Wed Aug 05 2026
Waterberg Plateau National Park
Heading South to the Waterberg Plateau national park for a sunset hike.
After a fairly leisurely start, we checked out of Onguma to start the journey South and back in the direction of Windhoek. Our destination was Waterberg Plateau, elevated high above the plains of the Kalahari of Eastern Namibia.
The journey took us down paved roads to begin with, but with about 100km to go we turned in to a gravel D road which had a relatively good surface, but took us across cattle grids and through gates as we carved through enormous areas of farm land.
At one point, the gate was guarded by a number of children who expected payment for passing through. As we didn’t have any small change we declined their request then one of them chased after us and attempted to jump on to the back of the truck! I put my foot down and left him in a cloud of dust, with a bit of swerving to make sure he hadn’t attached himself to the back! Felt mildly guilty, but it was a public road and I didn’t want to encourage that sort of behaviour!
When we got to Waterberg, we checked in and I had forgotten that I had booked a family chalet rather than the usual campsite. It was appreciated by everyone, although we realised that there were only 4 beds, so Edie volunteered to sleep on a mattress on the floor!
Before the sun set we went on a trek up the plateau to a viewpoint. It was a challenging hike, with an elevation rise of about 120m and a lot of scrambling up and over rocks, but the reward at the top was well worth it. An amazing view from the top over miles and miles of flat desert.
We got back down again just before it got dark then had supper and started playing some card games.
At the end of the night, the girls asked how to play poker, so we played a couple of hands of Texas Hold’em, then settled down (4 of us in extremely comfortable beds!)
