Ruacana | Miles To The Wild

The Kunene River Lodge is a birder’s paradise located on the Nambian bank of the Kunene River across from Angola. I’d like to say that getting there is half the fun but not being used to rough gravel roads, it was quite daunting for me, but I managed in the rented Toyota Rav4.

They offer various accommodations from campsites to a-frame chalets. This one was ours.

These beautiful little cabins are quite large and very comfortable for a couple.

Nice roomy walk-in shower

This deck has dining tables and can also be a good place to relax and watch birds.

The spacious grounds between the chalets and the camping area. There is a pool in the rear that I forgot to get a photo of.

Dinner was our first meal and it was really good. They offer 2 choices, this time I chose pasta and my husband chose steak and chips. I love the bird placemats!

Here is the same deck in the morning where we hung out from the early hours to watch birds until it was time for breakfast.

Generous and delicious breakfast

More bird placemats!

The camping area attracts monkeys hoping to steal food.

Sunrise over the river

Souvenir hat with the Cinderella Waxbill logo, we each bought one!

Credit cards are accepted which was nice as we needed to pay for the meals, hats and the sunset cruise. This is a beautiful place and I only regret we couldn’t have stayed longer. The sunset cruise is a must (review to come) and I wish they had offered the morning cruise as well as the birding is really fantastic here! You can book on their website or be on the lookout for discounts on booking sites like Orbitz as we got 15% off an already discounted room!

Most of the roads in Namibia are good tarred roads but once you get off the beaten track, it’s quite another story! For a city-dweller, the road to Kunene River Lodge can be quite hair-raising!

It starts off easily enough leaving Ondangwa after breakfast, nice tarred roads.

You do need to watch for traffic jams!

Animals can wander on the road so you need to pay attention, not drive too fast and avoid traveling at night.

Random town enroute

The turn-off to Ruacana (not much there) with the petrol station on the right. There is a small shop for snacks and drinks but no restaurants.

It’s advisable to fill up despite the price as you don’t want to run out of fuel in the bush!

We met a South African couple in the petrol station so we just followed them as they wee also going to Kunene River Lodge.

The road becomes a rough gravel road which was do-able in the Toyota Rav4 but I was nervous the whole way as I am not used to them.

Following someone made the trip pretty dusty but I was glad to have a safety net of someone else knowing we were there.

At last we arrived!

This is the return trip to Ruacana, then onwards to Kamanjab. We left the lodge and hit the gravel road where the lodge turn-off is sign-posted. At this point, we turned left to go back to Ruacana.

There were local Himba people going about their daily business.

Slowly, slowly!

That’s Angola across the river.

Small Himba villages and random houses.

There was a fork in the road a ways back and we took the wrong turn and ended up on a horrific road. I knew something was wrong as the road hadn’t been THIS bad on the way in!