Namibia's Otjozondjupa Region - places of interest that make it attractive to tourists

Photo: Rain at sunset in Namibia

Namibia Country & Travel Info

Read about places of interest in Namibia for sightseeing, game viewing and other holiday activities - select a region to see details:

Namibia's 13 Regions - in alphabetical order:

Caprivi - Katima Mulilo, Kwando River, Mudumu, Ngoma

Erongo - Erongo, Omaruru, Skeleton Coast, Swakopmund

Hardap - Kalahari, Maltahöhe, Namib Desert, Sossusvlei

Karas - Fish River Canyon, Kalahari, Keetmanshoop, Lüderitz

Kavango - Bushmanland, Divundu, Kaudom Game Park,

                       Mahango, Okavango River, Popa Falls, Rundu

Khomas - Khomas Highlands, Windhoek

Kunene - Damaraland, Kaokoland, Kunene, Twyfelfontein

Omaheke - Buitepos, Gobabis, Trans-Kalahari-Highway

Ohangwena - Oshikango

Omusati - Ombalantu

Oshana - Ondangwa, Oshakati, Nakambale

Oshikoto - Etosha National Park, Tsumeb

Otjozondjupa - Bushmanland, Otjiwarongo, Waterberg

 Here you'll find essential Namibia Travel Info

Where to stay for overnights in Namibia and at travel destinations around neighbouring countries is listed under Recommended Accommodations. 

Unique Tours & Safaris, Namibia

Contact Heike by Email:
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Suggested Itineraries

Namibia - country & travel info - PLACES OF INTEREST

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on places of interest
in other
Namibian Regions:

Caprivi
Erongo / Hardap Karas / Kavango Khomas / Kunene Omaheke / Omusati  Ohangwena
Oshana / Oshikoto Otjozondjupa

Otjozondjupa - a region in Namibia's north-east, bordering Botswana and comprising of four distinctively different areas:

• Bushmanland - its north-eastern part between Grootfontein and Tsumkwe

• Central Highlands - its western part between Okahandja and Otjiwarongo

• Otavi Triangle - in the northern centre of the region

• Waterberg Plateau - in the northern centre of the region

Otjozondjupa Region

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Bushmanland

Dobe Border Post/ Botswana

You can travel from the panhandle of the Okavango Delta through Tsymkwe to Etosha National Pan if you like. From Nokaneng to Tsumkwe you cross the Dobe Border Post. The route takes about 5 hours from Tsodilo to Dobe and another 1 hour to Tsumkwe. The border post at Dobe, 53 km east of Tsumkwe, is now open 7 days a week from 7h30 to 16h30 Namibian/Botswana. The 4x4 track to Nokaneng is about 140 km. The average speed one can maintain on this road will range 50–80 km/h. The nearest fuel would be 37 km north of Nokaneng at Gumare or at Maun.

Kalahari

The most north-western extents of the Kalahari are found in former Bushmanland, an area in the north-east of the Otjozondjupa Region, along the border with Botswana. This remote area is very sparsely populated but rich in wildlife and scenic where islands of tall palm trees and pockets of forest-like vegetation lining underground or ephemeral water courses are present on the flat expansive landscape - one has to know where to look for its natural riches, many of which are obscured from plain view.

No one on earth knows this land better than the Bushmen, and new development projects in the area aim at making it accessible with their assistance while at the same time providing protection and a source of income for the resident San clans.
Their numbers are rapidly dwindling in Namibia, even more so than in neighbouring countries, and concerted efforts are needed to rescue the oldest and most peaceful human race from the brink of extinction in a modern world that seems to be further apart from theirs than the moon from our planet.

The San are direct descendants of Stone Age hunter-foragers, the aboriginal inhabitants of southern Africa and East Africa, who continued the use of stone arrowheads into the 19th century. Recognizable due to their small statue and slight build, with a brownish skin, the San nomads roamed the country in small bands. They always stayed close to ancestral territories where they found shelter in caves and cliff overhands near a source of water. If all this was not available the San built shelters from bits and pieces of vegetation. Over time the San were driven away from their hunting grounds by agricultural people and colonialists who left only the Ju/`hoansi in the northern Kalahari with some land of their own.
More information on the San in the northern Kalahari can be founder under the next point: Nyae Nyae Conservancy

Nyae Nyae Conservancy
The area was formerly called Eastern Bushmanland, the "homeland" of the Ju/'hoansi which literally means "real people". They are also referred to as San, Bushmen or !Kung.
The Nyae Nyae Conservancy, registered in 1998, gives the Ju/’hoansi people the right to utilise the wildlife in the area for their own traditionally hunting and to receive the income from a hunting concession. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) sponsored the reintroduction of game such as eland, springbuck, oryx and blue wildebeest to increase game numbers. Elephants occur in the area and are often found at game waterholes during the dry season. Hyenas, leopards, wild dogs, cheetahs and a few lions are the larger predators.

Tsumkwe lies in the center of the Nyae Nyae Conservancy, but is not part of it. The conservancy is 9003 km² in size and borders the N≠a-Jaqna Conservancy in the west.
The Ju/'hoansi have always lived in the Nyae Nyae area as well as across the border in Botswana, north in what is now the Khaudum National Park and south in what is now Hereroland (see Omaheke Region). Archaeologists claim they’ve lived here for at least 40 000 years. The Ju/’hoansi are the most traditional of all !Kung groups. It was only in 1951 that the Marshall family from the USA made their first expedition to Nyae Nyae and began to research their culture. Prior to Namibia's independence, the South African Defence Forces (SADF) had a number of bases in the area where the Ju/’hoansi were trained as trackers and the children attended school and many people received salaries for the first time. Before that, contact with the western world was very limited. In 1959, the first Bushman commissioner settled in Tsumkwe and in 1970, the Odendaal commission drew the borders of Bushmanland, thereby reducing their area by 70%. The Ju/’hoansi settled around Tsumkwe and this led to lots of domestic problems and left the land open for habitation by other races. John Marshall and Claire Ritchie founded the Nyae Nyae Farmers Cooperation in 1981. They facilitated the drilling of boreholes and encouraged the Ju/’hoansi to start cattle farming. This organization later became the Nyae Nyae Development Foundation which is closely affiliated with the Nyae Nyae Conservancy.
Since the 1950's, the Ju/’hoansi have had contact with the outside world, and therefore they don't wear traditional skin clothing anymore. They are also now settled in about 37 villages, each with its own borehole. Employment opportunities in the area are limited so most people don’t have a steady income but they receive a yearly payment from the hunting concession and also earn money from the selling of crafts and Devil’s Claw, an anti-inflammatory herbal medicine. People over the age of 60 receive a government pension. Sometimes emergency aid in the form of maize meal is distributed by government, as is the case throughout Namibia. People still collect veld foods and hunt game to supplement their diet of maize meal porridge. There are 5 village schools in the area so that children can attend school up to grade 3 in their native language. Thereafter they can attend school in Tsumkwe. 

Tsumkwe - gateway to the Kalahari & Khaudom Game Reserve

The only reason why anybody would search his way to Tsumkwe is either because he wants to pay a visit to the close by Nyae Nyae conservancy or because he wants to visit the Khaudum National Park, one of the most untouched places in the whole of Namibia. Tsumkwe is situated 53km from the Dobe border post to Botswana and 273km from Grootfontein travelling north-east.
Around Tsumkwe, mining samples were started during which garnets and diamonds where found. At this stage it is believed that potential kimberlite targets can be found. A second and maybe even more important project running in the Tsumkwe area is a hybrid-energy program, started and financed through a cooperation from local government and non-government organisations. If everything goes well Tsumkwe will have a sustainable, off-grid power supply by the end of 2010. But success depends on acceptance of new methods by the Tsumkwe community.
Tsumkwe is a small settlement that formed in 1959 when the first Commissioner set up his base near a village underneath a huge baobab tree close to a semi-permanent spring. The area borders Botswana in the east, Hereroland (see Omaheke Region) in the south and Kavango and Khaudum National Park in the north.

Otjozondjupa Region

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Central Highlands

Okahandja
If you have an interest in history, Okahandja is an exciting place to embark on a little historical journey. The name ‘Okahandja’ springs from the Herero language and symbolically describes the place where the rivers meet. The town traditionally is the seat of the Herero nation, a tribe which comprises the second largest population group of Namibia.

Okahandja Woodcarvers Market
Okahandja is also an important trading point for woodcarvers from the northern regions like Owamboland or Caprivi.

Von Bach Dam
The Von Bach Dam and accompanying Recreational Resort is a dam and vacation resort situated just south of Okahandja. This dam, like all others in Namibia, serves the collection of rain water to provide tap water to households and industries, in this case Windhoek's, situated some 70 km further south.

In the absence of water supplies from permanent rivers and natural springs in Namibia, the re-filling of the Von Bach Dam during the annual summer rainy season is critical to the capital's continued existence.

Otjozondjupa Region

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Otavi Triangle

Ghaub Caves
The Ghaub Cave excursion on offer from the Ghaub Guest Farm explores the third-largest cave in Namibia, 38 m in depth with 2.5 km of chambers and passageways. Declared a national monument, the cave is a slippery, rock-clambering opportunity to experience ancient underworld growth.

Grootfontein
Grootfontein, meaning “Big Spring” in Afrikaans, is a town, which indeed has got a hot spring nearby. Ideally situated along the route from central Namibia to the Caprivi Strip, Grootfontein has been playing an important role in early history. In 1885, 40 Boer families who fled from the north-west of South Africa settled here, being part of the “Dorslandtrekkers” heading for Angola. When that territory fell under Portuguese control, they turned back and tried to establish the " Republic Upingtonia” at Grootfontein. Abandoned by 1887, it became the headquarters of the South West Africa Company in 1893. Like any of the other towns in the Otavi triangle, Grootfontein is very green in summer but drier in winter while in springtime the jacaranda and flamboyant trees bloom in profusion. One also find an old German "Schutztruppe" fortress from the year 1896, which is a museum today that expounds local history. The economic mainstay of the area used to be the zinc and vanadium mines, Berg Aukas and Abenab, until closure. Nowadays, cattle farming and tourism play important roles. The area is particularly interesting geologically - it mainly consists of dolomite, and the carbonate deposits in the upper parts have yielded interesting fossils of creatures that lived millions of years before modern humans evolved. Only 24 km west of Grootfontein lies the huge Hoba Meteorite, which is the largest known meteorite on Earth.

Hoba Meteorite
Hoba is a meteorite that was found on the farm "Hoba West", not far from Grootfontein, in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. The main mass is estimated at over 60 tons, making it the largest known meteorite and the most massive naturally-occurring single lump of iron known on the earth's surface.

Khorab Memorial
The Khorab Memorial found near Otavi dates back to the First World War and marks the spot where the cease-fire was signed at Khorab on July 9, 1915.

Otavi Triangle
The towns of Tsumeb, Otavi, and Grootfontein demarcate the three corners of the so-called "Otavi Triangle", a fertile triangular valley shaped by the Otavi and Kombat Mountain Ranges. A century of experience and closely monitoring rain fall patterns makes it possible for local farmer to successfully grow wheat and other types of crops here that cannot be produced anywhere else in Namibia.

The triangle gained international fame amongst the mining fraternity when

Namibia's richest copper ore deposit yet was discovered within its confines. The deposit remained far from being exhausted when the mine had to be closed down again in 2008, due to flooding by underground water.
The village of Kombat was developed only to house the workers of the Kombat Mine and nowadays clings to a meagre existence.

Otjozondjupa Region

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Waterberg Plateau

Cheetah Conservancy Foundation
The Research Centre houses a veterinary clinic, laboratory and main offices. The Education Centre provides students and visitors the opportunity to learn more about the behaviour and biology of the cheetah and the Namibian ecosystem that supports Africa's most endangered cat species.

Crocodile Farm Otjiwarongo
An unusual attraction is Namibia's first croc farm, The Crocodile Ranch, one of the few captive breeding programs for the Nile Crocodile, and is registered with CITES.

Dinosaur foot prints
The tracks occur in sandstones of the 190 million years old Etjo Formation.
The sands formed these sandstones accumulated under increasingly arid conditions as windblown dunes similar to the Namib Desert today.

Waterberg Plateau Park
The Waterberg Plateau east of Otjiwarongo towers over the surrounding plains, being about 200 metres higher. Rainwater trickles through the permeable stone and collects on top of a impervious clay layer. Whilst the plateau is arid on top, there is a lot of surface water and strong permanent springs at the foot of the mountain. The vegetation is, therefore, quite lush and green and diverse. Since 1972, the Waterberg area, some 400 sqkm, stands under the protection of nature conservancy. Endangered species like the Black and White Rhino, Sable Antelope and Blue Wildebeest were introduced here.

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