Ongava Lodge

Ongava is a private reserve on the southern boundary of Etosha National Park, and Ongava Lodge, with 12 suites, is where we finish Namibia Complete. The reserve is privately owned. That matters, because it lets you walk with a guide, something you cannot do inside the national park next door.

What you walk for is black rhino. Your guide reads the spoor and the wind, and you go in quietly on foot, as close as is sensible and no closer. It is a long way from watching rhino through a vehicle window.

One night you stay up late for the waterhole vigil. Around midnight, under the floodlight, black rhino, lion and elephant come down to drink in turn, each one waiting for the last to move off. Nobody needs to be told to keep their voice down.

It suits anyone who wants Etosha's game without Etosha's traffic, and travellers who have seen rhino before but never on foot. Two nights works well at the end of a Namibian journey, after the desert camps, when you are ready for more animals.

You arrive from Damaraland by Cessna Caravan. When you leave, a Pilatus PC-12 flies you from the Ongava strip to Windhoek for your international flight, or on to Johannesburg or Cape Town if your connection leaves from there.

Good to know

• Ongava lies in a malaria area, unlike the southern Namib. Speak to your doctor before you travel.
• Game gathers at the waterholes in the dry months, roughly June to October.
• Walking with rhino carries a minimum age for children. We confirm it with the lodge for your dates.

Country: Namibia