and Namibian diplomats and that was kind of unreal, especially once the wine we had with the meal began to bring on the tiredness in waves. Called our taxi (we
bought a phone card) and went home to bed. Slept like angels.
Next morning after a good breakfast (strangely breakfasts never got beyond 'good' in Namibia) we set off for Okonjima. Unfortunately we only had the Windhoek map in the Bradt guide and missed our turn. I began to think something was wrong when we started to see lots of people in the street and the houses suddenly got small and ugly. We had found our way into the old township areas from apartheid times and for some reason that is not on the city map in the Bradt guide. I didn't really know how safe Windhoek was and we were feeling very conspicuous, but eventually, using the names of the areas (no streets
named on the map) and a policy of three right turns to take us roughly back where we had come from, we found our way back to the B1.
It was then just under four hours to Okonjima (three to the turn off and forty minutes for the last 25 km where the speed limit is 40 or 50). Bush Camp is a friendly and fairly casual place and after signing our waivers we drove out to our chalet. The rooms are huge rondavels which are attractively furnished and cool. They
are open at one side with canvas walls which roll down to keep out rain or insects (if you are a phobic). There were no mosquitos and the weather was good, bur we decided to keep only one flap open as a kind of compromise - we weren't sure about how many moths there would be and wanted to limit the number of birds in the room at night - they came in a few times during the day.
While I am sure there are places that beat it for distance between individual rooms, there can't be many; we could see the top of the roof of one other chalet from ours and could probably have heard its occupants if they had screamed. Otherwise it is just you and the bush. Very, very nice. It was a three minute walk to the Lapa and all the chalets are laid out like that for maximum privacy without having too far to walk to the Lapa. Rooms 1-3 on our side are all highly recommended. I liked ours (No.3) because there is nothing beyond except the Bush House 2-3 km away, but they are all isolated. They all have resident birds too, and birds are a feature of the whole place. Never a dull moment for the birder here. At No.3 we also had a resident elephant shrew (a first for me). I'll try and list some of the birds later.
You can choose your activities at Okonjima from a relatively limited menu, and at Bush Camp you get to do what you want (although not always when you want; there is a rigidity and discipline here which some moght find a little stifling, but they do have a lot of short stay visitors and we do undersand that for certain activities the Foundation's work comes before the conveniencve of guests). Of course we chose to visit the cheetahs who can't be released first - they live in very large enclosures in the bush in two groups (of five and six I think). First evening was the over-twelves and the handicapped. I think you can read about them on the Africat Web site so I won't go into details. One thing I was surprised seeing a lot of cheetahs in a short period of time was ther variety of faces, shapes and sizes. I tended to think of cheetahs as being more similar to each other than they actually are.
The ones who are going to be released (nearly all) are kept away from the tourists, although you'll see some of them if you arrive by plane (some of the holding pens are next to the runway) but we were extemely lucky in that our visit coincided with the annual health check for the cheetahs that live on the property - and those waiting for a ticket out were done too of course. We were able to visit the vets and their team at work twice - cheetah dental care; cheetahs having ultrsound; cheetahs on stretchers... a pretty amazing sight. The vets are volunteers from various countries and fly in once a year to help out.
Looking forward to more.
May 15th, 2007, 06:08 PM
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Thanks.
No, my photos were not "this good" before Leely. The new camera probably had some impact, but I have been pondering "what went wrong?" more recently. I even read a book.
I owe you an email Patty. Sorry this was first on the priority list.
No, my photos were not "this good" before Leely. The new camera probably had some impact, but I have been pondering "what went wrong?" more recently. I even read a book.
I owe you an email Patty. Sorry this was first on the priority list.
May 15th, 2007, 07:39 PM
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Nice report. I'm looking forward to the rest, especially about Desert Homestead. A couple of comments, first abouthe taxis. We walked to a barber shop/ beauty salon to get our hair done. We then needed to get quickly to a shopping center a little over a mile away. The owner called for a taxi and when they told her the price, she got so mad she hung up. It was almost 5 PM and she said come on I'm going that way and took us over in her truck. I'll have to find her card and post who she is. Second, in daylight the township areas of Windhoek (Katutura for example) are relatively safe, after dark stay away.
May 16th, 2007, 06:08 AM
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Thanks for adding the additional information George. That's interesting to know... and a nice story.
Thank you Joyce
It is worthy of note what Okonjima does not provide as activity options nowadays. There is no observation of feeding, the holding pens or cat rehabilitation activities and absolutely no petting or touching. From talking to the guides there is a definite acknowledgement at Okonjima that they need to draw a very definite line between themselves and the guest farms which keep a semi-tame cheetah as an attraction for guests. It is also noticeable that they stress that the food put out at the hide and taken by porcupines and honey badgers (yes, we saw them) is nothing like enough to sustain them. It seems to be a shift in thinking and a good one at that. although Namibia is wild and sparsely populated a large part of it is parcelled and fenced and that surely makes it difficult for animals to survive without constant human intervention and a consequent loss of something special. Okonjima is now taking down most of its fences and erecting new game fences around the whole of the property and a purchased part of a neighbouring property - 22,000 hectares in all and plan to turn it over to wildlife. They'll have to tear up thousands of hectares mopane bush which has taken over where the grassland was overgrazed by cattle in the past, and allow native grasses to get enough water and nutrients to recover, but it sounds like it'll be a great little game reserve in the future, with cheetahs and wild dogs in abundance but regrettably no lions or elephants (the former too dangerous to the cheetahs and wild dogs, who have never seen one; the latter too destructive to what will be a fairly fragile environment). Anyway, what a great plan to have!
Other things I learned about Okonjima:
They have quietly processed nearly 300 leopards through Africat now.
Their wild dogs are being prepared for release as a pack, but they'll have to bring in new males as they had to doctor theirs (they are related and were brought in by somebody as pups after the adults had been killed - just an accident that they are there)
Cheetahs used to be released in South Africa but laws now prohibit their export... so in a way laws designed to protect them are causing problems for ensuring their wider survival, but it's understandable.
Of course some of the details above could be slightly incorrect - remember where you got this information from!!
Other things we did at Okonjima:
Walking alone in the bush - there are two trails marked on the 'safe' part of the property - i.e. that outside the game fences where animal densities are quite low. The beautiful insect and tortoise in my gallery are from the walk.
Tracking cheetahs on foot. Enough said.
Tracking radio-collared leopards by vehicle. This is a 'no guarantee' activity since the leopards in question live totally wild within the larger fenced reserve. We did find our leopard after about 45 minutes but he was sleeping and unfortunately did not stir for us. Two leopards are collared; others are wild. The next day the leopard trackers didn't find their target but came upon another one instead. This could be a lot of fun if you were lucky enough to catch the leopard active.
Bushman Trail. No bushmen in sight but our guide knows her stuff and made it very interesting. It was an activity I didn't really like the sound of but I am glad I did it. It is a very pleasant bush walk apart from anything else.
The wild dogs - well, I don't feel like I've REALLY seen wild dogs yet but I am very glad we did have a peep at them.
Game drive: In the large enclosure there are goodish numbers of the usual arid Namibian suspects. Worthwhile on its own but not at this price would be a fair assessment, but the guides are very, very good.
Food, wine and service at Okonjima are all great - as you would expect. It's certainly worth a visit and although it is set up for two day visits, if you have a particularly soft spot for cheetahs three works - if you don't mind the price it is certainly a fantastic place to relax at the end of the trip, even without the cheetahs. We would not put it at the beginning of a trip - it's a place to wind down at the end.
Oh, and most comfortable double beds in Africa?
After leaving Okonjima, we stopped off for some supplies in Otjiwarongo and drove up to Etosha. I was really looking forward to this and I have to be honest and say it was a tiny bit of a disappointment. The wildlife is stunning but Okaukuejo is not the place to
go after Okonjima Bush Camp. Let me get teh rant out of the way first and then I'll focus on the good things. Functional is still the theme for accommodation and food, despite the ongoing faclift (the fact that building was going on around the waterhole did not help to make us love Okaukuejo). I'd call the new accommodation 'mutton dressed as lamb'. Others might think it comfortable and fairly luxurious but it's so "suburban". The antithesis of wild. With regard to impriovements in service standards they have got to the stage of "saying no with a rueful look" and "ignoring you with a smile". I'm not the fussy type but if waiters just totally forget about you and if staff tell you enthusiastically that there "might" be a night game drive tonight - just come up at 7 when it's due to leave and we'll decide then. And if you get up at 5.15 for a 6 o'clock departure on the morning game drive and at 6.10 someone comes to open the office and asks you what you are waiting for .... oh, the game drive is cancelled because the other two people decided they didn't want to go .. don't you have a car? (And if the answer had been "no, we flew in because you do game drives now" the rueful smile would have been used, I'm sure). CUT! Don't even start about the mobile phones...
To be fair if we had been ready to be totally self-reliant it would not have been as bad at all. And the location is fantastic. Would I stay her again? Absolutely! Will I? Not unless it is "preceeded by a divorce or a visit to a diamond shop" (that is a real quote by the way).
There had been a fair amount of rain teh previous two months in this area and so there were very few elephants. I saw one bull at the waterhole. However, other animals were there and came to the waterholes in some numbers. We saw lions three times (groups of 7 and 3 and a lone male), large herds of Burchell's Zebra and springbok, balack faced impala, lots and lots of oryx, a fair number of greater kudu, dozens of ostrich, at least 10 giraffes, lots of jackals, six black rhinos (including 5 at the Okaukuejo waterhole at the same time), yelow mongooses, most of the other "walking" birds, dozens of ground squirrels and a fair number of birds (a bit disappointing on that score, but spotting birds from inside a Honda civic is not easy). Viewing was generally reasonably easy, despite some patches of long grass, but to spot anything in the thicker bush smaller than a giraffe iyou need better than eagle eyes at this time of year. People saw leopards while we were there, but crossing the road not in the bush. Roads are gravel and fine for getting around. The main road to Halali had quite a biot of traffic, but once you get off that you meet a car every 15 minutes or so. We usually had one or max two cars for company at waterholes. Only time it got crowded was when three of the seven lions decide to rst up on the main Okaukuejo- Halali road... but we'd had some quality time with them by then.
Everything is pretty flat, but there are nice skies and lots of interesting light for photography. We were generally unlucky with too much cloud, but when the sun did get out atthe right time of the morning, every blade of grass is beautiful (most is yellowish even at this time of year though- this is not a green place) and when you drive out to less popular waterholes further away from the camps, switch off the engine and open the windows there's a real edge-of-the-world, wilderness feel. It's great and don't miss it. Do not listen to the negative stuff I said. Just be prepared for the (lack of) accommodation options and the occasional tour bus. Staying outrside the park has significant drawbacks too - although less so in the east I would think. Visitors from Ongova have a fair drive to get to more than one of the waterholes - it's apparently a good one, but if it is quiet you have to go past Okaukuejo before the next, and the bush on the way didn't look promising to us (driving both ways we saw nothing more than a few springbok). And the Okaukuejo waterhole really is something. The game count must be incredible if they ever do it.
If you have no concept of it, I cannot stress enough how dry and dusty it is. The air here will suck the water right out of your eyeballs and stuff big pinches of dust up your nose in a flash. We used the car's air-conditioning when moving around... and it did occur to me that an open vehicle on the main road might get uncomfortable if you were to meet a couple of buses or overland trucks going the other way. It's all relative though - our point of reference was the Mara, well into the 2005-2006 drought. We decided this was worse, but I am sure that was nothing.... there weren't even any dust devils!
Thank you Joyce
It is worthy of note what Okonjima does not provide as activity options nowadays. There is no observation of feeding, the holding pens or cat rehabilitation activities and absolutely no petting or touching. From talking to the guides there is a definite acknowledgement at Okonjima that they need to draw a very definite line between themselves and the guest farms which keep a semi-tame cheetah as an attraction for guests. It is also noticeable that they stress that the food put out at the hide and taken by porcupines and honey badgers (yes, we saw them) is nothing like enough to sustain them. It seems to be a shift in thinking and a good one at that. although Namibia is wild and sparsely populated a large part of it is parcelled and fenced and that surely makes it difficult for animals to survive without constant human intervention and a consequent loss of something special. Okonjima is now taking down most of its fences and erecting new game fences around the whole of the property and a purchased part of a neighbouring property - 22,000 hectares in all and plan to turn it over to wildlife. They'll have to tear up thousands of hectares mopane bush which has taken over where the grassland was overgrazed by cattle in the past, and allow native grasses to get enough water and nutrients to recover, but it sounds like it'll be a great little game reserve in the future, with cheetahs and wild dogs in abundance but regrettably no lions or elephants (the former too dangerous to the cheetahs and wild dogs, who have never seen one; the latter too destructive to what will be a fairly fragile environment). Anyway, what a great plan to have!
Other things I learned about Okonjima:
They have quietly processed nearly 300 leopards through Africat now.
Their wild dogs are being prepared for release as a pack, but they'll have to bring in new males as they had to doctor theirs (they are related and were brought in by somebody as pups after the adults had been killed - just an accident that they are there)
Cheetahs used to be released in South Africa but laws now prohibit their export... so in a way laws designed to protect them are causing problems for ensuring their wider survival, but it's understandable.
Of course some of the details above could be slightly incorrect - remember where you got this information from!!
Other things we did at Okonjima:
Walking alone in the bush - there are two trails marked on the 'safe' part of the property - i.e. that outside the game fences where animal densities are quite low. The beautiful insect and tortoise in my gallery are from the walk.
Tracking cheetahs on foot. Enough said.
Tracking radio-collared leopards by vehicle. This is a 'no guarantee' activity since the leopards in question live totally wild within the larger fenced reserve. We did find our leopard after about 45 minutes but he was sleeping and unfortunately did not stir for us. Two leopards are collared; others are wild. The next day the leopard trackers didn't find their target but came upon another one instead. This could be a lot of fun if you were lucky enough to catch the leopard active.
Bushman Trail. No bushmen in sight but our guide knows her stuff and made it very interesting. It was an activity I didn't really like the sound of but I am glad I did it. It is a very pleasant bush walk apart from anything else.
The wild dogs - well, I don't feel like I've REALLY seen wild dogs yet but I am very glad we did have a peep at them.
Game drive: In the large enclosure there are goodish numbers of the usual arid Namibian suspects. Worthwhile on its own but not at this price would be a fair assessment, but the guides are very, very good.
Food, wine and service at Okonjima are all great - as you would expect. It's certainly worth a visit and although it is set up for two day visits, if you have a particularly soft spot for cheetahs three works - if you don't mind the price it is certainly a fantastic place to relax at the end of the trip, even without the cheetahs. We would not put it at the beginning of a trip - it's a place to wind down at the end.
Oh, and most comfortable double beds in Africa?
After leaving Okonjima, we stopped off for some supplies in Otjiwarongo and drove up to Etosha. I was really looking forward to this and I have to be honest and say it was a tiny bit of a disappointment. The wildlife is stunning but Okaukuejo is not the place to
go after Okonjima Bush Camp. Let me get teh rant out of the way first and then I'll focus on the good things. Functional is still the theme for accommodation and food, despite the ongoing faclift (the fact that building was going on around the waterhole did not help to make us love Okaukuejo). I'd call the new accommodation 'mutton dressed as lamb'. Others might think it comfortable and fairly luxurious but it's so "suburban". The antithesis of wild. With regard to impriovements in service standards they have got to the stage of "saying no with a rueful look" and "ignoring you with a smile". I'm not the fussy type but if waiters just totally forget about you and if staff tell you enthusiastically that there "might" be a night game drive tonight - just come up at 7 when it's due to leave and we'll decide then. And if you get up at 5.15 for a 6 o'clock departure on the morning game drive and at 6.10 someone comes to open the office and asks you what you are waiting for .... oh, the game drive is cancelled because the other two people decided they didn't want to go .. don't you have a car? (And if the answer had been "no, we flew in because you do game drives now" the rueful smile would have been used, I'm sure). CUT! Don't even start about the mobile phones...
To be fair if we had been ready to be totally self-reliant it would not have been as bad at all. And the location is fantastic. Would I stay her again? Absolutely! Will I? Not unless it is "preceeded by a divorce or a visit to a diamond shop" (that is a real quote by the way).
There had been a fair amount of rain teh previous two months in this area and so there were very few elephants. I saw one bull at the waterhole. However, other animals were there and came to the waterholes in some numbers. We saw lions three times (groups of 7 and 3 and a lone male), large herds of Burchell's Zebra and springbok, balack faced impala, lots and lots of oryx, a fair number of greater kudu, dozens of ostrich, at least 10 giraffes, lots of jackals, six black rhinos (including 5 at the Okaukuejo waterhole at the same time), yelow mongooses, most of the other "walking" birds, dozens of ground squirrels and a fair number of birds (a bit disappointing on that score, but spotting birds from inside a Honda civic is not easy). Viewing was generally reasonably easy, despite some patches of long grass, but to spot anything in the thicker bush smaller than a giraffe iyou need better than eagle eyes at this time of year. People saw leopards while we were there, but crossing the road not in the bush. Roads are gravel and fine for getting around. The main road to Halali had quite a biot of traffic, but once you get off that you meet a car every 15 minutes or so. We usually had one or max two cars for company at waterholes. Only time it got crowded was when three of the seven lions decide to rst up on the main Okaukuejo- Halali road... but we'd had some quality time with them by then.
Everything is pretty flat, but there are nice skies and lots of interesting light for photography. We were generally unlucky with too much cloud, but when the sun did get out atthe right time of the morning, every blade of grass is beautiful (most is yellowish even at this time of year though- this is not a green place) and when you drive out to less popular waterholes further away from the camps, switch off the engine and open the windows there's a real edge-of-the-world, wilderness feel. It's great and don't miss it. Do not listen to the negative stuff I said. Just be prepared for the (lack of) accommodation options and the occasional tour bus. Staying outrside the park has significant drawbacks too - although less so in the east I would think. Visitors from Ongova have a fair drive to get to more than one of the waterholes - it's apparently a good one, but if it is quiet you have to go past Okaukuejo before the next, and the bush on the way didn't look promising to us (driving both ways we saw nothing more than a few springbok). And the Okaukuejo waterhole really is something. The game count must be incredible if they ever do it.
If you have no concept of it, I cannot stress enough how dry and dusty it is. The air here will suck the water right out of your eyeballs and stuff big pinches of dust up your nose in a flash. We used the car's air-conditioning when moving around... and it did occur to me that an open vehicle on the main road might get uncomfortable if you were to meet a couple of buses or overland trucks going the other way. It's all relative though - our point of reference was the Mara, well into the 2005-2006 drought. We decided this was worse, but I am sure that was nothing.... there weren't even any dust devils!
May 16th, 2007, 07:30 AM
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Kimburu,
Your report is tremendously helpful. You are one of the few who stayed 3 nights at Okonjima Bushcamp. It appears you favor that amount of time. The plans for their future look good with more room for more animals.
What I do on the stair master is far short of training for anything but it's a good workout.
Your warnings on Okaukuejo are good for any of us who plan to fly in there.
I'll be looking at the pics next.
Your report is tremendously helpful. You are one of the few who stayed 3 nights at Okonjima Bushcamp. It appears you favor that amount of time. The plans for their future look good with more room for more animals.
What I do on the stair master is far short of training for anything but it's a good workout.
Your warnings on Okaukuejo are good for any of us who plan to fly in there.
I'll be looking at the pics next.
May 16th, 2007, 02:23 PM
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What a fantastic report Kimburu, and those pictures!!!!
I'm envious of your Meerkat sighting, I've fallen in love with these little animals all thanks to Meerkat Manor.
Do you know what kind of Cat is in the picture after the one of the Meerkat... African Wildcat?
I'm glad to head positive things about Okonjima, especially regarding its expansion and the night time feeding.
Imelda
I'm envious of your Meerkat sighting, I've fallen in love with these little animals all thanks to Meerkat Manor.
Do you know what kind of Cat is in the picture after the one of the Meerkat... African Wildcat?
I'm glad to head positive things about Okonjima, especially regarding its expansion and the night time feeding.
Imelda
May 16th, 2007, 06:12 PM
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It's funny you should ask that Imelda. We had been following these small cat tracks in the sand quite some way from the lodge and were wondering what it could be. African Wildcat was the obvious choice since they are common (and of course I was excited about that). However, when we met the lodge owner's beautiful house cat on her way back from a night in the bush and matched up the tracks, the mystery was solved. They should breed her and let her offspring go feral, though - she looks so beautiful in the Kalahari doesn't she?
Meerkats are just as cute and fascinating as you imagine. It seems to be relatively easy to habituate them too, so many Kalahari lodges seem to have very approachable colonies....
Meerkats are just as cute and fascinating as you imagine. It seems to be relatively easy to habituate them too, so many Kalahari lodges seem to have very approachable colonies....
May 16th, 2007, 06:32 PM
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One more Okonjima question, before I move on to your photos. Do you have any idea of their time frame for the changes you mentioned?
Tremendous pictures. You have such a wide array of great zebra shots. Groups, pairs, action shots. It was zebra heaven.
That was the most colorful insect I've seen that you found on your walk. Were most of the birds at Okonjima? You had mentioned the good birding there. You even caught some of the birds in flight.
I could see the difference in cheetah faces that you mentioned.
The Kori Bustard was probably not at Okonjima. I think that's the most detailed Kori Bustard photo I've seen. Such lovely birds.
The waterhole shots are wonderful. Were those from your car?
What did you do to get the night time waterhole shots?
I thought your landscape shots were beautiful, just like what I see in the Namibia promotional materials. You are right that you did not mess up (your Smug Mug comment) that beautiful sunset.
Sometime, no hurry on this, could you put your drive or fly times between your destinations?
The guiding or lack thereof at Okaukuejo is disturbing. Problems with waiters, staff, or mobile phones might be annoying, but to screw up on the game viewing is unconscionable. "Maybe or maybe not a night drive; oops no morning drive." That's the whole reason I'd be going there! Thank you for alerting me that it is "divorce or diamond" bad unless I bring along my own guide and vehicle. Maybe that accounts for more of the appeal of Ongava.
Looking forward to more.
Tremendous pictures. You have such a wide array of great zebra shots. Groups, pairs, action shots. It was zebra heaven.
That was the most colorful insect I've seen that you found on your walk. Were most of the birds at Okonjima? You had mentioned the good birding there. You even caught some of the birds in flight.
I could see the difference in cheetah faces that you mentioned.
The Kori Bustard was probably not at Okonjima. I think that's the most detailed Kori Bustard photo I've seen. Such lovely birds.
The waterhole shots are wonderful. Were those from your car?
What did you do to get the night time waterhole shots?
I thought your landscape shots were beautiful, just like what I see in the Namibia promotional materials. You are right that you did not mess up (your Smug Mug comment) that beautiful sunset.
Sometime, no hurry on this, could you put your drive or fly times between your destinations?
The guiding or lack thereof at Okaukuejo is disturbing. Problems with waiters, staff, or mobile phones might be annoying, but to screw up on the game viewing is unconscionable. "Maybe or maybe not a night drive; oops no morning drive." That's the whole reason I'd be going there! Thank you for alerting me that it is "divorce or diamond" bad unless I bring along my own guide and vehicle. Maybe that accounts for more of the appeal of Ongava.
Looking forward to more.
May 16th, 2007, 09:51 PM
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Lynn, I am convinced you are doing a doctorate in safari destinations...but I find your questions really helpful when they are other threads so here we go... in order
<b>One more Okonjima question, before I move on to your photos. Do you have any idea of their time frame for the changes you mentioned?<b>
ASAP - that of course is vague, but it's a big project. Wayne Hanssen is "retiring" from Africat/Okonjima (of course he remains owner) which may be a factor, but most of the money is already there and there was no doubt or 'I have a dream' looks from the people who told us about it.
<b>That was the most colorful insect I've seen that you found on your walk. Were most of the birds at Okonjima? You had mentioned the good birding there. You even caught some of the birds in flight.<b>
I wish I knew what it was. I thought it would be easy to find out and so didn't ask the guides at Okonjima ... anyone know a good insect identification Web site? All of the birds in the section before the picture of the giraffe at sunrise (which starts the Etosha section)are from Okonjima.
<b>The Kori Bustard was probably not at Okonjima. I think that's the most detailed Kori Bustard photo I've seen. Such lovely birds.<b>
That was Etosha
<b>The waterhole shots are wonderful. Were those from your car?<b>
I'll add which waterhole each was from soon.. offhand i think all of the ones where you can see a largish expanse of water are from the Okaukuejo waterhole, as are all the waterhole night shots.
The waterhole shot after the group of drinking Hartmann's Mountain Zebras looking at me is the start of the Hobatere pictures.
<b>What did you do to get the night time waterhole shots?<b>
I am so glad you asked this.. the answer is experimentation! I had to use a 75-300 f4.5-5.6 lens, which obviously isn't the best for night shots at a distance,a nd so i knew I would be limited in what I could achieve, but it was fun trying (and valuable experience for the future). Obviously hand-holding was out of the question, so I used what was there (a combination of monopod and beanbag and wall - sometimes all three together)to get the camera reasonably stable. Placement and time are important. I only got the giraffe and the rhino shots because I was in a position where the spotlights kept them bright enough for autofocus to work, and there was still a bit of light left in the sky. I used the "tungsten" white balance setting to partially compensate for the spotlight and ISO 1600 if there was enough light to show colour. White balance and exposure needed to be tweaked a bit post processing - the exposure setting of the giraffe was upped by one stop. Sometimes I used ISO 800 because I was scared of my cameras rep for noise at high ISO (but as you can see with the rhinos and giraffe the amount of light and the shutter speed are much more of a factor than noise). Actually I generally tried not to shoot if there wasn't enough light to get some colour (seemed like a good rule of thumb) but for the rhinos and giraffe I had to try to get a shot (when am I going to see that again?). Light was not sufficent for autofocus to work on the rhinos so I got autofocus to pick out their btrighter silhouettes in the water and then tweaked the ring a bit manaually. Not really that successful, but I think it would work if I had a more suitable lens... perhaps?
<b>Sometime, no hurry on this, could you put your drive or fly times between your destinations?<b>
I will - remind me if I forget!
<b>The guiding or lack thereof at Okaukuejo is disturbing. Problems with waiters, staff, or mobile phones might be annoying, but to screw up on the game viewing is unconscionable. "Maybe or maybe not a night drive; oops no morning drive." That's the whole reason I'd be going there! Thank you for alerting me that it is "divorce or diamond" bad unless I bring along my own guide and vehicle. Maybe that accounts for more of the appeal of Ongava<b>
I think the point to take away is that if you go there, be prepared to be independent. If you need assistance from the camp you may get it and you may not, and you may get it in a way you didn't expect.
I think that is the appeal of Ongova, but I do feel more clealy now that it is a compromise on more than just cost to stay there. For ALL its flaws, Okaukuejo is the place to be in that part of Etosha. </b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>
<b>One more Okonjima question, before I move on to your photos. Do you have any idea of their time frame for the changes you mentioned?<b>
ASAP - that of course is vague, but it's a big project. Wayne Hanssen is "retiring" from Africat/Okonjima (of course he remains owner) which may be a factor, but most of the money is already there and there was no doubt or 'I have a dream' looks from the people who told us about it.
<b>That was the most colorful insect I've seen that you found on your walk. Were most of the birds at Okonjima? You had mentioned the good birding there. You even caught some of the birds in flight.<b>
I wish I knew what it was. I thought it would be easy to find out and so didn't ask the guides at Okonjima ... anyone know a good insect identification Web site? All of the birds in the section before the picture of the giraffe at sunrise (which starts the Etosha section)are from Okonjima.
<b>The Kori Bustard was probably not at Okonjima. I think that's the most detailed Kori Bustard photo I've seen. Such lovely birds.<b>
That was Etosha
<b>The waterhole shots are wonderful. Were those from your car?<b>
I'll add which waterhole each was from soon.. offhand i think all of the ones where you can see a largish expanse of water are from the Okaukuejo waterhole, as are all the waterhole night shots.
The waterhole shot after the group of drinking Hartmann's Mountain Zebras looking at me is the start of the Hobatere pictures.
<b>What did you do to get the night time waterhole shots?<b>
I am so glad you asked this.. the answer is experimentation! I had to use a 75-300 f4.5-5.6 lens, which obviously isn't the best for night shots at a distance,a nd so i knew I would be limited in what I could achieve, but it was fun trying (and valuable experience for the future). Obviously hand-holding was out of the question, so I used what was there (a combination of monopod and beanbag and wall - sometimes all three together)to get the camera reasonably stable. Placement and time are important. I only got the giraffe and the rhino shots because I was in a position where the spotlights kept them bright enough for autofocus to work, and there was still a bit of light left in the sky. I used the "tungsten" white balance setting to partially compensate for the spotlight and ISO 1600 if there was enough light to show colour. White balance and exposure needed to be tweaked a bit post processing - the exposure setting of the giraffe was upped by one stop. Sometimes I used ISO 800 because I was scared of my cameras rep for noise at high ISO (but as you can see with the rhinos and giraffe the amount of light and the shutter speed are much more of a factor than noise). Actually I generally tried not to shoot if there wasn't enough light to get some colour (seemed like a good rule of thumb) but for the rhinos and giraffe I had to try to get a shot (when am I going to see that again?). Light was not sufficent for autofocus to work on the rhinos so I got autofocus to pick out their btrighter silhouettes in the water and then tweaked the ring a bit manaually. Not really that successful, but I think it would work if I had a more suitable lens... perhaps?
<b>Sometime, no hurry on this, could you put your drive or fly times between your destinations?<b>
I will - remind me if I forget!
<b>The guiding or lack thereof at Okaukuejo is disturbing. Problems with waiters, staff, or mobile phones might be annoying, but to screw up on the game viewing is unconscionable. "Maybe or maybe not a night drive; oops no morning drive." That's the whole reason I'd be going there! Thank you for alerting me that it is "divorce or diamond" bad unless I bring along my own guide and vehicle. Maybe that accounts for more of the appeal of Ongava<b>
I think the point to take away is that if you go there, be prepared to be independent. If you need assistance from the camp you may get it and you may not, and you may get it in a way you didn't expect.
I think that is the appeal of Ongova, but I do feel more clealy now that it is a compromise on more than just cost to stay there. For ALL its flaws, Okaukuejo is the place to be in that part of Etosha. </b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b>
May 17th, 2007, 02:21 AM
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Hee hee kimburu, I can immagine your discovery of the domestic cat and yes, she is a beautiful cat anyways!
Can I ask, did you see many Meerkats? Get close? I think I now have an obsession with seeing them
!!!!
Imelda
Can I ask, did you see many Meerkats? Get close? I think I now have an obsession with seeing them
!!!!Imelda
May 17th, 2007, 09:35 AM
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Kimburu, karibu nyumbani. I didn’t notice that you and Sweetwaters sneaked off to Namibia! Incredible pictures, especially the elephant shrew. The springbok with green plastic on its horns doesn’t look serious though.
