Eningu Clay House

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Highlights

• Great for an overnight stay at the beginning or end of your Namibian holiday
• Star-gazing on the roof of Eningu Clay House
• Nature walks – guided and non-guided
• Eningu Clay House offers Kalahari hospitality at its best
• One hour's drive south-east of Winhoek airport

Eningu Clay House Lodge is a unique guest farm in the thorn bush savanna of the Kalahari yet only one hour's drive south-east from Windhoek airport (65km). As such you can view it as a possible first or final overnight stay in Namibia or as a taste of the Namibian Kalahari.

This owner-run welcoming Namibian lodge is a real gem - with quite a unique quirky style. Built of 120,000 handmade terracotta clay bricks and creatively decorated, it offers nine large hand-painted suites, a large swimming pool with an adjoining Jacuzzi under shade and hammocks for those all important afternoon holiday siestas. There's something reminiscent of the Mexican adobe building with its terracotta colouring and curving walls.

Eningu Clay House Lodge's rooms are comfortable but simply furnished with stone furniture built into the walls brightened by colourful bedspreads and cushions. Each has a ceiling fan for summer, heating for winter and an en suite bathroom with a large walk-in stone shower.

In the central dining room, good cooking is offered using home-grown herbs and vegetables and a choice of 2,000 bottles of wine from the underground clay cellar. This dining room is used for winter dining however summer dinners are often taken in the sunken lapa area. Another building has a small lounge with adjacent library area and a curio shop selling local Namibian based crafts and jewellery to guests. Outside Eningu Lodge, wide stone steps lead up to the flat roof which is ideal for sundowners and admiring the stars of the southern Namibian sky from Eningu's sizeable telescope.

Eningu has laid out some marked hiking trails on the reserve including a botanical hiking trail which offers information boards en route on the various vegetation types that you see. Though there are some antelope on the reserve, there is no large wildlife so it's totally safe to walk unaccompanied. You can even try out their archery range, volleyball or badminton. There's a small hide for watching birds and possibly even visiting porcupines. If you stay for a couple of days, you could visit the local sculpture studio and artists based near the farm. Eningu Clay House offers a truly relaxing stay at the beginning or end of a Namibian holiday. Though many people only stay one night, we would recommend two nights if you can spend the time, in order to soak up the Kalahari atmosphere.

Eningu accepts children with the inbuilt day bed easily converted into an extra bed for a child. Though there are no inter leading rooms, two bedrooms adjoin each other and share a veranda so older children can stay very close to parents whilst staying here.

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