Papyrus Island is a strip of land about four hundred metres long, wrapped by channels of the Kwando where the river spreads out into reeds and papyrus. You leave your car at a guarded jetty on the mainland and a boat takes you the rest of the way, twenty minutes through narrow waterways where jacanas walk on the lily pads. Six suites stand along the island's eastern edge, raised on timber platforms among wild date palms and leadwood trees.
Everything is included, and there is very little to organise. Meals happen where you want them: breakfast on your deck, lunch in the shade of the main house, dinner on a lantern-lit sandbank or around the fire in the boma. The kitchen cooks with what the region gives, river fish, wild spinach, sorghum and mangoes in season, alongside beef and cheese from Ombara Farm. The bar is open from breakfast until the last guest goes to bed.
The island sits on an old elephant route. From June to October herds cross the channel at dusk, sometimes swimming with only their trunks above the water. Hippos graze the island's edges at night, so a guide walks you back to your suite after dinner. Days pass slowly: a morning on the water, a massage in the treatment room under the palms, an afternoon in your plunge pool, and reed frogs calling once the sun goes down.
About 90 m² on a raised timber platform, with a king bed facing the channel, a sitting area and a bathroom with a freestanding bath and indoor and outdoor showers. Each suite has its own deck and plunge pool, shaded by palms.
The canvas walls roll up on three sides, so in the morning it feels as if the bed is floating on the water.
The suite at the northern tip of the island has two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, a shared lounge and dining deck and a larger plunge pool. A private guide and boat are yours for the whole stay. Right for families with teenagers or two couples travelling together.
Rates and live availability are on the Ombara booking engine. Ask the Windhoek team and they reply with both.
In the late afternoon the boat drifts to the crossing points where herds come down from the woodland to swim across to the floodplain. The guide cuts the engine and lets the current hold you in place while the elephants wade past, calves pushed along between the adults.
Glide through channels barely wider than the canoe, with papyrus heads closing over you. A poler from the local community points out painted reed frogs, sitatunga tracks in the mud and the nests of weavers hanging over the water.
The treatment room stands on stilts at the quiet end of the island, open to the water on one side. Massages use oils pressed from marula and mongongo nuts gathered by women's groups in the region, and a treatment ends with tea on the deck.
Once during your stay the boat takes you at dusk to a sandbank in the main channel, where the table is laid with lanterns and the chef grills fish and steak over a fire. Hippos grunt somewhere in the dark, and the boat ride home is by starlight.
A private island reached by a 20-minute boat ride from our jetty 35 km east of Kongola, Zambezi Region, Namibia
17.8521° S, 23.6134° 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.
