Encounter by Ongava

Etosha is one of the easier parts of Namibia to reach. You arrive into Windhoek at Hosea Kutako International, and from there it is either a light aircraft charter from Eros airport of around an hour to an hour and a half onto the reserve's own airstrip, or a self-drive of roughly four and a half to five and a half hours, most of it on tarred road.

The camp sits on the private Ongava reserve along Etosha's southern boundary, reached through Ombika Gate, and the reserve has its own airstrip. If you would like the aircraft to yourselves, we can arrange the charter privately, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, timed to your international arrival. We will set up whichever suits your wider route and build the connecting flight in where it helps.

Etosha carries a low to moderate, seasonal malaria risk. It sits in Namibia's north, where the risk rises in the warm, wet summer, roughly November to April, and falls away in the dry winter months of June to September, when most people visit and there is little standing water for mosquitoes.

Because the picture shifts from year to year, we suggest checking the current advice with a travel clinic or your doctor before you come, and taking the usual precautions against bites after dark.

Etosha runs hot by day and cool to cold at dawn and after dark, especially in winter. Daytime in the shoulder months can climb well into the thirties, while early game drives in June to August call for something genuinely warm.

Bring light, breathable clothes for the heat and dust, then layers you can add for cold mornings, a fleece or jacket, a hat and sunglasses. Sun protection matters year round out on the open pans.

The camp has a dedicated family unit that links two tented rooms by a raised walkway and sleeps four. Children are welcome but must share with an adult, and where there are younger children, under about twelve, the reserve asks for a private vehicle on activities.

The signature walk, tracking rhino on foot with an armed guide, carries a minimum age of sixteen. Let us know the ages and we will set up the family tent and any private guiding.

Yes. The camp's signature outing tracks white rhino on foot, led by an armed guide, bringing you to the animal at ground level rather than from a vehicle. Ongava keeps both black and white rhino on its private reserve, so this is a genuine prospect here, and the reserve's freedom from national park rules is what makes the walk, and the night and off-road drives, possible.

Rhino tracking on foot carries a minimum age of sixteen. We will build it into your stay alongside the game drives.

Yes. Mornings and full days run out of the reserve through Ombika Gate into Etosha, toward the Okaukuejo waterholes and the pan's great herds of springbok, zebra and giraffe. These drives are by daylight only, as the national park requires, and we can arrange a full-day excursion with a picnic lunch so you make the most of the pan.

Back on the private reserve the pace changes, with walks and after-dark drives that Etosha does not permit. Between the two you see the park and its quieter, wilder edge.