Etosha & North
Why go?
The north of Namibia offers some of the country’s most
spectacular scenery. The remote northwest, including Skeleton Coast
North, is fabulously wild in feel whilst the Kavango and Caprivi
regions in the northeast are dominated by rivers and lush green
forests; a beautiful contrast to Namibia’s largely barren
landscapes. However Etosha National Park is the highlight of a
visit to this area. One of South Africa’s best game reserves,
it's home to 114 species of mammal, 340 of bird and 110 of
reptiles.
Etosha Pan dominates the park; a vast mineral bed of salt and clay
that becomes a shallow lake in the rainy season, attracting
spectacular flocks of flamingoes. For the rest of the year
it’s a white-dust basin (the word Etosha translates to
‘Great White Place’), and watching animals trot across
it is surreal to say the least.
The pan is surrounded by grassland, and artificial waterholes are
dotted throughout the park (including a floodlit one at Okaukuejo),
attracting great numbers of animals all year round. Blue
wildebeest, zebra, elephant, giraffe, eland and buck are the
staples, but the big cats are in place too; lions frequent
Fischer’s Pan in the northeast, cheetahs may be seen hunting
springbok in the short grass plains, and if you’re really
lucky you may see a leopard. But Etosha’s animal highlight is
its endangered black rhinoceros, and some of our camps offer the
opportunity to track the animal on foot; thrilling stuff.
Any Downsides?
The downside of this abundant wildlife and beautiful landscape is overcrowding; at times Etosha can feel more like a zoo, with big numbers of 4x4 and tourist coaches careering around and camps that are bursting at the seams. For this reason, we’ve picked lodges that are actually outside Etosha, in surrounding reserves, so you get the best of both worlds: day visits to Etosha and peaceful evenings in small camps by quiet waterholes.