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Write a User ReviewDynamite Often Comes in Small Packages
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adventurous souls who love the solitude of a genuine wilderness experience accompanied by top sightings.
Watery Wilderness
As you’d expect, the best thing about Nkasa Rupara is the river and its channels, islands and floodplains. Fans often describe it as Namibia’s answer to the Okavango Delta. I think that’s stretching the truth, but it’s certainly a great place to explore a pristine river environment and watch birds or rare, water-loving animal species such as sitatungas and red lechwes along with elephants, buffaloes and noisy pods of hippos. There are also wild dogs here, but you’d have to be extremely lucky to see them.
Nkasa Rupara has no campsites, but has a lodge inside the park with a few more close by. The park itself has very little
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infrastructure. Getting here isn’t easy, but if you’re travelling by 4WD or are staying on the Botswana side of the river you may be able to arrange a visit.Nkasa Rupara: Echoes of Linyanti
There’s something about Nkasa Rupara (formerly called Mamili NP) that sets it apart from the other Zambezi Region parks. For a start, it lies well south of the region’s major population centers, removing it nicely from the clamor further north – on my visits here I’ve always been surprised by how few other travelers there are in the park. It’s also just across the water from the wildlife-prolific Linyanti region of northern Botswana and a boat trip here can yield some fine sightings across the water into Botswana where wild dogs and other Linyanti specialties are present. On both sides, the birding is fantastic, and elephant, lion and leopard are all possible. In (and just outside) the park’s northern reaches, too, you’ll find a handful of excellent accommodation options, from tented camps to self-drive camping areas. If I could choose any two parks to visit in the Zambezi Region, Nkasa Rupara would be up there with Bwabwata.