Resort Review: Erindi Private Game Reserve, Namibia

Erindi Private Nature Reserve is a huge private game reserve to the north-west of the town of Okahandja. It is really a large swathe of land: some seventy thousand hectares in all.

An American guest, Dave Saimoni, described it as ‘…a tract of land ten times the size of Manhattan.’ And its greatest offering, thanks to its tremendous size, is its incredible diversity of terrain.

Erindi has everything from dense bush to golden savannah, and from mountains to natural pans and waterholes. And, happily for us caravanners and campers, it also boasts Camp Elephant with its 30 luxurious grassed campsites. Others will be lured by the Old Traders Lodge which offers resort accommodation.

In its website, Erindi describes their campsites as ‘…rugged with a touch of comfort and style… Each campsite has its own bathroom with a toilet, solar heated shower and hand basin.’ What the webpage doesn’t mention is that you have a piece of lawn which looks as though it has been lifted straight off one of the fairways at Augusta.

You also have your own brick braai, and a tiled kitchen area with a kettle and a two-plate electric range as part of your camping set-up. What’s more, there’s a large fridge/freezer in a lockable modern aluminium storage cupboard.

Camp Elephant is surrounded by a low, unobtrusive electric fence in order to keep its namesakes from grazing on your private lawn. However, there’s a large waterhole close by where the giant pachyderms come to drink at all times of the day; and overlooking the waterhole there is a cool, thatched-roofed viewing area with comfortable seating.

This is where I spent hours, just watching the passing parade. At one time, I noted a hippo grazing on a small island in the centre of the waterhole, but the next time I looked, he’d disappeared without a splash.