Danish family on adventures in Africa: Relaxing safari days near Etosha National park

In Mountain Lodge bordering Etosha National Park

Mountain Lodge, Etosha

After a very long 9 hours’ drive in our hopeless rental car (se previous post) with alarms flashing all the time on the corrugated gravel roads, we finally reach Mountain Lodge, looking forward to 3 nights with full board and all activities included. It´s in the middle of nowhere with few signposts. Therefore, we are very happy to see, that there is actually a lodge after the long drive. We are also very grateful for our never failing Tracks4Africa app. If we are lost – at least we know where ;-)

Mountain Lodge, border

We are meet by the staff and kind manager who had upgraded us to a “villa with own plunge pool” on the mountainside (!) What a treat and wonderful surprise after the long drive.

Mountain Lodge, private plunge pool room 1

The lodge itself is typical safari style. A old fashioned, or traditional, safari lodge with dark wooden panels, heavy wooden furniture’s, brass, and large mirrors. Surrounded by an enormous balcony overlooking the area. It´s nicely situated on the mountainside (surprise given the name ;-) overlooking a small nearby, and distant bigger, waterhole. The food is what I would call “solid and plentiful”. The biggest asset is the staff. They are absolutely amazing and genuine friendly. It’s not a “posh lodge” like e.g. Ongava Lodge, we stayed in last time (link), but more relaxed/friendly style.

Mountain Lodge, enormous balcony

Mountain Lodge, Room 1, balcony

On arrival, we had to decide on activities. Options were morning and afternoon game drives, walking safari and night drive. We decided to skip walking and night drive and only go for the morning and sunset game drives (one of the next places we visit, we have to walk in the bush for 3 days).

Safari drive at Mountain Lodge

Our guide throughout the whole trip “Mansy” was fantastic, and for the first two drives, we were joined by a nice couple from Scotland. The landscape in itself was not very variated, but we enjoyed driving slowly around in the bush with many breaks looking for animals. Also, we enjoyed the nice “pit stops” watching the sun go down.