Reviews of Okonjima Bush Camp

"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

"The activites we did here were brilliant.

Our guide managed to track down a leopard for us and we saw lots of cheetahs, and also a porcupine at the night hide.

Food and service was good and the room was extremely well appointed, although because we were in the honeymoon suite rather than the thatched rooms it was possibly lacking in some charm and character." See all these reviews: 16n in Namibia

"Bush camp facilities were absolutely first class . Our activities were somewhat twarted by the heavy rain both evening and morning, so both the game drives were curtailed . That is the problem going in the rainy season !" See all these reviews: 9n in Namibia; 4n in Botswana

"Since our last visit two and a half years ago Bush Camp has become much more friendly and informal, though no less professional. We think it's a great improvement.

Rooms and food remain excellent, drinks prices are much more reasonable. Staff were all friendly and helpful. and seemed far more relaxed and comfortable in their roles than previously. We spent an excellent afternoon tracking two leopards and were very impressed by the improvements at Africat the next morning. It was wonderful to see the wild dogs looking so healthy - they are HUGE - much bigger than those we've seen in the wild - they'll surely love their new large enclosure - not sure the antelopes will be so keen !

We were sad to discover that they no longer offer cheetah-tracking on foot, and even sadder to discover that Athena (the cheetah we'd seen previously) had been killed by TJ the leopard. Although we mentioned on arrival that we'd like to go cheetah-tracking again, it wasn't until our second day that they told us this was no longer an option - point for improvement.

Johann and Richard were excellent guides - many thanks to Richard and the guys behind the scenes for assistance with our flat tyre!" See all these reviews: 8n in Namibia