Reviews of Okonjima Bush Camp

"A lovely location surrounded by hills. Notably much greener than other places.

The standard of camp infrastructure was excellent as was the food and service.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed two successful outings tracking leopards and seeing the cheetahs at Africat." See all these reviews: 10n in Namibia

"Okonjima was the surprise highlight of our trip! This place was amazing in so many ways.

The Bush Camp was superb, with a lounge and dining area looking over a nearby waterhole where animals frequently came by. The chalet rooms were large, comfortable, and wonderfully decorated in a bush style (high, thatched roof, earth-tone colors, etc), with huge windows giving a fantastic panoramic view. Next to our room was a private open-air covered patio with comfortable lounges chairs, fridge, and most of all, a great view. Birdseed to attract the many beautiful birds was even provided! The chalet rooms are spaced far apart, which gave a great sense of privacy – we could not even see the next room over. What we could see were springbok, oryx, jackals, etc.

The food at the restaurant was wonderful and plentiful, overlooking the gorgeously illuminated waterhole. The tours were simply fantastic. The night tour was really fun and different from the day tours (and really cold in the winter!). Keep in mind that you may or may not see a whole lot at night – this is nature. But we got so see a hyena den with pups, and seeing animals like zebra at night in pitch darkness adds a whole new level of experience. The tour guides John M and Immanuel (night tour) were super. Learning about the Africat Mission and the care of the leopards was a valuable addition to our stay.

We want to give a huge thank you to Marcus who was on duty when we arrived quite late; he went above and beyond to make us feel welcome. And also a big thanks to Sylvie." See all these reviews: 11n in Namibia

"We booked 2 of the 8 bungalows for 2 nights and were delighted to occupy #7 and #8 far away from the reception & dining area. Means more animal visits.

Each bungalow has an own separate open air hut with 2 divans to watch the animals roaming the property and feeding the guinea fouls & hornbills with the bird food (provided). This is the place to see a leopard if you do not mind the VHF tracking. Almost guaranteed. We got two leopard sightings and two rhino sightings in the total 3 game drives we booked. Highlight being the leopard kill of a young oryx.

Stay 3 nights to increase your chances to see more. And pay a visit to the AfriCat Foundation. Okonjima & AfriCat are one. The one can’t exist without the other, though my impression is that AfriCat has seen better days. Doesn't do much any longer outside initiatives securing the commercial success of the lodge. They were more engaged in the past from what you can read in the exhibition; today AfriCat "manages" a few cheetahs & lions they cannot release into wilderness. And actively manages the leopard population at Okonjima to the benefit of the operation. Apparently some school class education on predators is still being done.

The pangolin tracking excursion is problematic in my opinion, we did not book. Why should tourists disturb the last living pangolins in wintertime, making them use precious calories and putting them under stress with the tracking & picture tacking? Just for a picture trophy and to tick another box on your wildlife list. Probably reduces the chances of the pangolins to feed properly and survive the winter at the end. An initiative to secure the survival of the specie would look different.

Nevertheless fantastic luxury lodge with its own style, excellent food, special mention to our guide Opari, and good service (but not fantastic, we got better at other luxury lodges)." See all these reviews: 21n in Namibia

"Super comfortable camp where we stayed 2 nights, with excellent service and a great guide for our game drives.

An added plus was that you can go on self-guided walks.

Best of all was that we got to see leopards and a PANGOLIN (top of my wish list for Namibia!)." See all these reviews: 25n in Namibia; 5n in South Africa

"Okonjima Bush Camp is very comfortable, spacious, quiet and nicely decorated - both the main area and the bedrooms. We enjoyed our private "lounge" area, just near by and separate from our bedroom, with the originality of having grains to give to birds.

Staff was welcoming, enthusiatic, professional, courteous and efficient. They kindly and swiftly made changes in our activities, as what they had pre-organised was different from what we had asked for. They also asked for complete feedback before our departure.

Food was very good, both at dinner and breakfast.

We were lucky to be only the 2 of us for the activities (both game drives), with the same guide in the evening and the following morning. He was very knowledgeable on wild life, explained to us what he was planning on showing us, and gave us time to see wild life once spotted. Wild life in Okonjima reserve is quite abundant, so we had the chance to see many animals, including some we had not seen in other locations, so it came as a nice complement. Small caveat was that the reserve is fully fenced, to protect wild life from the outside, and vice versa, so it sometimes gives an impression that it can lack spontaneity when spotting a rhino for example. The encounter remains magical though!

It was a very pleasant way to finish our amazing travel to Southern Africa." See all these reviews: 5n in Namibia; 3n in Botswana; 2n in Zimbabwe; 1n in South Africa

"The Bush Camp is well laid out with the chalets grouped either side of the main lodge. There is a large waterhole and a swimming pool, the latter is good for cooling down in the afternoon. I was there in February and it was very hot. The rooms are not air-conditioned, however, the separate lounge area is not screened in and it's much cooler than the main chalet.

My guide/driver was Gabriel, an excellent birder and guide. There are a number of options in addition to the 2 daily game drives. I chose the Pangolin walk and the Night hide. The night of the pangolin walk there was a major thunderstorm on-going around the camp, although, it wasn't actually raining. We went out as the pangolin researchers/monitors had located one of the radio-tagged animals out foraging. It was truly amazing to see in its natural habitat. We spent about 20 minutes following the pangolin as it trotted around looking for insects. Then we left as that is the maximum time allowed with the animals, and coincidentally the rain started.

The second Night Hide experience was good. The hide is a huge bunker-like structure and Gabriel scattered some left over vegetables to entice the local wildlife as there is no waterhole. Almost immediately a large African porcupine arrived and made an excellent meal, 2 hyenas thought about coming in as well, then saw the porcupine and left.

I have some excellent photos of both the porcupine and the pangolin and would recommend both optional tours.

The lodge is associated with the AfriCat conservation organization, working mainly with leopards. There are a group of radio-collared leopards that can be located on the game drives. Gabriel was successful at finding leopards on every drive, and we even watched a leopard stalk and kill an African wild cat." See all these reviews: 19n in Namibia; 3n in Zimbabwe

"This was a wonderful introduction to Namibian wildlife.

The conservancy had been converted from a cattle farm, and had welcomed at threat leopards and cheetahs from the surrounding area. They are to be seen in an enclosed protected area of 220 square kilometres. Effectively, they live and hunt as wild animals. The reserve is also home to many other animals and birds. As well as the animals below we saw; warthogs; waterbuck; kudu; impala; duiker; springbok; dik-dik antelopes; steenbok antelopes; jackals; bat-eared fox; lesser spotted genet. And birds; kori bustard; red-crested korhan, also known as the suicide bird. The male attracts females by flying high in the air and dropping quickly, fatal if misjudging hitting the ground! Our guide, John M, on our late afternoon drive was very knowledgeable, and effective in spotting the many animals.

The setting of the main buildings of the lodge was wonderful, curving around a small waterhole, with savannah beyond. Individual lodges extended from there. Our lodge was spacious, well furnished with a large comfortable bed. A veranda gave good views to the savannah.

Just sitting on the veranda we saw giraffes, kudu, oryx and jackals. A small duiker antelope came so close to the edge of the veranda that we could have touched it.

The staff were friendly and professional Meals were nicely cooked and varied." See all these reviews: 16n in Namibia; 4n in South Africa

"We were upgraded from the Plains Camp to the Bush Camp, which was amazing. Room, food and staff were all great.

We did 2 activities; the leopard drive and the rhino tracking both of which were successful and got us surprisingly close to the animals. The rhino tracking in particular was one of the highlights of our trip.

Wish we had stayed 2 nights rather than 1 as we had to pack in the activities and didn’t have time to enjoy the actual camp as much as we could have." See all these reviews: 12n in Namibia

"Room was amazing and the location great but it all felt a bit chaotic (laundry etc).

Could do with better management but we’re not complaining! Still lovely!" See all these reviews: 20n in Namibia

"We stayed for 2 nights at the beginning of our trip. The access road is about 10km and it was a fun drive as there was plenty of wildlife to spot.

The rooms and common areas were beautiful. Its great having the small waterhole outside your room where some of the wildlife and birds come to drink. The lodge also provides seed for you to feed the birds which is a nice touch.

Surprisingly this was one of the very few lodges where we weren’t greeted as we arrived but had to go and find reception.

On the first afternoon we did a game drive where we tracked and had great views of one collared leopard with its juvenile cub. After dinner we went to the night hide where they put out leftovers from the kitchen. We had very good views of two porcupines and also spring & scrub hares on the short drive to the hide. We had to ask twice to do this activity as they seemed a bit reluctant.

On the second day we did a (very cold!) morning drive. Good game but unfortunately we couldn’t pick up any leopard signals in the area we had been assigned.

We requested to do the Pangolin tracking in the afternoon. The trackers go out at about 4pm and if you are lucky (which we were) they find a pangolin out and about in the daylight. It was about a 20 minute drive and then a short walk to see the Pangolin where we spent about 15 minutes following it around. It was fantastic! If the trackers don’t find a pangolin in the afternoon then you go out after dinner. If you want to do this activity then make sure you let them know asap as it is limited to 6 people. The only downside to this paid for activity (~£100 per person) is that you miss out on an included activity in the afternoon.

Food was good. We were on a fully inclusive package and what this includes at the different lodges varies. At Okonjima most wine and spirits on the drinks menu were not included and you had to be careful when ordering e.g. when asked what gin we wanted out of the 8-10 on offer we had to say “the fully inclusive gin”. Also it was disappointing that the ‘mini-bar’ in the room did not contain anything apart from water & milk. We could have asked for beer etc to be put in the fridge but we expected it to be already fully stocked as part of the fully inclusive package!" See all these reviews: 23n in Namibia