NWR Changes Cause More Etosha Woes

YOUR letters page has been regularly printing letters from Namibians and foreigners alike who are concerned about the future of the Government camps in Etosha, now being operated and renovated by NWR.

Let me add my own comments to these by making reference to the recent stay my family and I completed at Okaukuejo and Namutoni. As I wrote on this page recently, I was telephoned by NWR’s Windhoek office some time ago to be told that the luxury accommodation I had booked at Namutoni was being upgraded to ‘renovated’ standard accommodation, at no extra cost to myself, and that I would no longer be able to braai at any of the camps in Etosha (including Okaukuejo, where we were also booked to stay this May).When I voiced my displeasure at being forced to eat at the restaurants, ”Tangeni” informed me that I wasn’t to worry as the restaurants had been ‘upgraded’.I was asked to supply contact details so formal notification of the changes that were taking place could be forwarded to me.As I was concerned about what these changes would mean in terms of the experience my family would have during our trip in May – and since I never did receive either a fax or an e-mail from NWR outlining the changes, despite several requests – I then telephoned NWR in Windhoek on several occasions, speaking to Tangeni initially and then other members of staff, asking that I be sent: written details of the changes to accommodation; a specimen menu from the ‘upgraded’ restaurants; and a price list for food I would be compelled to purchase there now that barbecuing was no longer an option.Throughout April, as the time of our departure drew near, I continued to phone and then email NWR asking them to send me the information I had requested.In the end, and in desperation, I even twice phoned the marketing manager, Mr Chicalu, who also promised to forward the information to me, but by the time we left for our holiday at the end of April, I was still not in receipt of it, despite now having spoken to and emailed various people at NWR offices on a regular basis.At no time was I informed of what would be awaiting my family when we got to Etosha.I am not going to outline all the issues we encountered except to list a few: at Okaukuejo we were proudly shown to our new and upgraded (but actually far from finished) waterhole chalet.The hot water didn’t work when we arrived; there were no clothes hangers on the lovely rustic style hanging unit so we couldn’t unpack; the kettle didn’t work; in order to plug anything in it was necessary to crawl under a bedside unit and wrestle with an artistic screen that covered the plug sockets; and there was no privacy since the door to the bedroom directly overlooking the waterhole was unfrosted glass.Since we had a procession of helpful resort staff in and out of our rooms during our stay trying to fix these problems, not to mention workmen still completing the chalet exterior (starting at 06h00), this lack of privacy was a major issue.Since we had a kettle, cups and glasses provided in our room, I did ask if it were also possible that small packets of tea, coffee and sugar etc.might also be provided in this ‘luxury’ room, only to be told that I was expected to have brought that myself (!) which may come as a bit of a shock to foreign visitors used to complimentary beverages in their room.The food at the restaurant was as disgusting (portion-controlled, defrosted and heated up from packets and tins) as it always has been, to the extent that we purchased toasties from the kiosk during the day and ate them cold at the waterhole at night.Finally, and to add insult to injury, all around us were empty chalets (and some occupied) where we could have stayed and braaied our own food.Some were occupied by tourists who had paid a premium to stay at waterhole accommodation but couldn’t due to the building going on, although it was impossible to swap with them as there was just the barest minimum of food stocked in the shop, and certainly nothing resembling the food we would have brought from home had we known we could, after all, have self-catered.If we thought that staying at the new luxury accommodation at Okaukuejo was a bit like holidaying at a building site, then Namutoni literally was a construction zone.The promised ‘renovated accommodation’ was nothing of the sort since it was just one of the old chalets (left to decay further, with a door to the wardrobe missing) with workmen passing through the outside area (one in underwear, and one urinating behind the chalet) from, literally, dawn to 21h00.No kiosk, no swimming pool, no grass, no respite from the sound and mess of building, and the usual ‘unfit for human consumption’ food to eat.Oh, and we could have self-catered there too since the one thing the chalet did have was a functional braai but by that stage even the manager there was advising us to go home and not prolong the misery any further.I had phoned Mr Chicalu at the Namutoni office on our arrival and he promised to relocate us to a lodge outside the park so that our trip wasn’t a complete disaster, but after one and a half hours of waiting for him to return my call it was too late for us to drive home, and we never were found alternative accommodation as all nearby lodges were, apparently, fully booked.The best that Mr Chicalu and Mr Aupindi (NWR Managing Director) can offer me by way of compensation for this debacle is to reassign me the four nights I have already paid for, as ‘free accommodation’.They insisted I must take this within 12 months of May 2006, but as I now have seen with my own eyes that the resorts won’t be finished for many months to come, this leaves me with only a very small window of opportunity to take up their offer some time after the rains in 2008.In my view, and since they have repeatedly told me that the catalogue of errors was entirely their fault, it is not for them to tell me when I can take up their ‘offer’ of accommodation – accommodation that I have in any case already paid for.I outlined for Mr Aupindi the cost in diesel, outlay for truly appalling food, and loss of income that arose from our aborted trip, and suggested that I was entitled to better compensation than the extra two days NWR eventually offered (when I am supposed to take that, too, is anyone’s guess since that offer was also for only 12 months).I also asked for a written guarantee that I could take my ‘free’ holiday at a time convenient to me (and gave him adequate time to respond to my email) but now NWR has simply stopped communicating with me altogether.As a Namibian resident I am appalled and embarrassed at this state of affairs, and the view of this wonderful country that foreigners will take away with them.We all know the resorts needed renovating but a child (let alone an overpaid consultant) would have known that it would have caused maximum misery and inconvenience to visitors to have attempted to rebuild all three sites simultaneously.Why did the people responsible for this decision not close each camp in turn and reopen only once all building was complete and the animals had started to return to the waterholes (another issue)? And most importantly, why, during all the many calls I made to NWR, and throughout my convoluted email correspondence with them, was I never told of the reality at Etosha in May 2007? That is not just a minor error which can be corrected by a “Thank you for your understanding during our renovation period” note.It’s a fundamental insult to me – as a Namibian taxpayer and longtime supporter of the camps – that I was unequivocally lied to about the nightmare conditions there (noisy and dirty, unfinished and far from ‘luxury’), the inedible food, the braai facilities (the only good thing still there, although not for much longer), the promise of alternative accommodation, and then – ultimately – the offer of ‘compensation’, which solely comprises reinstating the vacation I have already purchased plus two extra nights (assuming I can face the food and the prices for that rubbish again, of course) that I will not have time to take anyway.I would be interested to hear
, through this paper, of anyone else who has similar complaints.Mel Kelly Via e-mailAs I wrote on this page recently, I was telephoned by NWR’s Windhoek office some time ago to be told that the luxury accommodation I had booked at Namutoni was being upgraded to ‘renovated’ standard accommodation, at no extra cost to myself, and that I would no longer be able to braai at any of the camps in Etosha (including Okaukuejo, where we were also booked to stay this May).When I voiced my displeasure at being forced to eat at the restaurants, ”Tangeni” informed me that I wasn’t to worry as the restaurants had been ‘upgraded’.I was asked to supply contact details so formal notification of the changes that were taking place could be forwarded to me.As I was concerned about what these changes would mean in terms of the experience my family would have during our trip in May – and since I never did receive either a fax or an e-mail from NWR outlining the changes, despite several requests – I then telephoned NWR in Windhoek on several occasions, speaking to Tangeni initially and then other members of staff, asking that I be sent: written details of the changes to accommodation; a specimen menu from the ‘upgraded’ restaurants; and a price list for food I would be compelled to purchase there now that barbecuing was no longer an option.Throughout April, as the time of our departure drew near, I continued to phone and then email NWR asking them to send me the information I had requested.In the end, and in desperation, I even twice phoned the marketing manager, Mr Chicalu, who also promised to forward the information to me, but by the time we left for our holiday at the end of April, I was still not in receipt of it, despite now having spoken to and emailed various people at NWR offices on a regular basis.At no time was I informed of what would be awaiting my family when we got to Etosha.I am not going to outline all the issues we encountered except to list a few: at Okaukuejo we were proudly shown to our new and upgraded (but actually far from finished) waterhole chalet.The hot water didn’t work when we arrived; there were no clothes hangers on the lovely rustic style hanging unit so we couldn’t unpack; the kettle didn’t work; in order to plug anything in it was necessary to crawl under a bedside unit and wrestle with an artistic screen that covered the plug sockets; and there was no privacy since the door to the bedroom directly overlooking the waterhole was unfrosted glass.Since we had a procession of helpful resort staff in and out of our rooms during our stay trying to fix these problems, not to mention workmen still completing the chalet exterior (starting at 06h00), this lack of privacy was a major issue.Since we had a kettle, cups and glasses provided in our room, I did ask if it were also possible that small packets of tea, coffee and sugar etc.might also be provided in this ‘luxury’ room, only to be told that I was expected to have brought that myself (!) which may come as a bit of a shock to foreign visitors used to complimentary beverages in their room.The food at the restaurant was as disgusting (portion-controlled, defrosted and heated up from packets and tins) as it always has been, to the extent that we purchased toasties from the kiosk during the day and ate them cold at the waterhole at night.Finally, and to add insult to injury, all around us were empty chalets (and some occupied) where we could have stayed and braaied our own food.Some were occupied by tourists who had paid a premium to stay at waterhole accommodation but couldn’t due to the building going on, although it was impossible to swap with them as there was just the barest minimum of food stocked in the shop, and certainly nothing resembling the food we would have brought from home had we known we could, after all, have self-catered.If we thought that staying at the new luxury accommodation at Okaukuejo was a bit like holidaying at a building site, then Namutoni literally was a construction zone.The promised ‘renovated accommodation’ was nothing of the sort since it was just one of the old chalets (left to decay further, with a door to the wardrobe missing) with workmen passing through the outside area (one in underwear, and one urinating behind the chalet) from, literally, dawn to 21h00.No kiosk, no swimming pool, no grass, no respite from the sound and mess of building, and the usual ‘unfit for human consumption’ food to eat.Oh, and we could have self-catered there too since the one thing the chalet did have was a functional braai but by that stage even the manager there was advising us to go home and not prolong the misery any further.I had phoned Mr Chicalu at the Namutoni office on our arrival and he promised to relocate us to a lodge outside the park so that our trip wasn’t a complete disaster, but after one and a half hours of waiting for him to return my call it was too late for us to drive home, and we never were found alternative accommodation as all nearby lodges were, apparently, fully booked.The best that Mr Chicalu and Mr Aupindi (NWR Managing Director) can offer me by way of compensation for this debacle is to reassign me the four nights I have already paid for, as ‘free accommodation’.They insisted I must take this within 12 months of May 2006, but as I now have seen with my own eyes that the resorts won’t be finished for many months to come, this leaves me with only a very small window of opportunity to take up their offer some time after the rains in 2008.In my view, and since they have repeatedly told me that the catalogue of errors was entirely their fault, it is not for them to tell me when I can take up their ‘offer’ of accommodation – accommodation that I have in any case already paid for.I outlined for Mr Aupindi the cost in diesel, outlay for truly appalling food, and loss of income that arose from our aborted trip, and suggested that I was entitled to better compensation than the extra two days NWR eventually offered (when I am supposed to take that, too, is anyone’s guess since that offer was also for only 12 months).I also asked for a written guarantee that I could take my ‘free’ holiday at a time convenient to me (and gave him adequate time to respond to my email) but now NWR has simply stopped communicating with me altogether.As a Namibian resident I am appalled and embarrassed at this state of affairs, and the view of this wonderful country that foreigners will take away with them.We all know the resorts needed renovating but a child (let alone an overpaid consultant) would have known that it would have caused maximum misery and inconvenience to visitors to have attempted to rebuild all three sites simultaneously.Why did the people responsible for this decision not close each camp in turn and reopen only once all building was complete and the animals had started to return to the waterholes (another issue)? And most importantly, why, during all the many calls I made to NWR, and throughout my convoluted email correspondence with them, was I never told of the reality at Etosha in May 2007? That is not just a minor error which can be corrected by a “Thank you for your understanding during our renovation period” note.It’s a fundamental insult to me – as a Namibian taxpayer and longtime supporter of the camps – that I was unequivocally lied to about the nightmare conditions there (noisy and dirty, unfinished and far from ‘luxury’), the inedible food, the braai facilities (the only good thing still there, although not for much longer), the promise of alternative accommodation, and then – ultimately – the offer of ‘compensation’, which solely comprises reinstating the vacation I have already purchased plus two extra nights (assuming I can face the food and the prices for that rubbish again, of course) that I will not have time to take anyway.I would be interested to hear, through this paper, of anyone else who has similar complaints.Mel Kelly Via e-mail