This Etosha National Park area is less crowded than the rest of the park and a few years ago, just the visitors who had a reservation in the two camps in the area could come here; while in 2015, access was open to everybody.
 
Here it is indeed the Dolomite Camp, not far from the Galton Gate, located on a dolomite hill from where you have a spectacular view of the Etosha plains; it is an exclusive, luxury lodge.
 
This is the park area with the highest concentration of animals; you can regularly spot the black rhinos, the black-faced impalas, leopards, lions, springboks, oryx, red hartebeests and many species of birds.
 
The other option located in the area is the Olifantsrus Camp, the newest hotel around the Etosha National Park and it is only a campground with some services as a place that sells drinks and prepares some quick dishes.
 
Olifantusrus means "rest of the elephants" and the field has this name because the elephants prefer the area where the camp is located and the various pools that are around here.
 
It is located in a remote and wild area 130 km from the Okoukuejo, 60 km from the Galton Gate and 50 km from the Dolomite Camp; here animals move undisturbed, not only elephants but also black rhinos and black-faced impalas, and attend countless pools, natural or artificial.
 
The characteristic of this area of the park is the reddish soil, unlike the rest of the park where is predominant the white soil, and the hills formed by dolomite and limestone slabs; it is believed to have emerged from the sea floor when the Gondwana supercontinent was formed; on these hills have been found the stromatolites, the oldest fossils ever found on the planet.
 
One of these outcrops is referred to by locals as the Ondundozonananandana that means "the place where a young man went to lead the cattle and never returned"; he seems to have found some predator on his path, very possibly a leopard; Europeans named the same hill as the "leopard hill."
 
These dolomite hills are the only place in the Etosha National Park where you can spot the mountain zebra or Hartmann's zebra; marking the Southern profile of the Etosha National Park from this area, in the far West of the park until the Halali.
 
In the most Eastern part of the Western Etosha there is an area where many trees of Moringa ovalifolia grow; the area has been named Sprokieswoud or Haunted Forest that means "spectral forest", this name is due to the particular form of these trees, in part similar to baobabs, with a large tree trunk with short branches that radiate from all its top.
 
At the M'Bari pool instead you can observe different Mopane trees that, unlike those growing in other areas of the park 8 meters high, here only reach 2 meters height although some of these specimens have hundreds of years; these trees are preferred by elephants that can be spotted in this area.
 
 

Etosha National Park areas.

  • Pan area in the Etosha National Park
  • Namutoni area in the Etosha National Park
  • Halali area in the Etosha National Park
  • Okaukuejo area in the Etosha National Park
  • Western area of the Etosha National Park

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