Things to do
6-
Andoni Waterhole
North of the fort the bush opens into flat grass plains that look nothing like the rest of the park, and the waterhole at their centre is the reason to drive up. Blue crane and other grassland birds turn up here. Elephants cross the plain in the late afternoon.
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Lake
Fisher's Pan
An eastern lobe of the main pan floods in a wet season and turns into shallow water dense with flamingos, pelicans and waders, then dries back to cracked clay by the middle of the year. A loop road runs around it. Whether the drive is worth making depends entirely on the rain.
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Fort Namutoni
German troops built a post here at a spring on the pan's eastern edge, and a small garrison held it against a far larger Ovambo force in 1904 before withdrawing overnight. The whitewashed walls and tower standing today are a reconstruction. A museum room, a shop and a restaurant occupy the buildings inside.
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Klein Namutoni
Barely two kilometres from the fort, a small spring sits in dense bush and pulls in the shyer animals that keep away from the open pan, black faced impala among them. Leopard have been recorded on the road alongside it. Early morning, before the drives spread out, is the time for it.
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Onguma Game Reserve
A private reserve runs along the park's eastern boundary with no fence between the two on the Etosha side, so the game moves through. Night drives and guided walks are permitted here and inside the national park they are not. Several lodges and a campsite sit within it.
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Onguma the Fort
Moorish arches and dark stone on a ridge above the Fisher's Pan plain, with a long terrace facing west and a waterhole lit below it. The design has nothing to do with Namibia and the position has everything to do with it. Game drives run into both the reserve and the park.