On our trip, we spent three nights in Otjiwarongo. One of the reasons why we drove so far to the North of Namibia was the Etosha National Park (http://www.etoshanationalpark.org/). Etosha is well-known as one of the world’s great wildlife-viewing venues.
The entrance fee to the park for the day visitors is 80 Namibian dollars per person (children under 16 are free of charge) and 10 Namibian dollar for a car up to 10 seats. At the entrance gate, you receive an invoice and have pay for it at the tourist reception in Okaukuejo.
You can enter Etosha Natinal Park through four gates:
- Anderson’s Gate in the South
- Von Lindequist Gate in the East
- Galton Gate in the South-West
- King Nehale Lya Mpingana Gate in the North of the park
If you drive from Windhoek, you will arrive at the Anderson Gate. The road to the Anderson Gate is absolutely pleasant, asphalted and straight as an arrow. The difficulties start after you entered the park: the road becomes partly unbearable: too many small holes guarantee you an intensive butt massage almost all the time. My advice: take a 4×4 or lower the pressure in the tires of your 2×4. You can indeed manage all roads inside the park with a small car even after the rain: we stoically proved it with our VW Polo.
Before entering the park, we would advise you to download the detailed map of Etosha National Park: enter “high res map Etosha” in Google or use the one below: http://www.etoshanationalpark.org/map
We spent about six hours in the park and made it to Halali and back. By the way, in Halali you can dip your heated body in a swimming pool – so don’t forget your bikini.
Animal spotting is not as easy after the rain as during the dry season, when all species are gathering at the waterholes. However, we were lucky to see plenty of birds, zebras, antelopes and giraffes and even two (hunting? trying to hunt but bothered by too many tourists?) lions. Unfortunately, we couldn’t spot any elephants or rhinos.
It is unbelievable how brave are the animals here. Zebras and antelopes are sometimes walking directly on the road, in front of the cars and are not in a hurry to run away while you are setting up your camera!
As a conclusion, here are some rules of the park you have to follow:
- Maximum allowed speed is 60 km/h in the park and 20 km/h in the camp
- In the park, you are not allowed to leave the car. If you urgently need to use the restroom (the shaky roads tend to induce this desire), you have to wait until the next designated protected spot.
- Expectedly, no animal feeding is allowed.
Hallo Ksenia,
Wirklich Schöne Eindrücke und Fotos.
weiter so!
Wat leuk. Altijd welkom om mee te reizen. Jan is vandaag met de familie naar een Himba dorp geweest. Ze hebben genoten. Nu zijn ze aangekomen in Etosha waar ze tot donderdag zullen blijven.
Thank you! We also wanted to go to Himba village, but it was far away and we already had mixed feelings about the tribe…
Thank you for sharing how much you don’t care.
Not sure if I understand your comment, but thanks for the feedback anyway!
Thanks Robert — always loaded! ~Dave Dolbee
Last summer, while I was camping with my dog at a state park the people next to us got into a yelling spat that morphed into vulgarity and then shoving, then dumping stuff around their site while continuing to fight, then she got in her car and backed it up into his. Meanwhile the four kids who had been riding their bikes around the park came back and huddled at the entrance to their sight. It obviously wasn”t something they were unfamiliar with. When she drove off she drove over some of their bikes. When I saw the kids huddled there my heart broke, and when she got in her car and used it for a battering ram I called the park headquarters. By the time they sent out two kids that looked to be about 16 she was gone and the guy said the problem had left. But I walked down the road and met up with the park rangers” and told them he was just as much a part of the problem as she was. No one did anything, and when we packed up to leave Sunday morning she was back, and they were all six of them going for a walk down the trail across the street looking like any happy family. I feel so bad for those kids.
Crazy staff you see and observe when you are travelling…
Hi,I’m planning a visit in January. Your postings have been helpful. I’m looking at doing a self drive solo. You touched on this but I wanted to know how safe is it to actually get out the car along the way during the drive? My only apprehension is getting out and getting ate up by an animal. Looks like you guys did get out but there were 2 of you.. so i’d guess someone could “look out”… or was it pretty safe? I’ve seen pics where wild animals like zebras were running along side the road etc.? Who planned your route? Suggestions on accomodations? Were gas stations far apart or in abundance?
Rasheeda
Hi Rasheeda, sorry the response took so long. Is the question still valid?
We felt safe, just general safety precautions as in any other country. We planned our route ourselves as we didn’t have much time. For tanking you have to plan in advance – there were not so many gas stations on the way…