Onguma Dream Cruiser

To see photos, click here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/znAZZNkwfxyEn3fz6

Last night we had a unique experience. We spent the night on a high platform next to a waterhole out in the bush.

The Dream Cruiser is a Toyota Land Cruiser fitted out with a large platform 8 feet in the air. You go through a door into the truck bed where you find a full bathroom with shower. Then a climb up a very step stairway to the open air platform that’s about 8 feet wide and 12 feet long. Half is an open deck with a small table, a set of shelves and a couple of beanbag chairs. The other half is a double bed under a canvas roof, open on both sides and the end, protected by a mosquito net. 

This is parked far out in the bush next to a small waterhole. 

Onguma, the 135 square mile private reserve that built this thing, furnishes a nice dinner, plus a cooler full of water, wine, beer, soft drinks, and excellent Namibian gin. High end hotel amenities like robes and slippers, nice towels. Cell phone charger. Portable lamps. A night vision scope to see in the dark. A spotlight with a red filter to see the animals, red to not bother them. A portable gas stove for breakfast coffee. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

A guide dropped us off around 6 and showed us around. He was going to be back at the office all night, if we had a problem, we could call him on the radio. Then he wished us goodnight and left. 

Night was falling, so we served ourselves dinner. As it got dark, we turned on a lamp and set it on the table. Before long, a wide variety of insects started bombing us, attracted by the light. No mosquitoes, and most didn’t bite but many landed on us or crashed into us. We moved the lamp off the table onto a shelf and sprayed on the provided repellent and the bugs stopped being a big problem. 

Eating in the dark was a challenge, dinner was packed in a box and we had to open a lot of little containers to see what was what, while not being able to see very well. But we got through dinner okay and at the food was delicious – the chefs at the reserve are excellent.

It was hot, and we were miles from anything so we stripped down to our underwear. With a slight breeze, we were fine. It was the new moon, so no moonlight, it was very dark. We figured out how to use the night vision and looked around the waterhole and the bushes and small trees that surrounded us. No animals. So we sat in the beanbags and drank cold water. 

Before long, we heard a noise. So we looked in the night vision and it was a rhino! We shined the red spotlight on it and after a few minutes it wandered off into the bush. Some time later, two rhinos showed up to drink.  We have seen about 10 rhinos here in the Etosha area, the first place ever we have seen rhinos in the wild, though one or two may have been repeats.

During the night we also saw several springboks and an elusive eland who was huge but very timid, slowly approaching the waterhole several times but never got close enough to drink. Abel told us that some farmers are raising eland instead of cattle because, being native to the land they are easier and, like many places, people are eating less beef. Eland is sooo much better than beef, low fat, much more tender and way more flavorful. I wish it would catch on in the US, cattle are also an imported, invasive species. 

It was cloudy, so our fantasies of seeing the Milky Way were dashed. We climbed into the comfortable bed and set an alarm for 1:00 am.  No animals at all at 1:00. Back to sleep until we were awakened around 4:00 by a loud slurping noise. Looked in the night vision and it was a hyena, slurping away like a dog.

When the sun rose, we got up, got dressed and made a cup of tea. Our guide picked us up at 7:30, as previously arranged and drove us back to our camp. On the way, we saw 5 giraffes having breakfast, so we watched them for a bit. Back at the camp, we had a nice, full breakfast, went to our cabin, had a shower and a nap. 

One of the most interesting nights we have ever had!