Travel reviews by Mr & Mrs K from Nottingham

"Ideal for us as stopover for first and last nights of trip.

Owner friendly, lovely garden, room comfortable (welcome blankets available for the bed) and breakfast good.

Not too far from centre of Windhoek, great having Pick n' Pay supermarket and petrol station (open every day) just down the road and best of all only a few minutes away from Joe's Beerhouse for amazing food"

"Good, clean accommodation, pleasant garden areas, very good value meals. Staff very polite.

Again ideal in proximity to various supermarkets and petrol stations"

"Brilliant - especially the warming open fires inside some of the cars.

Friendly, helpful staff (lent us swimming pool towels so we could have a dip at the Ai-Ais thermal springs). Rooms basic but comfy, food excellent and nicely presented. Small shopping area in Reception selling reasonable quality souvenirs, books, postcards, stamps, etc.

Definitely a place we won't forget!"

"This was another unforgettable experience for us - to actually spend a little time with a Namibian family who were very welcoming and informative. We didn't arrive at the farm until about 4pm so we missed the usual afternoon coffee and cake (our fault not theirs) but there was still time for Stefan to take us on a drive around the farm n the back of his truck before the sun went down.

After a welcome hot shower (the temperature having dropped considerably once the sun disappeared although Stefan did look after us with warm blankets in the truck) we went over to the family house where we were served a delicious and hearty meal and then spent an enjoyable hour or two chatting to Stefan about growing up in Namibia and their life on the farm. Jenny was busy elsewhere coping with the two young children (c 3yrs and 18 months and another expected in September).

Our room was basic but very clean and comfy with extra blankets and hot water bottles available.

We wish Stefan and Jenny the best of luck for the future."

"Brilliant accommodation in the middle of nowhere - acres of sky and millions of stars. Staff very polite and welcoming. Nice touches, e.g. cold drink served on arrival, hot water bottles brought round to bungalows, wake-up calls in morning.

On morning of visit to dunes light breakfast available on site and packed lunch (very good - substantial but healthy too) provided for later on.

Evening meal very good too."

"Excellent accommodation and service. Beautiful comfortable rooms with chairs and table outside. Lovely garden areas.

Owners extremely pleasant and helpful.

Probably the best breakfast of our whole trip! (and there were plenty of other good ones too)"

"Amazing location right on the sea edge - must be even more amazing in sunshine but the fog was to be expected for the time of year.

Very cosy dining room with open fires in the casual seating areas. Staff very helpful, food excellent"

"Another unique location. 'Huts' very clean and comfortable. Much bigger lodge than any we'd experienced so far but still fine.

Meals were self-service with staff 'waiting' mainly to bring drinks and clear away empty plates etc. The lady looking after us wasn't as enthusiastic in her attentions as we were becoming used to but it didn't spoil anything for us. From our observations of other members of staff she seemed to be a bit of an exception. (We're not complaining here just making an observation - it just shows how good the service was that we received for the vast majority of the time).

Quality of the food was fine but the self-service gave it a 'school meals' atmosphere. Again, not a moan really, just a bit different to other places. One comment re breakfast - to make sure the eggs were cooked as fresh as fresh could be there was just one chef cooking fried/scrambled eggs/omelettes to order - good quality but such a waste of valuable time when you're itching to get outside and see wonderful things!

The weather had warmed up considerably by now as we'd moved up north so we actually took advantage of the pool at this lodge and didn't need to use the blankets at night!!

Adverse comments not meant as complaints - just meant to point out that this lodge had a different feel to it, mainly due to its size - good practice for Okaukuejo!"

"Going through the Anderson Gate into Etosha was the most incredible feeling - and, as if on cue, we'd only just entered the park when a herd of zebra came out of the bushes and strolled across the road right in front of us.

Because of its size and the number of people there at the time Okaukuejo has much more of a 'school camp' feel to it. Not the place to go if you want to feel pampered (but who needs pampering anyway??) Again this is merely an observation and not a criticism in any way. The rooms were big and comfy and the food OK but we didn't think the evening meal options were very good value at R170 - not compared with most meals we had elsewhere.

As for the waterhole - WOW! - it was just like the pictures we'd seen with giraffe, zebra, oryx, springbok and warthog taking turns while the elephant and rhino claimed their own personal space and the jackals just ran in between everyone else. Your spine really did tingle as two pairs of luminiscent eyes appeared later in full darkness and two lionesses slinked down to the water. They got quite a lot of personal space!

The animal sightings book in the Reception area was really useful and pointed us in the right direction for several amazing encounters with lions and elephants in particular.

Would definitely return to Okaukuejo - given the opportunity!"

"Back to the pampering!

Not the sort of tents we're used to but we coped somehow. Staff very friendly and helpful. Food very nice if a bit minimalist. Nice touch being called to dinner by a drum. Dining tent beautifully illuminated with clusters of lights at the bigger tables. Stuffed toys and games available for young children."

"** 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!"

"As before - very good. Location just right for us. And another meal at Joe's Beerhouse!"