Onguma The Fort

private reserve on the eastern side of Etosha

Onguma The Fort is located in the Etosha area of northcentral Namibia.

This imposing lodge is architecturally bold, drawing inspiration from the nearby German colonial fort at Namutoni and combining that, rather incongruous Zanzibar-style decor.

The relatively lavish public areas lead out to a modest swimming pool with distant views of the impressive Fischer’s Pan, which is across the border inside the national park.

Rooms

Guest accommodation at Onguma The Fort is in 14 detached Suites, one of which is designated as a Honeymoon Suite.

There is also a single Sultan Suite upstairs in the main building which has particularly good views.

The rooms are very substantial, so are particularly well suited to less outdoorsy guests who would prefer to avoid sleeping in tents. All are equipped with air-conditioning.

Activities

Onguma The Fort provides access to the following activities, not all of which are usually included in the room rate …

• Vehicle safari (self-drive in the national park)
• Vehicle safari (guided on the private reserve)
• Walking safari
• Night vehicle safari

Etosha is a very well known reserve and, despite its obvious drawbacks, it tends to feature in a very high proportion of trips to Namibia.

The usual stay duration is 1-3 nights in one lodge or 3-5 nights split between two lodges on different sides of the reserve.

Seasonality

The best time to visit Etosha is generally considered to be the long Apr-Dec dry season, when the wildlife should be intensely clustered around the core waterholes.

Getting around

There are three main ways to get around Namibia and visit Etosha …

Self-drive

The first option is to self-drive, which is reasonably safe and easy to do. The upside is that it is by far the lowest cost way to get around. The downside is that, for safety reasons, you are obliged to stick to a relatively limited network of main roads locations.

The Etosha area is mainly visited by self-drivers, the roads are large and very easily navigated.

Flying safari

The second option is to travel around by light aircraft. This is both a great deal easier and enables you to access some wonderfully remote locations. The downside is that it’s much more expensive, as much as three times the price of self-drive.

The better private reserve lodges in Etosha are also quite well patronised by guests on flying safaris. However we believe that the area is fundamentally unable to deliver an experience of sufficient quality to feature in this level of trip.

Guided overland expedition

The third option is guided overland safari, which enables you to really explore the truly wild and wonderful parts of the country. The downsides are that this can be quite an arduous way to travel and can become quite costly.

Etosha very rarely features in guided overland trips. It’s quite hard to find a self-respecting private guide who doesn’t despise the place, to be honest.

Combinations

Many of the very best trips to Namibia combine two or three of these ways of travelling around.

a quiet base from which to raid into the busy self-drive areas