Reviews of Okonjima Plains Camp

"We came here for the birding, but the game drive activities were excellent and different from other lodges.

The food here is excellent." See all these reviews: 17n in Namibia

"Our return visit here lived up to expectations. (Enhanced by being upgraded!)" See all these reviews: 11n in Namibia; 3n in Botswana

"We had not realised that lunch was included on the day of arrival so when we arrived at 1.30 we were presented with lunch at 2.30, followed by tea at 3.30, before going out cheetah spotting at 4pm! If we had realised we could have easily arrived earlier..

The two activities were very well organised and our guide was superb. We were upgraded to a View Room, which was beautiful but unfortunately we had very little time to sit and enjoy it.

The food and service were excellent." See all these reviews: 10n in Namibia

"We were upgraded to Bush Camp on arrival - the chalet was beautiful and had a fantastic view with oryx and warhogs wandering past. A nice touch is the bird seed supplied at the chalet to attract the birds and we were lucky enough to have a friendly yellowbilled hornbill that seemed to know what was on offer!

We only stayed one night but the activities included an afternoon drive tracking leopards, a visit to a hide after dinner (where we saw porcupine and honey badgers) and an early morning tracking (on foot) of the cheetahs. A very full, and enjoyable, itinerary. The guides were friendly and knowledgeable.

The only criticism would be that check-out and 'brunch' was a little hurried after the morning activity (you leave for the activity before breakfast) and the choice of food was less than at some lodges we visited." See all these reviews: 15n in Namibia; 2n in Botswana; 2n in Zambia

"A perfect end to a holiday !

The two activities provided in the package were excellent, with an excellent guide. The camp was perfect and we also upgraded from Garden Room to View Room. The rooms were more than you would expect from a 5* hotel.

One small comment - dinner service was slow, but the food was very good.
A little cold after sunset, so take a thick jumper to dinner !" See all these reviews: 11n in Namibia

"Our cheetah and leopard tracking game drives were very interesting. We were lucky to see a female cheetah stalk and kill a steenbok and carry it away in her mouth.

Our guide then tracked the leopard to a tree where she was sitting high in the branches with her prey.

The food was very good. The staff members were friendly and professional." See all these reviews: 20n in Namibia

"The rooms were beautiful, with everything you could want for, including an amazing view. The main areas also superb, as was the food.
All the guides were very informative and had a very high knowledge level.

We were all a little disappointed to find that the rescue and rehabilitation side to Africat at Okonjima was being run down, however did understand the fact that this is very expensive, and is being done by other parties. The education side, which is now the main focus, is, understandibly, very important, however, the interest for visitors will become much less, as most hope to see Leopard and Cheetah." See all these reviews: 20n in Namibia; 2n in Zambia

"** We were actually upgraded to Bush Camp so many thanks if this was due to anything you mentioned (although I'm sure Main Camp would have been pretty bearable too).

What an amazing experience - I really did think I'd died and gone to heaven here!!

For me there aren't enough superlatives for Africat - everything was just perfect. Brilliant accommodation (everything just right - 'natural', well-thought-out luxury), delicious food, lovely posters on walls of cats who actually live there, staff great - particularly our guides, really nice touches, e.g. staff 'drumming' everyone in to dinner, each chalet having supply of seed for feeding birds, torches for finding way back to chalets.

We'd spent quite a lot of time enjoying ourselves at Lake Otjikoto and Tsumeb on our way to Okonjima so we thought we'd probably arrive there too late for the first afternoon drive. But we rang Africat just to let them know to expect us that evening and when we did arrive our nice guide (and lovely German family who made up the rest of our group) had kindly waited for us. No sooner had we parked our car (and signed the accident indemnity form and had a welcome drink!) than we were off in the back of the truck to spot leopards - as you do!

All of our drives/walks were successful as regards the animals we encountered - 3 leopards, more cheetah than I can remember (particularly two who posed beautifully for ages on top of a mound in the early morning sunshine), hyena, hunting dogs and porcupine (who make far more noise than I would ever have imagined as they rattle their quills to push each other out of the way to get at food). We were incredibly lucky, though, to be at Okonjima during a visit from the vet to do routine dental checks and treatment on some of the cats - we saw (and stroked!) a leopard and later a lion on the operating table at the clinic there. Hope we didn't get in the vet's way too much.

The daily 'routine' at Okonjima seems to be early wake-up call at 5.30am (!) for light breakfast (cereal/cake/juice/coffee) then out animal tracking by 6.45am. After successful cat-spotting thanks to our brilliant guide - a really friendly, enthusiastic, humorous and knowledgeable young man called Rohan - we returned to camp at about 9.30-10.00am for delicious brunch and then about 4 hours free to relax as you wish - snoozing, dipping in the pool, sunbathing, feeding the birds, etc. Coffee and cake at about 3.00pm before going off on another drive for more animal tracking followed by sundowners in good company looking out over the Okonjima estate - bliss! The lovely dinner was at 7pm with an optional night drive (to see porcupine, honey badgers) for those with any energy left.

Africat definitely lived up to my expectations and provided the highlight of an already amazing trip around Namibia. We shall have to start doing the Lottery so we can try and go back one day!" See all these reviews: 19n in Namibia

"An awesome experience. We had Bush View rooms, which were out of this world. Going to sleep to the roar of lions, waking up to a view of oryx and warthogs!

The rooms were really nicely decorated. Everything ran like clockwork there, you went to get your dinner, handed in your key, then got it back with a torch later. The food was excellent. Paid for lunch on the first day, which was a little over priced really at $100. [Ed: that's N$100 which is about US$14, or UK£9, at today's rates] The following day we had a late breakfast after going leopard tracking at 6am, so the breakfast then lasted us till we had coffee and cakes at 2.30 before the afternoon activities.

The activities were pricey (as there were 5 of us) but equally excellent value for money when yo considered what you got to see. The guides were excellent too (ours Jonas was very enthusiastic and very amusing) When you got back from the night drive or a visit to the night hide, it was lovely to find hot water bottles in your bed!" See all these reviews: 11n in Namibia

"View room was actually a spacious chalet furnished with style and the view was beautiful. The activities were very good, Daniel was a perfect and professional guide.

It was no internet access, and as we flew out next day, we could not make our check-in online, fact which complicated our travel later on. We were offered that they call for ticket confirmation, and then charged us for the call, which partially spoiled in the last morning my good feelings about Okonjima." See all these reviews: 8n in Namibia