Nata Lodge

VERY ANGRY! VERY VERY ANGRY!

This was the biggest groan of our entire African trip!

There is not a lot before Nata and Nata was about as far as we were going to be able to drive in one day, so, when we found Nata Lodge (on the internet) we did not hesitate to email them.
Now, Nata Lodge had suffered a fire and was having to be completely rebuilt but, when we contacted them, in about January, they wrote back to assure us they were going to be rebuilt, up and running by the time we arrived in August. They promised us a luxury tent, with breakfast and demanded we pay the full amount in advance in order to secure the booking. They then sent us confirmation of our booking and even ended it with how they looked forward to our arrival!

So, when I received a text, at 11pm, one night at a waterhole in Etosha, Namibia, from a friend who was feeding my cat which said "you have an answer machine message from Nata Lodge - you cannot stay there"... I was rather surprised.

The very next morning I bought a phone card and tried to telephone Nata Lodge but there was NO answer, no answer, still no answer. We were then faced with a real problem. Accommodation after Nata Lodge had been booked and mostly paid for, so we had to stick to our route, but there was no place else anywhere around Nata for us to stay.

Eventually, we resigned ourselves to having to drive further than we wanted to, in completely the wrong direction, out of our way, in order that we could have some place to sleep...but finding and staying at The Planet Boabab in Gweta... I cannot see how Nat Lodge could ever beat the wonderful time we had there!

And, despite phone calls and emails.... we never got our money back from Nata Lodge. Ripped off and cross.
April 7th 2010 - 8 months after we were due to stay, a little shy of a year since we had paid, we finally got our refund. The lady is charge was very friendly, polite, apologetic and hopes to see me sometime in the near future!