Okonjima Plains Camp – Track Big Cats with Namibia’s Africat Foundation

If you’ve read the AF’s post on Namibia Itineraries, you’ll know that the Central Highlands is a great place for a stopover between Windhoek and Etosha National Park. We chose Okonjima Plains Camp in the Okonjima Nature Reserve to break up the drive back to Windhoek and because it is home of the Africat Foundation. Okonjima Nature Reserve is also a good fallback in case you haven’t managed to spot big cats in Etosha.

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The Africat Foundation

The Africat Foundation promotes the conservation of large carnivores through its big cat rehabilitation center, education and research. You can visit the Africat Foundation as a day guest.

However, you can only join the leopard and cheetah tracking activities if you stay inside the Okonjima Nature Reserve at the Okonjima Plains Camp or one of the other Okonjima lodge accommodations, like Okonjima Bush Camp. As you can see from my photos, you do not wanna miss this! 

You can also support the Africat Foundation’s work in many ways. You can purchase a trinket from their shop, make a donation or even adopt a cheetah or leopard. I’m a sucker for any ‘adopt an animal’ sponsorship, so was pretty chuffed to adopt my very own cheetah!

What an ideal combination – you can have a luxury safari experience, view leopards and cheetahs in the wild AND get the warm fuzzies by supporting such a worthwhile cause.

Okonjima Activities – Leopard + Cheetah Tracking

Activities and Timing

Okonjima Nature Reserve is a big cat rehabilitation center, and includes the Okonjima Plains Camp and several other Okonjima lodges. Okonjima Nature Reserve has a number of leopards and cheetahs both completely wild and wild but with radio tracking collars.

The reserve is 22,000 hectares which is actually pretty massive. It definitely feels wild and not like other smaller rehabilitation centers I’ve visited. It’s more like a game drive really… like so massive that you could literally drive around the reserve for hours.

The jeeps all set out in different directions attempting to find different cats, often with two jeeps working together in an area. They say there’s a 50/50 chance of spotting the elusive leopard on an Okonjima leopard tracking activity – good luck!

If you only have one night at Okonjima Plains Camp, you should aim to arrive in time for the afternoon activity and leave after the morning activity. The leopard and cheetah tracking activities really are the highlight of the visit.

We visited in winter (early June – chilly chicken!). The Okonjima afternoon activity started with coffee at 3pm and departure at 3:30pm, and returned at around 6:30pm-7pm after a sundowner drink.

The morning activity started with coffee at 6:30am and departure at 7am, and returned for (a very large and very tasty!) brunch around 9:30-10:00am.

If you’re there in winter, make sure you wrap up warm, especially in the morning. I was rugged up in a jacket, scarf, gloves and beanie. Even then, I was still a little chilly until the sun warmed up late morning!

Okonjima Leopard Tracking

Our afternoon activity at Okonjima Plains Camp was leopard tracking (yay!). The guides use what looks like an old school TV aerial to dial up the cat’s radio ‘station’. You’ll hear a quiet ‘beep’ if the cat is within range of the vehicle. Once the guides find a faint signal, they’ll work their way towards the signal until it’s strong enough to indicate that the cat is close by.

After that, you’ve gotta do it the old fashioned way and use your peepers to search for the cat. As any cat owner knows (ha ha, no one ‘owns’ a cat!), cats are particularly sneaky and elusive creatures. They can be surprisingly difficult to spot, even where you’ve tracked them to within 50 meters.

After an hour or so of tracking we had a strong signal. We waited patiently in the path until a leopard slinked out in front of us. The gorgeous creature meandered up the path for a while, and then disappeared back into the thick scrub. We lurked in the area for another hour, pointing our tracker into the bush and stealthily following the leopard’s signal in the hope that he would come out into the valley. No such luck!

However, I have to say that half the fun the anticipation of knowing that a leopard is hiding meters away! We decided to let the kitty cat be and hightailed it to a scenic waterhole for a sundowner drink to finish up a successful evening drive.

Okonjima Cheetah Walk

Our morning activity at Okonjima Plains Camp was cheetah tracking. However, we quickly got a good signal for a mother leopard and her large cub, so decided to follow that. Holy we were in for a treat!

We had the most incredible leopard sighting of the mother and her large cub feasting on a warthog up a tree. The snap above is definitely one of the best from our trip!

The cub evidently got sick of all the attention and dragged the warthog down the tree in search of privacy. This only served to improve our game viewing experience. We left the cub to his breakfast and set off in the hope of finding the cheetahs.

Once again, we were in luck and found the signal of two rescued cheetah friends (cuuuuuute!). With the leopards, you stay in the safety of the truck, but with cheetahs you do the final tracking on foot. (It’s safe, I promise mum.)

We jumped out of the safari truck and walked a couple of km through very spikey terrain (shoudla worn boots!) before we finally found the cheetahs. Funnily enough, they barely batted an eyelid at us. We followed them on foot for a good half hour before leaving them in peace.

Okonjima Lodge – Okonjima Plains Camp

Okonjima Lodge has a few accommodation options, and we selected the mid-range Okonjima Plains Camp. Not only were the activities top notch but the Okonjima Plains Camp was also a great lodge.

I usually choose small lodges (around 10 rooms), so was tempted to stay in the more upmarket Okonjima Luxury Bush Camp, but I’d already kinda blown the budget (okay, totally blown the budget…) with my Namibia Itinerary.

While the Okonjima Plains Camp was much larger than my usual choices, it certainly didn’t seem crowded or feel impersonal. I loved the main ‘barn’ area, where there was plenty of space to relax, dine and watch the animals on the plains.

We had a spacious modern Okonjima Plains Camp ‘view room’. The room had a large bedroom and bathroom and a nice verandah to watch all sorts of (non-carnivore) animals go past. The lodge is fenced off from the carnivores (boo!) but there’s still plenty to see. We spotted antelope and warthog for Africa … who may well end up as cat fodder one day. 

Speaking of food, we enjoyed a three course dinner with reasonably priced wines and massive buffet breakfast with cooked breakfast to order. As with most places in Namibia, the food was excellent with beautiful grilled meats and a range of vegetables. (So good in fact that I totally went to town on the food. I only have myself to blame for the extra kgs I took home after 19 days of non-stop eating…). 

If we had another day, I would have spent it at Okonjima Nature Reserve. I’d love to learn more about the Africat Foundation’s work, do another leopard / cheetah tracking activity and do some of the hikes around the Okonjima Plains Camp.

Ready to book? Click here to book Okonjima Plains Camp today!

Read More: Get your wanderlust on by exploring the best Namibia travel destinations!

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