Our opinion of Hoada Campsite

Between Etosha National Park and Palmwag, we stayed overnight at Hoada. This off-the-beaten-track campsite proved to be the most visually arresting of all the places we stayed at throughout our trip.

Hoada Campsite

Community-run Hoada (pronounced “Waada”) is accessible down a red dirt road and sites nestle amongst “kopjes” or piles of large boulders. We got a nice, secluded campsite (no.4) at the base of our own kopje, bout 5 minutes’ drive from the main reception area.

Our site had a shaded area with a concrete floor, bench with kitchen sink, hot water “donkey”, firepit and bathroom built into one side of the kopje.

Constructed out of stacked stone, our private bathroom was actually two separate areas comprised of a toilet in one “room”, and a shower and sink in the other.

A man came to light the donkey twice during our stay – once at 6pm, again at 6am. The water took over an hour to heat. I found this out the hard way by taking my shower half an hour after the donkey was fired up. It was a memorable setting to shower in, but the shower head emitted a mist – too fine to wash hair properly in.

As the heat of the afternoon set in, there were many flies so we retreated to the shared pool, which was set beautifully amongst boulders on top of a large kopje.

There were plenty of dead and dying insects in the water – which attracted a number of colourful lizards, who delighted in the easy prey. Birds also drank out of the pool – pretty fun to watch.

We ordered cold drinks from the Sunset Bar and proceeded to watch the sun slip below the scrubby plains from the huge rocks above the pool. Don’t forget to have your torch with you, because you run the risk of rolling your ankle on the walk back to your campsite in the dark!

Rating: B+

Comment: The most visually impressive campsite by far. It didn’t get an ‘A’ because of the poor water pressure in the shower and the flies. Other than that, it was fabulous!