Reviews of Okonjima Bush Camp

"Okonjima was a great place to stay at the end of our trip, before driving back to Windhoek and flying home.

The camp was completely full, but they upgraded our second night to stay at the Bush Camp (we were down to stay at the Main Camp on night 2) which was a lovely touch. There were a few staff who really made us feel especially cared for, despite the fact it was a full house. The lodge itself is in a lovely setting with waterhole out the front, and the park is nestled in between small mountains on the plateau making for wonderful views on the drives.

The rooms were big with nice secluded views out into the bush - we had lots of birds and small springbok and warthog visit us throughout the day. The pool is very big and wonderfully cold, and there was no one where when we visited!

The meals were very good at Okonjima, amongst the best we had on our trip. They were particularly good at catering for me, given that I am vegetarian.

The activities are great fun and they guides completely mould the activities to suit the length of time you stay and what you would like to do - we did the Cheetah game drive, Leopard Game Drive and Hyena spotting on foot. With this last one, although we saw the hyena we were unable to get out of the truck because not only did a spectacular lightning and thunder storm roll in, but a mother leopard and cub were nearby. So we instead sat and watched them sitting in the tree - what a bonus! It was marvellous to see the efforts Africat are going to to preserve these amazing animals.

We really liked Okonjima and would recommend it as a lovely place to stay at the end of a holiday." See all these reviews: 15n in Namibia

"We were upgraded to Okinjima Villa which was just fabulous. Anja and Johann do a great job here and run a splendid operation; it just works fantastically.

Johann is a great guide and the watering hole nearby is a great bonus as were the resident Wart Hog family." See all these reviews: 16n in Namibia

"Our final nights were spent here, and again we were not disappointed. The dining style was communal which was fine, with lots of people of different nationalities mixed in together. However the game drives were split into English or German or whatever speaking customers and so worked really well.

The game drives were great because you could radio track leopard and hyena - great experience. The warthogs were good value too, as were the birds and the bird food for feeding them.

The lodges were spaced really far apart so you felt alone in the bush, and were particularly well designed.

Another highlight was the night time hide where they fed the porcupines, and occasionally a leopard - altogether a great experience." See all these reviews: 16n in Namibia

"What I said about Main Camp also applies to here. I was even telephoned in my room to be asked what kind of drink I wanted for my sundowner later that day.

Outside my very comfortable and impressive room was a small water hole for birds, which had been filled, as had the tin box inside which was good quality bird seed. As a result I saw a great many birds of different varieties close up. The game drive here with Richard to see Leopard was also excellent, and on the morning of my departure I was lucky enough to be taken on the Bushman Trail by no less than four guides, each of which had certain knowledge or skills. I thoroughly enjoyed this educative walk in the bush.

After all the driving in Etosha, this was the perfect place to treat myself to a bit of luxury. First class." See all these reviews: 8n in Namibia

"Okonjima Bush Camp was a wonderful start to our trip, made even better by us being upgraded to the Bush Suite which is absolutely out of this world. Thank you Okonjima and I can't recommend the suite highly enough.

The journey from the airport was very easy even though we had just flown in, plus had a 90 min delay, as its on tar roads and is well signposted. It was still posiible to arrive in time to settle in and be ready for the afternoon activity at 4pm.

We found the activities very good with a 2 night stay just right for the number of activities on offer. Going to the hide after dinner was well worth it.

Staff were all lovely, overall we could not fault this camp." See all these reviews: 17n in Namibia

"This was our only non Wilderness Safaris camp and we loved it. It is however quite different to the normal safari lodge and one must be aware that it is still a work in progress. The rooms with their bird baths and seed are fabulously comfortable and huge fun. We hunted the reserve all morning to photograph a particular bird only to find a pair at our bird bath on our return!

The lodge is beautiful and the food quite excellent - quality ingredients, beautifully cooked and imaginative menus. We had three terrific leopard sightings and spent a great deal of time in a cheetah enclosure. The unfinished element of this lodge is that the cheetahs are currently kept in enclosures of around 50 acres and the leopard, while free to hunt are collared and kept in a fenced 4000 hectare part of the reserve. Lion are extremely unlikely and those that they have are enclosed mental rescues too dangerous to visit.

The remaining 18000 hectares, while stunningly beautiful, has very little game but is worth a visit by twisting one's guide's arm. The ultimate aim is to fence the full 22000 hectares and release the cheetah and leopard into it with presumably other bought in game. The schedule is also different in that breakfast, lunch and dinner are taken with relatively short game drives/activities. They are just starting night drives but these take place after dinner and are at extra cost even for FBA guests. There is a night hide activity of about an hour to see porcupine and small cats attracted to scraps placed near the hide. This is also after dinner meaning that any night activity leads to a late night.

These are not real criticisms but we feel other Expert Africa travellers need to know that while this is a wonderful lodge to visit it is different. Huge thanks go to our guide Chris but note also that while water is provided on drives, if you take some from the bar it is charged as is all wine at dinner. That said, few will complain as the wines are quite excellent! We really loved Okonjima." See all these reviews: 9n in Namibia

"Sadly no rehabilitating Cheetahs were present during our stay but this was made up for by wonderful sightings of a leopard and a cub.

The night hide was well worth the trip especially the views of the porcupines." See all these reviews: 25n in Namibia

"Wonderful stay. The location was great and we saw loads of cats and hyena. All the staff worked hard to make our stay as enjoyable as possible, even arranging for us to see a cheetah having its teeth cleaned.

I think we were in the honeymoon suite! - a lovely room with a deck, an indoor seating area, an enormous bed, a bath, an indoor shower and an outdoor shower" See all these reviews: 13n in Namibia; 2n in Botswana

"Okonjima was almost an afterthought, splitting the drive from Etosha to Windhoek, but it turned out to be a lot more than that. This camp is very used to catering for high-end travellers - the rooms are very well designed, have power (and hairdryers! As one guide quoted, every day on safari is a bad hair day but this was an exception), we had the best food on our trip and some interesting activities with top-class guides. One just has to get past the fact that the big-cats here are habituated to humans - or in the case of some cheetah positively tame. While the leopard live and hunt in the reserve they are (mostly) collared and finding them during the day (we were very fortunate to have a long siting of one after a kill), while not guaranteed, is obviously more likely. Tracking the hyena on foot was less successful but at least gave us some exercise and visiting the wild dogs was rather like going to the zoo. Each person will have their own take on these experiences. The Africat Foundation is always to the fore and thinking that one is contributing to such a worthwhile cause in everything one does here is a feel-good factor." See all these reviews: 11n in Namibia

"Okonjima was my favorite place that we stayed. The accomodations were absolutely lovely and it was wonderful to have so many birds right out our window. There was also a large supply of birdfood so we could be sure that the birds kept coming. The big cats were also beyond belief. We saw leopards fighting over a kill the first night and that was just the start.

During our two full days there, we successfully tracked a hyena on foot and saw numerous leopards and cheetahs (including one cheetah that accomodated us by posing for a photo on top of a termite mound). Really an amazing place!" See all these reviews: 11n in Namibia