Mariza and Marc Pampe began building the first Mushara lodge along this road, and the Outpost keeps its farmhouse manners. Eight tents and a farmhouse follow the bank of an old dry riverbed, ten kilometres outside Etosha National Park’s Von Lindequist Gate in northern Namibia. The house has high walls and a corrugated iron roof, and its wrap-around veranda is turned northeast for shade.
The afternoons go quietly to birdsong and a book by the pool.
The morning drive is through the park gate within minutes and out among the eastern waterholes soon after, and the days divide between the park and the homestead, with its deep veranda and meals cooked from the garden. Sixteen guests fill the camp, none of them under twelve. The afternoons go quietly to birdsong and a book by the pool. Younger families stay at sister properties on the same road.
Mushara’s guides take open vehicles into Etosha twice a day, once in the morning and again in the afternoon, and a private vehicle can be reserved in advance for those who want to set their own pace at a sighting. Park rules keep everyone inside the vehicle and on the marked roads, and every drive runs in daylight. Midday, when the heat peaks, belongs to the camp, to shade and the pool.
Back at camp, the old riverbed below the tents keeps the birding going.
Etosha has no buffalo or hippo, yet most of the other big mammals are here, and the park’s bird list passes 300 species. Back at camp, the old riverbed below the tents keeps the birding going. Between drives, through the long heat of midday, guests follow it from the decks of their tents and from the deep main veranda of the farmhouse.
Omuramba is the Herero word for the kind of old, dry riverbed the eight tents are spaced along, and it is the riverbed that gives the camp its voice. Along its banks the birdlife is heard first, well before anything is seen. The tents are strung out along the riverbed, each with its own private veranda, so the walk back from a drive is a quiet one with the riverbed for company.
Each tent is raised on a timber deck 1.5 metres off the ground, and the front is floor-to-ceiling glass, with a sliding door onto a private veranda. Inside, the bathroom is open-plan, the toilet closed off on its own. The shower is a glass cubicle behind a canvas outer wall, and once that canvas is unzipped it faces open bush by day and a sky full of stars at night. Fly-screens cover every door and window, so the bush can come close without coming in, and air conditioning carries the tent through the hottest afternoons.
Along its banks the birdlife is heard first, well before anything is seen.
The main house is bright and comfortably lived in, more home than lodge, its doors opening onto the garden that keeps the kitchen in vegetables, herbs and fruit. The cooking is home cooking, built around whatever is ripe, and the service has the personal, unhurried manner of a farmhouse that happens to take guests. At dusk the camp gathers with a glass of wine and the day’s sightings to go over. Dinner follows, at the end of a day that began at the waterholes.
By road, the approach runs north from Windhoek through Tsumeb, about 530 kilometres and most of a day in the vehicle. No scheduled flights come this way, but private charters land at an airstrip a few minutes from the lodge, and the transfer from plane to veranda is brief. Flying in leaves that first day free for the park. Whichever way guests arrive, the camp exists to send them into Etosha early, bring them back to shade and home cooking, and send them out again for the afternoon drive.
accommodation
Mushara Outpost has eight tents for sixteen guests. Each is wood, glass and canvas on a deck 1.5 m off the ground. It has fly-screened glass doors, an open-plan bathroom, a separate toilet and a glass shower whose canvas wall unzips. Fittings include air conditioning, minibar, coffee station, safe, mosquito net and hairdryer.
activities
The lodge's guides run game drives into Etosha National Park twice daily in open vehicles, and a private vehicle can be booked ahead. Drives keep to the park's roads and daylight hours, and the lodge offers no walks or night drives. Back at camp there is the pool, and birding from the decks and veranda over the dry riverbed.
dining
Meals are homemade in the farmhouse main building, which opens onto the garden that supplies much of the kitchen's vegetables, herbs and fruit. Dinner and breakfast come with every stay. The fully inclusive plan adds lunch and bar and minibar drinks: local spirits, beer, soft drinks and house wines. Imported wines and spirits come from a separate wine list, and lunch can also be taken as a packed lunch.
Get in touch and let’s start the conversation. An initial consultation helps us understand what you’re looking for, whether that’s specific experiences, luxury touches, or marking a special occasion, and from there we’ll guide you through what’s possible so you can decide if we’re the right fit.
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our approach
Every journey starts with a conversation. We take the time to understand your vision before we start planning.
Whether by phone or in person, we work with you directly to shape something that is considered, personal, and expertly delivered.
