Visit something old and something environmentally beautiful in the 200 million-year-old Waterberg Plateau National Park, brimming with fascinating wildlife and history in Namibia. Discover the dinosaur relics and ancient San paintings on the Sandstone rock, still visible, on your once-in-a-lifetime tour with Voyage2Africa into Namibia’s heartland.
You can still see German graves at the base of the mountain from the 1904 Battle of the Waterberg against the Herero people. We recommend some of the best safaris and lodges in the Waterberg Plateau National Park so be sure to include this jaw-dropping region in your explorations of Namibia.
The top of the Waterberg plateau is a sandstone outcrop chiselled into amazing shapes and covered with grassy plains where forests also grow. The flat foothills support acacia bushes, evergreen trees and lush thickets where natural springs well up. The mountain gets its name from the many springs that appear at its base.
If you love wilderness walking, you will love the park for its day and overnight trails. Organised drives into the park last up to three hours, some heading to the top of the Plateau where game viewing hides bring luck. Try an organised cultural tour with a guide – visit a traditional Herero village, a community centre or a school and sample local food for fun.
The Waterberg may be an ecological and safari hotspot but so too is it the ancient sight of the 1904 Battle of the Waterberg when the Herero uprising occurred and between 40,000 and 65,000 Herero died.
Waterberg Plateau Park is a national park in central Namibia on the Waterberg Plateau, 68 km southeast of Otjiwarongo. Rising from the plains for eastern Namibia, the plateau and the national park get their name from the iconic table mountain, the Waterberg, meaning Water Mountain in Afrikaans.
The region around the Waterberg, including the town Otjiwarongo and the Hochfeld area, is ideally situated for travellers on the way from Windhoek to the north and to the Etosha National Park.
The Waterberg Mountain forms the centre of the region and is one of the main attractions of Namibia. It is an impressive table mountain, geologically and historically of great interest and bordering farms often make their living from commercial cattle farming, hunting and tourism.
Waterberg Park and the surrounding area including the plateau were declared a Nature Reserve in 1972 – the plateau is difficult to access from below, so numerous Namibian endangered species were relocated there in the early 1970s to protect them from predators and poaching to extinction.
The programme was very successful and Waterberg now supplies other Namibian parks with rare animals. In 1989, the black rhinoceros was reintroduced to the area from Damaraland. Today, the Waterberg Plateau Park is ecologically diverse and rich and has over 200 different species of birds with some rare species of small antelope on the lower hills of the mountain. Geologically, the oldest rock stratum is over 850 million years old and dinosaurs’ tracks were left there some 200 million years ago.
Take your family on a captivating safari tour to a mountain shaped like a table where water flows strongly and plenty of endangered animals find sanctuary. The Waterberg is so named because of all the water that flows from its top to the bottom where forests grow – and it is so hard to reach the top that rare animals remain safe up there. Find wonderful hikes and waterfalls on unique tours and safaris here. Take the kids to see AfriCat and all the lions then take them to see what happens at the Cheetah Conservation Fund.
A few days in the Waterberg are refreshing, educational and active too – quite a thrill for families and friends who want to be out in a mountain forest reserve and track wild animals!
We show you top-of-the-range safari lodges and bush camps in this region where children will feel in awe of this lush environment and want to run free. Organised drives into the park last up to three hours, some heading to the top of the Plateau where game viewing hides bring luck. Try an organised cultural tour with a guide – visit a traditional Herero village, a community centre or a school and sample local food for fun.
Plan a Namibia tour and safari with Voyage2Africa, the African travel experts, and enjoy signature experiences to premier wildlife destinations south of the equator. We bring you thrilling adventures in the infinite spaces of the Waterberg Plateau and the Okonjima Reserve, then resting time to photograph the captivating landscape. Choose a rustic chic bush camp with luxury facilities and get ready to explore more of Namibia soon. We offer you some of the best accommodation and special packages in Windhoek to expand your holiday in true African style.
