A detailed assessment of every campsite that we have visited would be a long and boring list. But in case it is helpful for anyone planning a trip, we offer a few comments on those sites which we found to be noteworthy for good or bad reasons!
In choosing camp sites, we referred to various sources:
- ‘word of mouth’ recommendations from other travellers (definitely the best source!)
- the Bradt Guide and sometimes the Lonely Planet Guide for the relevant country
- for Namibia and Botswana we also used the T4A Guide Books.
South Africa
♥ ♥ 🙂 Richtersfeld National Park: De Hoop, Richtersberg and Kokerboomkloof – no facilities, but fabulous, remote locations and stunning scenery on the Orange River.
X 🙁 Richtersfeld National Park: Pootjiespram – most disappointing location. Nothing to see here!
♥ 🙂 Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park: Nossob Camp for a great walk-to hide for game watching by a waterhole. We had an amazing sighting at dawn, watching a lioness playing with her cub. Why can’t more sites have these splendid waterholes and hides???
Namibia
♥ 🙂 Southern Namibia off the B1 road – Brukarros Crater: campsite is technically closed but still possible to drive to the site and nice place to wild camp. Great views over the south of Namibia towards Keetmanshoop and there are some nice walks up into the crater.
♥ 🙂 Damaraland: this stunning part of Namibia is one huge amazing wild campsite! From the Messum Crater, up past the Ugab and Huab dry riverbeds, Deception Valley… we spent over a week in this area. Just hunt around; it won’t take long to find a great spot to park-up for the night and to go for some short walks.
♥ 🙂 Kuiseb River Community Camp: lovely, well cared-for camp-sites overlooking a small river, each site has its own simple ablutions.
♥ 🙂 Opuwo Country Lodge: the campsite is reasonable, but the best part is being able to use the lodge facilities. There is a lovely infinity pool on a terrace with great views over the countryside, a bar and a restaurant if you want a night off from cooking. Free wifi in the lobby area.
♥ 🙂 Kunene River Lodge: well run, campsite in a lovely location, surprisingly enough…. on the Kunene River! Nice bar/deck area for sundowners.
Botswana
♥ 🙂 Maun – Drifters Camp: a few kms outside of Maun on the road towards Nata and Francistown. By reputation, the campsites closer in to Maun have a dubious crime record. Drifters is a safe, friendly and scenic place on the Botetti River.
Zimbabwe
♥♥ 🙂 Great Zimbabwe, nr Masvingo – Norma Jeans: Beautiful and well run site, lovely gardens and views over the lake. Best ablutions in Zim!
♥♥♥ 🙂 Hwange Park – Tuskers Campsite at Ivory Lodge: just outside Hwange Park Main Camp gate. Lovely camp-spot by a luxury safari lodge. The site overlooks its own waterhole where (lots of) ellies go to drink at dusk. Nice clean ablutions. Very friendly staff and a good restaurant for dinner if you want a night off from cooking. Highly recommended, for the same price but far better than Main Camp in the Park (see below).
X 🙁 Hwange Park Main Camp: awful. Unattractive site, terrible ablutions, unfriendly staff. Far better to stay outside the gate at Tuskers (see above).
♥ 🙂 Hwange Park Sinamatella Camp: beautiful camp with awesome views over the plains! Friendly staff. Sadly the ablutions are no better than the others in Zim parks, but try to overlook this and enjoy the rest of this great site. Bar/restaurant was being re-thatched and they say will re-open in new year 2015.
Zambia
X 🙁 Bridge Camp: on the Luangwa River between Lusaka and Chipata. Nice spot and convenient to break the journey across the country, but the ablutions are truly awful. The site is very small and felt crowded with only two vehicles camping! If you can make it from Lusaka across to Chipata in one hit, you could probably give this place a miss!
Malawi
♥ 🙂 Cape Maclear – Fat Monkey’s: in Cape Maclear the camp-sites along the beach are all very small and not really designed for camping with any vehicle, and certainly not one as large as Cuthbert! Fat Monkey’s has a lot of low trees, but even with a roof-tent, you should find a spot in here, right on the beach, that you can squeeze into.
♥ 🙂 Zomba – Casa Rossa: Small, pretty camp-site on the hill up towards the Plateau. Run by a friendly Italian couple who do excellent, fresh pasta and other Italian food in their restaurant.
X 🙁 Ntchisi Forest Lodge & Campsite: Nice location at the entrance to Ntchisi Forest, but camping is very overpriced and not good value for money.
♥ 🙂 Dwangwa, Lake shore – Ngala Beach Lodge & Campsite: beautiful site, right on the beach and excellent restaurant. Shame no electric points for campers.
X 🙁 Nyika Plateau – Chelinda Campsite: ok site, but highly overpriced. This is the worst ‘value for money’ campsite that we have been to in Africa so far. We thought Ntchisi Forest Lodge was bad (see above), but Chelinda takes ‘bad value for money’ to a new level!! A shame as we would have stayed in the park for longer had it been more reasonable.
♥ 🙂 Chitimba – Chitimba Camp: well managed camp on beach, with friendly Dutch owner, nice bar/lounge area for campers and good activities can be arranged. It gets a few overlanding trucks, but the place is big enough that it doesn’t get crowded or spoil the atmosphere.
♥ 🙂 Livingstonia – Mushroom Farm: very friendly staff and stunning views down to the Lake. Steep, narrow, winding drive to get up there though!
Tanzania
♥♥♥ 🙂 Kipili, Lake Tanganyika – Lake Shore Lodge: outstanding example of a lovely high-end lodge with a small camp-site attached (see: Dear Africa, This is how a lodge should be…) Excellent food in restaurant (this place ties with Kisolanza Farm, Iringa, for the best food in Tanzania – see below). It is a long drive to get there, but its a pretty drive and worth the effort.
♥ 🙂 Kigoma – Jacobsens Beach Campsite: campsite set by a stunningly beautiful small beach on the lake. Beach is just a few steps from the camp, but views from the camp are obscured by trees. Very much 4×4 required to access the campsite.
♥ 🙂 Mwanza Yacht Club – lovely location, right on the lakeside. Convenient for town and the area has excellent mobile signal/connectivity for 3G internet access. Shame about awful ablutions, but otherwise a great place.
♥♥ 🙂 Usambara Mountains – Mambo View: in the northern section of the mountains near Mtae, a beautiful camp, well run by a Dutch couple, with spectacular views. Nice bar & restaurant.
♥♥ 🙂 Pangani – Beach Crab Resort: just south of Pangani, excellent camp on a stunning beach. Great bar/restaurant all run very professionally by a German family.
♥ 🙂 Dar Es Salaam – Mikadi Campsite: cool place on a nice beach just over the river, convenient for central Dar if you use the ferry, otherwise it is a long drive around to get to Dar. Only use the ferry outside of rush-hour to avoid long queues. Crime is quite high on the beaches around Dar, but this camp seems to have good security with Maasai guards and feels safe.
♥♥ 🙂 Iringa – Kisolanza Farm: very pleasant rural campsite on a working farm, outstanding restaurant (this place ties with Lake Shore Lodge, Kipili for the best food in Tanzania – see above).
Rwanda
♥ 🙂 Kigali – TRCompanion: very small urban camp but extremely friendly and well set-up. Run by Peter, a very helpful Belgian. Place is hard to find and not mentioned in the guide books. It looks like a residential property, but ring the bell at the gate for attention. Google the name to find details, or drive to S 01° 56.228 E 030° 05.328.
X 🙁 Kayonza – Seeds of Hope: if you don’t mind putting up your tent on the lawns well away from your vehicle – then it is an ok spot. Otherwise you have to camp in the car-park, which is noisy right by the roadside. Awful, unclean ablutions. Restaurant looked very poor so we didn’t try it. Camping is grossly overpriced at 20,000 RFr – the most expensive campsite that we found in Rwanda and the worst value.
Uganda
♥♥♥ 🙂 Murchison Falls – Nile Safari Camp: just outside the Park western gate. Fairly basic campsite but attached to a high-end lodge with a lovely terrace bar and restaurant (best food we had in Uganda) overlooking the river and reasonably priced for the quality.
♥ 🙂 Murchison Falls – Red Chilli Camp: good back-packers/overlanding camp, nice food & atmosphere. BUT it is in the Park, so you have to pay park fees to be in there, which makes it rather expensive.
X 🙁 Murchison Falls – Park Campsite at top of Falls: plagued by tsetse flies!!! Don’t go!
♥ 🙂 Jinja – Nile River Explorers: Nice camp & restaurant. Watersports available incl. kayaking on the lake.
Kenya
♥ 🙂 Lake Baringo – Roberts Camp: nice friendly camp, good lounge area & restaurant, overlooking lake with wildlife, hippos etc.
X 🙁 Lake Bogoria – Park Camp: way too expensive and not worth visiting (see story at: What geysers?)
♥ 🙂 Lake Naivasha – Fishermans Camp: nice spot on the lake, great place for hippos & bird watching, but awful restaurant.
♥♥ 🙂 Crater Lake Camp nr Lake Naivasha: basic camp but attached to a lovely lodge with a great restaurant (best food we had in Kenya). Good wildlife and walks around the crater.
Back to Main Home Page. Back to Overland Planning Home Page.