Ongava Tented Camp Namibia

Email: ongavatentedcamp@namibiabookings.com

Ongava Tented Camp offers exclusivity, great company, delicious food and an original African wildlife experience without the crowds.

Ongava Tented Camp is one of Namibia's best kept secrets. Located in the much-lauded Ongava Game Reserve to the south of the Etosha National Park, it overlooks a nearby waterhole to which a plethora of wildlife congregates to drink.

Constructed from stone, canvas and thatch, Ongava Tented Camp accommodates 16 guests in eight large comfortable Meru-style tents - all with en-suite facilities, open air showers and private verandas. The family unit sleeps four.

Accommodation comprises 8 large comfortable walk-in tents, each with en-suite facilities, including flush toilet and a hot shower. All meals are enjoyed in the thatched dining area that overlooks an active waterhole. There is a small pool as well.

Relaxation at Ongava Tented Camp typically takes place around the main area with its relaxing bar and swimming pool, watching the wildlife that comes to drink at the waterhole.

Etosha National Park is Namibia's premier wildlife destination and one of Africa's largest game reserves. Large herds of wildlife teem around the waterholes and the endless plains offer breathtaking vistas. The Ongava Game Reserve shares a boundary with the Etosha National Park.

Activities include game drives into the Okaukuejo area of Etosha where Lion, Elephant, Cheetah, Gemsbok, Springbok, and Hartebeest can be seen at many of the waterholes in the park. In addition, night drives, hides and walks are offered on the private reserve. Ongava has resident White Rhino and Black Rhino, allowing guests staying at Ongava the opportunity to see both species.

Features of Ongava Tented Camp
9 Large, walk in Tents each with en-suite facilities including flush toilet and a hot shower
All tents have covered verandas and overhead Fans
Soap, shampoos and Insect Repellents will be supplied
Small Swimming Pool
Curio Shop
Reference Library
Laundry Service

Some ideas of what to do at Ongava Tented Camp
Game Drives into the Okaukuejo
Night Drives
Hikes and Walks are offered
Take a look in the Curio Shop (Gifts and Branded Clothing)
Relax at the Swimming Pool
Game Viewing

Activities
Activities at Ongava Tented Camp revolve around day and night wildlife-viewing drives, visiting hides that overlook waterholes and walks with experienced guides. The Ongava Game Reserve features much of the characteristic wildlife of the area, with both desert-adapted black and white rhino to be seen as well as lion.

Game drives and day trips into the easily accessible Okaukuejo area of Etosha National Park are rewarding, with sightings of lion, elephant, gemsbok, springbok, red hartebeest, and white and black rhino. Guests at Ongava Tented Camp share a dedicated guide and Land Rover, ensuring the best possible nature experience at one of Africa's great wildlife destinations.

The Ongava Game Reserve is unique in that it is one of the few private game reserves in southern Africa where there is a chance of seeing both black and white rhino. For those who enjoy close wildlife encounters, tracking white rhino on foot with a guide is a highlight not to be missed.

Ongava Tented Camp is situated along the southern boundary of Etosha National Park in the 30,000 hectare, privately owned Ongava Game Reserve. The small tented camp is built in a different sector of the reserve to Ongava Lodge.

Nature
Ongava Tented Camp is situated in the Ongava Game Reserve on the southern boundary of Etosha National Park, which is Namibia's premier wildlife destination - providing an abundance of incredible big game viewing regardless of season.

Located in central-northern Namibia, Etosha National Park takes its name from the world-famous Etosha Pan - one of a number of large saltpans formed by wind action in this flat region. An evocative remnant of an ancient superlake, Etosha means 'great white place' in the local language, a name befitting the blinding white salt bleached earth that stretches over 120km east to west and 55km north to south (covering 5 000km2).

Etosha National Park itself covers a vast area of over 20 000km2, protecting an incredible wealth and diversity of both fauna and flora.

Etosha Pan is parched and dry most of the time, but occasionally a few rivers and the unpredictable heavy summer rains can fill it. After particularly good rains, Etosha Pan can attract over a million flamingos to its salty waters.

While the Pan itself is extremely salty and as a result does not support much vegetation, its edges give way to a surprising variety of vegetation types: from the broad swathe of mopane that encircles the broader area; to the tall tree canopies of the tamboti and terminalia woodland in the east; and to the open acacia-strewn plains, grasslands and dwarf shrub savannah in the west.

Here mopane woodland dominates, whilst a low row of dolomite hills, evocatively called the Ondundozonanandana Range, provide relief to the otherwise flat surroundings and harbour populations of the endemic Anchieta's dwarf python and the local subspecies of rock hyrax.

Most general game are present in the Ongava Game Reserve as well as within Etosha National Park: including springbok, gemsbok, wildebeest, Burchell's zebra, Hartmann's mountain zebra, waterbuck, red hartebeest, giraffe, eland and the endemic black-faced impala. Elephant can be found in the Park, with lion, leopard, and black and white rhino seen both there and on the reserve.

Birdlife around Ongava Tented Camp within the Ongava Game Reserve is prolific, with over 340 species to be seen - amongst them 10 of Namibia's 14 endemic bird species. Specials like Short-toed Rock-Thrush, Bare-cheeked Babbler, Violet Wood-Hoopoe, Carp's Tit, Hartlaub's Francolin, Red-necked Falcon, the Sociable Weaver and its enormous communal nests, the miniature Pygmy Falcon and the brilliantly coloured Crimson-breasted Shrike - justifiably Namibia's national bird - are sought-after prizes by birders.

Others include Ostrich, the immense Kori Bustard and raptors like Greater Kestrel, Lanner Falcon and Pale Chanting Goshawk in abundance. In the Etosha National Park, on the open plains towards Okondeka, Namaqua Sandgrouse, Double-banded Courser, and Spike-heeled Lark can be seen. Acacia thickets can harbour Yellow-bellied Eremomela and Acacia Pied Barbet.

Conservation
Ongava Game Reserve was formed in 1991, when shareholders of Ongava converted four unproductive cattle ranches into a highly productive 30 000-hectare private game reserve that is now a haven to large concentrations of wildlife.

Most general game has been reintroduced onto the property, including springbok, gemsbok (oryx), blue wildebeest, Burchell's zebra, Hartmann's mountain zebra, common waterbuck, red hartebeest, southern giraffe, eland, Damara dik-dik, steenbok, klipspringer and the largest population of the endemic black-faced impala (listed as Endangered by the IUCN) outside of the Etosha National Park.

Ongava Game Reserve also has a healthy predator population, including lion, leopard, brown hyaena, black-backed jackal, African wild cat, aardwolf and caracal.

The most successful reintroduction project on the Ongava Game Reserve, however, is the white and black rhino project - where Ongava holds one of the largest rhino custodianships for the Namibian government. These custodianships are set up in safe havens throughout the country in hopes of breeding rhino to more sustainable numbers and reintroducing them into areas where they previously flourished.

Ongava Game Reserve is one of the few places in southern Africa where you will have a realistic chance of encountering both of these amazing creatures.

Email: ongavatentedcamp@namibiabookings.com