Namibian Game Lodge reviews by Kate (part 1)
Eningu Clayhouse Lodge, Kalahari Desert
The road to Eningu is good and easy. It takes 1 hour from the airport and 1½ hours from Windhoek. The lodge is attractive in a simple unassuming way, made of clay with thatched roof and interesting Kalahari artefacts decorating the public areas. There’s a small sitting room with books, curio shop, indoor dining area and a covered deck for alfresco breakfasts and lunches and a covered boma. There are 9 chalets: each is simply decorated using Kalahari decoration (wood, beads etc.) with en suite shower room. The pool area is attractive with lots of shade available and wooden loungers. There’s also a covered Jacuzzi right by the pool.
Stephanie takes a guided afternoon walk at 5pm (earlier in winter) into the farm. She’s extremely informative and she introduces guests to life in Namibia and explains Namibian attitudes to farming/conservation, as well as covering some of Namibia’s history and of course the animal life of the Kalahari and its plants. This is particularly good if Eningu was at the beginning of your stay.
Okonjima, Central Highlands
Allow 2½ hours from Windhoek, 4 hours from Eningu.
Bush Lodge - has a very nice ambience and we highly recommend it. As you come in to the lodge, you are elevated so that you immediately see the whole lodge and the grasslands beyond. To the left is the dining area, to the right is the sitting area with lots of small groups of chairs. It is a large space and well-designed so that you retain a sense of seclusion and peace. About 200 metres away is the swimming pool with lots of shade cover.
The rooms are well spaced so that you walking through the grasslands for a few minutes to get to the lodge. I liked this as on a Namibian holiday you are often in your car and don’t get a chance to walk. The rooms are circular and spacious with a seating area with day bed and mini-bar, bedroom with views over the grasslands and behind the bedroom area is the dressing area and bathroom with shower and enclosed loo. Very attractively decorated. We definitely recommend a two night stay if at all possible – because of all the activities on offer. If you stay for one night, you will experience leopard tracking on the first afternoon and visit the Africat clinic and the cheetah compounds on the following morning. If you are staying two nights, you also experience some cheetah tracking on foot and can take the highly informative Bushman trail. Main Lodge is the less expensive option and more old-fashioned with smaller rooms and much much closer together around a lawn. However there’s a swimming pool and a large tea garden so that you’d be able to spread out and enjoy some privacy.
Etosha Aoba, Etosha National Park
We preferred this to the slightly more expensive Mushara Lodge. It is smaller, more intimate with friendly hosts. The lodge is open air with a bar and sitting chairs leading out to a stone deck and a swimming pool with wooden loungers. The rooms are quite small but simply furnished. Stone floors with coir rugs, wooden furniture with a large square mosquito net, electricity and adaptors, tea/coffee facilities, ceiling fan, a ‘bush’ minibar (a small cool box brought to your room with a selection of drinks) and a small patio with two comfortable chairs.
The two things I particularly liked about Etosha Aoba were: - The sundowner drive – this is highly recommended and inexpensive. It lasts about 2-2½ hours and George, the owner of the farm, is extremely informative about termite mounds, aardvark activities, trees, birds and we also saw lots of game – giraffe, zebra, impala, wildebeest. The drive stops at Fischer Pan which is part of the Etosha Pan which is on their farm for sundowner drinks looking over the pan. Magical!- The evening meal was set outside with white linen and crystal glasses and lit with lanterns. Very atmospheric. But… Etosha Aoba is further away from the Etosha gates than Mushara and on a gravel road. What guests can do is go game-viewing in the morning, leave the park for lunch and a swim/relax around the pool at Mushara (its sister lodge), and then return to the park in the afternoon.
Mushara Lodge, Etosha National Park
It is the sister lodge of Etosha Aoba and slightly more expensive. We preferred the style of Aoba as Mushara’s main lodge is overly large and heavy in feel. However the rooms were larger and they were also air-conditioned and had mini-bars which is important for summer.
Plus points for Mushara over Etosha Aoba
1) Air-conditioning in high summer (Dec to March)
2) Closer to park
3) Have their own open game drives into the park (which Etosha Aoba guests are welcome to join as well)
Two ultra-luxurious villas have been created at Mushara. These are exquisitely furnished with separate sitting room, bedroom, huge bathroom, private plunge pool and a path leading to a private sala in the bush. They are clearly aimed at those are looking for the ultimate in luxury and are sold at a fully inclusive rate (all meals, two game drives into Etosha, drinks)
Ongava Game Reserve, Etosha National Park
Little Ongava - What can I say…. The most stylish and luxurious accommodation in Namibia at this moment. Three suites are perched on the rock overlooking the African plains. Though it lies to the side and above Ongava Main Lodge, you cannot see Main Lodge at all but you do have a birds eye view of the waterhole where we saw three black rhino in the evening. The suites are mini-houses all set well away from each other and away from the lodge so you do a fair bit of walking! Each suite has a huge sitting room, a large bedroom, a dressing room, glass-walled full bathroom (no-one can possibly see you) and outside there a wooden deck with a rim flow (infinity) pool, shaded area with wooden loungers. From the bathroom, you head out to a lovely outdoor shower with a view and a sala area with mattress for daytime siestas. The whole suite is beautifully decorated in a gentle contemporary style. Date I say that it’s almost over-designed with various different lights each with five mood settings! The main sitting/dining area is stylish and intimate. It opens up to a wooden deck with telescopes trained on the waterhole below. Ongava Tented Camp - We liked this camp as it was right in the bush overlooking an active waterhole (lions had been at the waterhole on the previous evening) and had a warm authentic feel to it. There are ten tents including a family tent with two rooms and two bathrooms. The twin bedded tents were classic safari tents with an attractive simple bathroom. There’s a honeymoon tent which is exactly the same in size but with a double bed and wooden rather than rattan furniture (slightly smarter). The only disadvantage was that the pool deck and sitting area were small so when the camp is full, there would not be enough space at the pool. Also it’s 20km from the gate and it would take approx 45mins to get there for self-drive clients (as opposed to 20 mins for Main Lodge or Little Ongava). I’d stayed here rather Main Lodge in winter months when the size of the pool area is not an issueCompared to Little Ongava, Ongava Main Lodge now looks a little old-fashioned however I would recommend it over Tented Camp in summer as it is a) air-conditioned b) has a larger pool area (though I still think it could be expanded) and c) it’s on a hill to catch more breeze. The rooms are fine and will probably be upgraded in the next couple of years. The bathrooms have bath and shower which is unusual in Namibia. The main lodge is very spacious. They have just built two new rooms (no. 11 and 12) which we recommend as these are more up to date with stylish bathrooms. Much superior to the other rooms but same price.
However these are lower down the mountainside and so it’s quite a steep climb up to the main lodge Epacha Game Reserve and Spa.
About 1 to 1¼ hours from Etosha. We suggest this as an alternative to Ongava if you’re looking to chill out but book it on a DBB basis. It is rather ornate in appearance – almost too grand for its Namibian setting, but the lodge is attractive and the rooms are spacious and well-decorated. The big drawcard is the Spa which is fully equipped with several treatment rooms both indoors and outdoors and sauna, steam room, splash pool and small gym area. There are a variety of activities on offer: 2 hour game drives on the reserve (plains species and rhino), full day tours into Etosha, quad biking with a guide around the reserve, horse-riding and clay pigeon shooting. The restaurant is perhaps too formal and expensive for our liking. Perhaps combine your stay with Mushara for the Etosha game-viewing?
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