Africa 2001

Okonjima Lodge

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Shauna Kelly
Melbourne, Australia
July 2001

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Sign on the highway to Okonjima

Okonjima is in northern Namibia, about 200km north of Windhoek. An excellent sealed road takes you to this sign. After that, there is about 20k of difficult dirt road to reach the Lodge.

I've seen lots of road signs warning of animals, but never one sporting a cheetah.

Beware of cheetah! Sign within the Okonjima property
The Lodge at Okonjima

The Lodge itself is like an oasis. A central green lawn is surrounded by guests' rooms discreetly hidden by trees.

The main lodge building houses the dining room and an outside sitting area where a fire greets guests returning from evening visiting the cheetah or leopard.

Okonjima provides serious luxury with seriously good food.

Darrell, a ranger at Okonjima

Darrell, one of the rangers at Okonjima. Darrell is from South Africa and worked in Botswana before coming to Okonjima.

Grant, a ranger at Okonjima

Grant, one of the rangers at Okonjima. Grant is from South Africa and formerly worked at Addo Elephant Park.

Tristan, a ranger at Okonjima

Tristan, one of the guides at Okonjima. Tristan is a Namibian from the Caprivi.

Allen and Viv, tourists from the UK at Okonjima

Allen and Viv were tourists from the UK, travelling with Sidney and Pat (below).

The two couples, and their South African guide, were coming to the end of a tour through Namibia. Their holiday had included sleeping in the open in the Namib desert, travelling on rough roads, and now visiting the luxury of Okonjima.

Sidney and Pat, from England and Ireland, tourists at Okonjima

I met up with Allen and Viv, Sidney and Pat, their guide and Dana, a tourist from California, for dinner one evening. This became an hilarious time recounting our seeing the cheetah and leopard and telling silly stories. They had acquired a bottle of Namibian wine, which they generously shared after dinner as we sat around the fire.

Warthog at Okonjima

This warthog lives wild, but pops in to the dining room at Okonjima for vegetable scraps for breakfast. I was told that he had been doing this for many years.

He was quite tame, and tolerated several children petting him, feeding him pieces of apple and taking photos. Nevertheless, rangers kept an eye on proceedings to ensure that the tusks and children did not collide.

Porcupine at Okonjima

After dinner, everyone troops off to a hide about 5 minutes' walk from the Okonjima Lodge. These porcupine are nocturnal, and are encouraged to the hide by kitchen scraps. The rangers explained that this is not enough for the animals to live on, but is sufficient to ensure they turn up nightly for visitors.

Termite mound at Okonjima

Northern Namibia is covered with termite mounds like this one. Sometimes the termite mound is built around a tree. At other times, a seed can germinate in the hot interior of a mound and grow out of the termite mound.

They are regularly about 1.5m or 2m high. This one was photographed at Okonjima.

Next: Cats at Okonjima