Onguma Forest Camp began life as Etosha Aoba Lodge, a cluster of thatch in the shade of tamboti woodland. The camp occupies a private reserve on the eastern boundary of Etosha National Park, near the Von Lindequist Gate at Namutoni. Black rhino, lion, cheetah and leopard live on the reserve itself. At its centre is a deck above a waterhole.
Black rhino, lion, cheetah and leopard live on the reserve itself.
Most of camp life happens on the deck, with the pool beside it and a firepit lit for the evening. Below, kudu and zebra are among the plains game that walk in to drink. Dinner can be served in the open air, under the stars.
The camp’s original name came from aoba, a San word for the hour when the sun goes down. The name has gone, but the camp it described is still recognisable among the tamboti. High thatch rises over wooden furniture, and the restaurant and bar are open-sided. The unhurried, homely manner has outlasted the renaming too.
the camp it described is still recognisable among the tamboti
Evenings can begin in the wine cellar, which is the camp’s own. Groups of more than seven can ask for a boma dinner, once a stay and weather permitting. For something private, dinner for two to seven guests can be laid out in the bush beyond camp.
In Etosha National Park, vehicles keep to the roads and nobody steps out. Guided half-day drives leave for the gate at first light, and the eastern plains are read from a seat. Back on the private reserve the rules loosen. Sightings are shared with fewer vehicles, and the guides can work on foot. They run sunrise and sundowner drives, with no gate times to keep. At the Onkolo hide, set at water level, a photographer’s eye rests on the waterline. The Dream Cruiser, a sleep-out vehicle, takes guests out for the night.
Guests of all ages are welcome in camp, and families take the three Bush Suites. In each, two bedrooms share the bathroom between them, so parents and children sleep apart but only a door away. For couples there is the Honeymoon Bungalow, deeper in the trees, where the bath and shower are in the open air. Between April and September, the camp is also the meeting point for the reserve’s guided walking trail, open to guests aged 16 and over. On the trail the vehicle is left behind, and the bush is read through its tracks and spoor, to an accompaniment of birdsong.
At the Onkolo hide, set at water level, a photographer’s eye rests on the waterline.
The reserve has its own airstrip, which turns the long road north from Windhoek into a charter flight and leaves only a short transfer to camp. Etosha’s Namutoni side is a short drive away, close enough that an early start in the park still ends in time for lunch on the deck. Through the heat of the day the tamboti canopy keeps the verandas shaded, and the reserve has recorded more than three hundred bird species. The reserve also borders Fischer’s Pan.
Vegetables for the kitchen come from Oshivelo, where a farm was set up with local farmers. The same farm supplies nearby communities, and most of the people working it are women. It also helped build a community soccer field. On the reserve, the black rhino are held under a custodianship agreement with Namibia’s environment ministry that dates to 2003. An anti-poaching unit watches over them every hour of every day of the year. The work goes beyond patrols and monitoring to intelligence, and the unit’s arrests have supported prosecutions.
accommodation
Onguma Forest Camp has eleven thatched bungalows: three two-bedroom Bush Suites with a shared bathroom between the rooms, three Explorer Bungalows set apart with large twin beds, the secluded Honeymoon Bungalow with an outdoor bath and shower, and four Heritage Bungalows. All have air-conditioning, mosquito nets and a veranda.
activities
In Etosha, guided half-day drives go out in the morning or afternoon and stay on the park roads. On the private reserve: sunrise and sundowner drives, guided bush walks, the water-level Onkolo hide, bush breakfasts, private bush dinners, a night on the Dream Cruiser sleep-out vehicle, and the seasonal walking trail.
conservation
Since 2003 the reserve has been a Black Rhino Custodian for Namibia's Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, protected by an anti-poaching unit on duty around the clock. A vegetable farm at Oshivelo, set up with local farmers, supplies the reserve and nearby communities, and most of the people working it are local women.
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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Etosha National Park
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Etosha National Park
Most guests arrive by road: north from Windhoek on the B1, then onto the C38 towards Etosha. The entrance to the Onguma reserve is on the right after 25 kilometres on the C38, just short of the park's Von Lindequist Gate, and the camp is a short drive on along the reserve's gravel roads. It also makes an easy first night after leaving Etosha by its eastern gate.
To save the long drive, we can fly you in by private charter, typically a Cessna Caravan or a Pilatus PC-12, landing at the reserve's own airfield about four kilometres north of the camp, with the transfer to camp included. The Mokuti airstrip near the gate is the alternative, with a road transfer from there. A charter also lets us set the timings around the rest of your trip.
Seasonally. The camp is in the Oshikoto Region, which TravelHealthPro, the UK's official travel health service, rates as high risk from December to April, when it recommends antimalarial tablets, and low risk from May to November, when it advises awareness and avoiding bites. The American CDC lists Oshikoto among the regions where it recommends preventive medicine, with no seasonal split. Low risk is not no risk.
We are travel planners, not medical professionals, so we do not make medical recommendations. Whether you need tablets for your dates, and what suits a child, is for you and your doctor or a travel clinic, with the official advice in front of you. Every bungalow has a mosquito net and air-conditioning, and long sleeves and repellent after dark are worth having in any month.
The Von Lindequist Gate, Etosha's eastern entrance at Namutoni, is less than 300 metres from the reserve's own entrance and about eight kilometres from the camp, so you can be at the gate as it opens at first light. The camp's guides take guided half-day excursions into the park, or you can drive yourself in on another day at your own pace.
The eastern side of the park is known for its waterholes, which carry the best of the game through the dry months, and Fischer's Pan lies just inside the boundary, holding water after good rains. Drives into Etosha are booked on top of the camp's dinner, bed and breakfast rate, and we arrange them before you arrive.
A good deal, because the reserve is private and closed to outside vehicles. Its game drives go out early and late in small numbers on land that holds black rhino, lion, cheetah and leopard. There are guided bush walks, where you never walk alone, the Onkolo photographic hide, a night in the bush in the Dream Cruiser sleep-out, and massages at the Bush Camp spa, twenty minutes away.
Forest Camp is also where the reserve's walking trail begins. Walkers meet at the camp at one in the afternoon and transfer to Trails Camp, four bell tents for no more than eight guests aged sixteen and over, for two or three nights of guided walks of six to eight kilometres each morning. It runs from April to September and is booked as a stay of its own.
Yes. Children of all ages are welcome, the camp is mostly fenced, and its three Bush Suites are made for families: two bedrooms either side of a shared bathroom, one with twin beds and the other with a day bed, so a family of four stays together. The pool looks over the waterhole, which keeps the hot middle of the day busy.
Children need an adult with them at all times, because the fence does not close the camp off completely. For young children we would book a private vehicle for the game drives, so each outing starts, stops and turns back at their pace rather than a shared vehicle's. Tell us their ages at enquiry and we will plan the days around them.
May to September is the classic season. The seasonal water has gone, the bush thins and the game comes in to the permanent waterholes. July and August are the peak, with mild days and cold dawns. October and November grow very hot ahead of the rains, December to February are the wettest months, when the animals spread out, and March and April are the turn of the season.
The green months have a real case of their own: springbok and zebra drop their young, migrant birds arrive on a reserve that records more than 300 species, and the pans can fill and draw flamingos. Pack warm layers for early drives in open vehicles in the cooler months, and a hat, sun cream and light clothing for the heat.
rated five stars by our clients
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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.
