Floodplain House is built for a landscape that changes completely twice a year. From about March to May the Zambezi spills over its banks and the plain around the house becomes a shallow lake, with a metre of water under the rooms. By August it has drained into a wide meadow of yellow grass grazed by cattle, with the river's line of trees far off to the east. The house stands on hardwood stilts so it can live with both.
The sixteen rooms are joined by a raised boardwalk that zigzags across the plain to the main house, a tall building with a thatched roof and a deck all the way round. People come for the space and the light. In the early morning mist lies low over the grass and the only sounds are cattle bells and coucals. Breakfast is on the deck: eggs, sweet potato fritters, fresh mango, strong coffee. Dinner is a set menu, often Zambezi bream baked in banana leaf.
From September to November thousands of southern carmine bee-eaters nest in the riverbanks nearby, and the house runs boat trips to watch the colonies. In flood season you can paddle a kayak straight from the stairs of your room. Katima Mulilo is twenty minutes away, with its busy market and the bridge into Zambia, and the house makes a comfortable base for the parks of the Zambezi Region or a day trip across the border to the Victoria Falls.
Rooms of about 30 m² raised two metres above the plain, each with a queen or two single beds, air conditioning and a shower room. A long window runs beside the bed, so you wake up looking across the grass or the water, depending on the month.
A small private balcony has two chairs and a view east towards the river.
Larger rooms at the far end of the boardwalk with a queen bed and a sleeping loft with two singles, reached by a short ladder. Children love the loft, and parents like the bigger balcony and the bathroom with both a bath and a shower.
Rates and live availability are on the Ombara booking engine. Ask the Windhoek team and they reply with both.
Between September and November the boat takes you along the Zambezi to sandy banks drilled with hundreds of nest holes, where carmine bee-eaters swirl in pink-red clouds. The guide holds the boat close enough to hear the colony, and the light is best early in the day.
An evening boat trip on the main river, past fishing camps and islands of reed, with hippos in the shallows and Zambia on the far bank. The skipper finds a quiet spot to stop as the sun drops, and the drinks come out of the cooler box.
When the water is high, a guide takes you out by kayak from the bottom of the boardwalk, across the flooded grassland and along the edges of the old channels. Water lilies, pygmy geese and herons wading in water that was a cattle pasture a few months before.
In the dry months a guide from the nearby village walks you across the plain to the river, past cattle posts, sorghum fields and the reed-and-clay homesteads that are rebuilt each year after the flood. It is a gentle walk on flat ground, with plenty of stops.
18 km south-east of Katima Mulilo off the B8 towards Ngoma, Zambezi Region, Namibia
17.6248° S, 24.3986° E
Getting there: Ombara Shuttle and Ombara Drive 4x4s both reach most of our lodges. Ask the team for the best route from where you are.
Tell us your dates and group. We come back with availability and a sensible way to get there.
