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Etosha in January

Africa's best authentic tailor-made safaris

Average temperatures hit a sticky 34°C. It’s rainy season: incredibly for a place one thinks of as arid, this can mean mud in patches! A 4×4 will be useful and comfortable, but it is a lot more costly, and the majority of Etosha’s roads remain accessible in an ordinary city car.

Park authorities also tend to temporarily close roads that will be a problem. The weather is simply unpredictable: there can be clear sunny skies, but Etosha can also be overcast for days at a time, with the chance of some quite heavy rain. As such, potentially not the best time for photography, although there may be dramatic skies and sunsets thanks to thunderstorms.

The beginning of January is still peak local holiday travel time, so the park will be packed. Things quieten down drastically later; by month-end some private lodges can even feel a bit echoey! All the more attention for those lucky few.

If the rains have been good, there will be water in the pan itself, and Fisher’s Pan near Namutoni could have turned pink with flamingos, which breed here in good years. Those charismatic big guys, the elephant and rhino, will have gone walkabout toward the east, i.e. moved from the waterholes to thicker bush. As the park roads tend to link waterholes, this can make sightings less accessible.

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"My husband and I started planning our Safari in Sept to go in May. Vihann at Discover Africa was wonderful!! He setup a video call on our timeline to ask what we wanted and actually listened. He came up with a plan that we agreed to and the rest was easy. A..."

April Wilson, United States16 Jun 2026

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"Justin planned the best safari for our honeymoon. Everything was coordinated smoothly and the arrangements could not have been better. We are hoping to take another trip to South Africa in the future and will be using Discover Africa again. Justin was avail..."

Austin Mader, United States11 Apr 2026

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"Very professional in the approach of customer’s needs. Intelligent in the approach and in the design of our safari in Botswana taking into account some of the constraints that we had. We were extremely happy with all the camps that were recommended to us. T..."

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"We had an amazing time, and loved every minute. The tour was very well planned, and dealt with the many changes we made with ease."

Eric van Lent, United States22 Feb 2026

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"I had a great trip organised by Chrizaan. Everything went very smoothly including all of the pickups, flights and accommodation. I visited Namibia and loved seeing the dunes, springboks and oryx. I also visited the Okavango Delta and saw so many anim..."

Leanne Harrison, South Africa03 Feb 2026

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"We booked our safari through Chrizaan and the whole experience was absolutely fantastic. From the very beginning, communication was smooth and easy – both via email and WhatsApp – which made the planning process stress-free. Despite our limited availabil..."

Alejandro Martínez Hernández, Spain03 Sep 2025

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