Ongava Tented Camp

•  Authentic tented camp in the heart of Ongava Game Reserve
•  Active waterhole offers a close-up and personal encounter with wildlife
•  Wild experience with animals, including lions, frequently close to the camp
•  Game drives into Etosha also offered
•  Rhino tracking on foot

Ongava Tented Camp is tucked into a hidden valley at the foot of a dolomite hill in the Ongava Game Reserve, a private 30,000ha game reserve on the south boundary of Etosha National Park. Ongava has three completely different camps to choose from – the authentic Ongava Tented Camp, the larger Ongava Lodge and the ultra-luxurious Little Ongava.

Ongava Tented Camp is an intimate authentic bush camp where spacious traditional East African tents offer a safari ambience on the outside with unexpected luxury on the inside. The bar and dining area is built out of rock and thatch. Meals are taken either around a long communal table or on the deck. There’s a welcome swimming pool overlooking the camp’s popular floodlit waterhole.

Each of Ongava Tented Camp’s eight massive tents has double doors to allow for uninterrupted views of the bush and some have views to the waterhole. Every tent has a comfy chair, writing desk, ceiling fan and dressing area within a spacious bathroom with indoor and outdoor showers. Your private deck offers spectacular views over the wilderness.

Activities

The waterhole is the key to your enjoyment of Ongava Tented Camp. Being floodlit in the evening, it attracts a wide variety of animals including lions from the resident prides in the area. You don’t get any closer to game than this. Indeed this camp has quite a wild feel and is probably not for the nervous safari visitor. Like most camps in Southern Africa, the camp is not fenced, but here it is not uncommon for animals to frequently walk close to camp, and you will often hear lions roaring to each other in the evening.

Activities at Ongava Tented Camp include morning game drives in open 4x4 vehicles into Etosha, as well as night drives and nature walks in their private game reserve. You can opt to take a picnic lunch with you to enjoy a longer exploration of Etosha if you wish. With its resident white and black rhino, rhino tracking on foot is a popular activity. Ongava holds one of the largest rhino custodianships for the Namibian government in the country and is one of the few private game reserves in southern Africa where guests can see both black and white rhino. You also have the chance to see elephant, lion, leopard, cheetah and plains species such as the endemic black-faced impala. Keen birders may see various species from a pygmy falcon to some endemic species such as Hartlaub's francolin, the bare-cheeked babbler or Ruppel's parrot.

Ongava Tented Camp takes kids from six years up but we recommend it more for children over 12 years (as then they can join in the bush walks as well). Two of the tents are linked by a common deck to make up a family unit.