Onguma The Fort

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. If you would like the flight to yourselves, we can arrange the charter privately, typically a Cessna Caravan or Pilatus PC-12, timed to your arrival into Windhoek.

Onguma sits on Etosha's eastern side, and the reserve entrance is about five hundred metres from the park's Von Lindequist Gate. 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 travel, 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.

Onguma The Fort takes children from seven years old. The reserve is unfenced, which is the reason for the age limit, and children under seven are not carried on the open game-drive vehicles.

Children of seven to eleven can share with parents at a reduced rate, while twelve and over take their own room at the adult rate. Tell us their ages and we will arrange the rooms and, where it helps, a private vehicle.

Onguma The Fort has complimentary wifi in the main areas of the lodge rather than in the suites, so you can check in when you need to and leave the phone behind out on the reserve.

It is enough for messages and email. If reliable connectivity matters for part of your trip, tell us and we will plan around it.

With the park's Von Lindequist Gate about five hundred metres away, you have quick access to Etosha by day, then return to the privacy of Onguma's own reserve. Game drives run into the national park toward the eastern pans, while sunset and night drives explore the private land, where vehicle numbers at a sighting are kept low.

Closer to the lodge there is a water-level photographic hide, walking safaris and a waterhole out front that draws game through the day. We will balance the park days and the reserve activities to suit your pace.