Farm Gariganus · home of the Quiver Tree Forest
Keetmanshoop, Southern Namibia
A family-run working farm 13 km outside Keetmanshoop, where the famous Quiver Tree Forest and the tumbled dolerite boulders of the Giant's Playground are part of the property. Two guest houses, igloo bungalows, a family room and self-catering campsites — and the trees on your doorstep at sunrise and sunset.
The stay
Most visitors to the Quiver Tree Forest come for an hour in the middle of the day and drive on. Stay at the rest camp and you have the farm to yourself when it matters: the low gold light before sunset, the silhouettes against the first glow of dawn, and a night sky with almost nothing to dim it.
The camp is on Gariganus, a family farm on the M29 north-east of Keetmanshoop that still runs as a full-time working farm. The forest itself — around 250 quiver trees, some of them two to three centuries old — was declared a national monument in 1995, and the Giant's Playground, a maze of balanced dolerite blocks, is on the same property. Guests can explore both at their leisure.
This is a practical, comfortable stop rather than a resort. There is no open restaurant: dinner is served to guests who book dinner, bed and breakfast, and the guest house and igloo bungalows with kitchens suit those who would rather cook for themselves.
The quiver tree is really a giant aloe, Aloidendron dichotomum. The San hollowed out its branches to carry their arrows, which is how it got its name.
Where you will sleep
Every room and bungalow has a private shower and WC and air-conditioning. Stay dinner, bed and breakfast, or self-cater in the units with kitchens. Camping is self-catering only.
A three-bedroom guest house with its own fully equipped kitchen and a lounge with a mini bar.
There are two rooms with two single beds and one room with a double bed, each with a private shower and WC and air-conditioning.
A good fit for a family or a group travelling together who want to cook their own meals.
The larger guest house, with four bedrooms around a shared lounge with a mini bar.
Two rooms have two single beds and two have a double bed, and every room has its own private shower and WC and air-conditioning.
There is no kitchen here, so this is the one to choose if you are booking dinner, bed and breakfast.
The camp's signature domed bungalows — eight in all, each self-contained with its own fully equipped kitchen.
Three igloos have a double bed and a single bed; five have three single beds. Each has a private shower and WC, a mini bar and air-conditioning.
Ideal for a couple with a child or three friends sharing, and easy to self-cater in.
A single large room for up to five, with one double bed and three single beds.
It has a private shower and WC, a mini bar and air-conditioning — everything under one roof, which makes it simple for a family with children on the long drive through the south.
Pitch among the quiver trees and wake up with the forest around you.
Each site has electricity and braai facilities, with hot showers and WCs in the ablutions.
Camping is self-catering only — dinner is not available to campers, so bring everything you need from Keetmanshoop.
What to do
Keetmanshoop is the crossroads of the south — on the B1 between Windhoek and the Orange River, and where the road west to Aus and Lüderitz begins. It is a natural overnight stop on the way to or from the Fish River Canyon, and this camp turns that stop into one of the highlights of the trip rather than a night in town.
The owners describe the farm as a photographer's paradise, and it is hard to argue. The forest and the Giant's Playground are at their best from sunrise to sunset, and if you want to photograph star trails over the trees, night photography can be arranged in advance.
Photos
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Video
A tour of Namibia that takes in Keetmanshoop and the south — the wide open country around the Quiver Tree Forest.
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You pay the lodge's own rate. Our service costs you nothing on top.
You pay the lodge's own rate — nothing on top.
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We have been booking this corner of Namibia for decades.