Experience the best of Etosha National Park

Etosha National Park lies in northern Namibia, built around the Etosha Pan, a huge salt pan of white mud and glittering crust that is visible from space and whose name means great white place. The park was first proclaimed in 1907 and covers dry savannah, mopane woodland and thorn scrub, crossed by roads that link its camps and many waterholes.

The waterholes, some natural springs and some boreholes, are where the animals come to drink, and several camps have floodlit pools where animals can be watched after dark. Elephants, lions, giraffes, zebras, springbok, oryx and wildebeest are common, and Etosha is one of the few parks where black rhinos are regularly seen. Fort Namutoni, a white colonial fort, stands at the eastern side of the park, and the camp at Okaukuejo is on the south.

Namibian cooking centres on grilled meat, from kudu and oryx to beef, cooked on a braai, and biltong, a spiced dried meat. In the dry winter months the animals gather around the waterholes, and the summer rains turn the plains green and bring many birds.