Okonjima Lodge
The family-run Okonjima Lodge rests at the foot of the sandstone Omboroko Mountains amidst Acacia thornveld in a Malaria-free area. It is halfway between Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek, and the Etosha National Park – only a two-and-a-half-hour drive or a brief flight into the reserve’s private airstrip.
Okonjima Nature Reserve is equally famed for frequent leopard, brown hyaena and pangolin sightings on its safaris, as well as The AfriCat Foundation. Since being founded in 1991, AfriCat’s mission has been to make significant contributions to conservation, while trying to ensure the survival of Namibia’s predators in their natural habitat. It undertakes research and environmental education projects.
Okonjima Lodge offers a wide spectrum of accommodation, ranging from well-appointed private camp sites to breathtaking safari lodges. The award-winning Okonjima African Villa and Private Bush Suite offer an unparalleled luxury safari experience, indulging guests with a private chef, guide and safari vehicle. Okonjima guarantees a unique African safari to remember.
Our activities delight and educate even the most experienced of travellers. Mornings begin early out in the Okonjima Nature Reserve lead by our experienced guides. In true African style, days end with game drives through the acacia thicket in search of elusive leopards followed by a sundowner. Whether you hike or are an avid bird watcher, there are endless ways to spend your time at Okonjima. Plan your ultimate Namibian safari along the Naturally Namibia Circuit.
Activities on offer at Okonjima
The Okonjima Nature Reserve sprawls over 200 square kilometres of undulating plains, mountainous outcrops, and riverine thickets, and it is here that leopard (Panthera pardus), the most adaptable of all the wild cats, thrive.
These intelligent, solitary predators occur in high density in the expanse of Okonjima Nature Reserve’s multi-faceted topography. The Reserve’s predator research programme has spanned three decades, and its findings have provided great insight to leopard behavioral patterns as well as offered an upbeat prognosis for a sustainable future for the species in today’s Africa.
A two-day Okonjima stay offers the best chance to view wild leopard in Namibia, as well as those collared for research purposes, in their natural habitats. Research programme leopard are actively tracked, and their collars are an invaluable resource for locating, and then returning to the Reserve, cats which have migrated to surrounding farmland where they are perceived as threats to livestock.
The Okonjima Nature Reserve, a huge protected area set amongst the rugged commercial farmlands of central Namibia, comprises a diversified ecosystem representative of both the larger and small mammals of Namibia, as well as most of the country’s endemic birds.
Game drives and guided bush walks offer visitors an intimate, up-close perspective of Namibia’s wildlife and, especially, its most protected species.
The Okonjima Nature Reserve is home to and runs extensive research projects on rare and endangered species, big and small.